Saw this bouncing along as it was returning from Picnic Day on Saturday, but didn't get a photo, so here's one I found on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27047646@N00/3897306076/

Pulled way too many weeds in the morning, then had lunch at Chuy's (nachos don't have nearly enough cheese, but quesadilla was great) and sat outside next to the awesome smelling jasmine, then birthday party in Sac with good friends and good food!

10 Tips to Save You from an ATM Skimmer

If you ever use ATMs, you should read this: http://www.wisebread.com/10-tips-to-save-you-from-an-atm-skimmer

PSA: Energizer USB Battery Charger Software Infects PCs

"Researchers at US-CERT have warned that software accompanying the Energizer DUO USB battery charger contains a Trojan that gives hackers total access to a Windows PC. The product was sold in the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia starting in 2007. Upon installation, the software creates the file 'Arucer.dll,' a Trojan that listens for commands on TCP port 7777. Upon receiving instructions, the Trojan can download and execute files, transmit files stolen from the PC, or tweak the Windows registry. Uninstalling the software disables the automatic execution of the Trojan. Users can also remove Arucer.dll from Windows' system32 directory and reboot the machine to disable the backdoor component."

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/03/08/1531228/Energizer-USB-Battery-Charger-Software-Infects-PCs?art_pos=1&art_pos=1

So a couple weeks ago my sweetie and I got in a stupid spat about cherries. (Both our faults.) His main issue was thinking that I should treat everyone the neurotic unreasonable way I sometimes treat myself. I’m bad enough as it is, he certainly shouldn’t be encouraging me to be MORE neurotic. 😛

I was left thinking afterwards, if I knew I was being unreasonable, why was I still being that way? It took a week or two to percolate in the back of my mind to figure it out. (Another thing that drives my sweetie nuts – the knowledge is in there, but I can’t pull it out on demand for him.) I knew it couldn’t be about the cost of the cherries, I spend more time picking out good ones than we’d waste just not eating the bad ones. I think my issue is that I love cherries so much, it’s actually upsetting to have one that I can’t eat. And so to avoid the sadness/anger of that, I instead waste time and energy picking them out. Even then I was getting frustrated with the cheaper booth that had lower quality cherries and moved to one that cost twice as much, but had fewer bad ones to pick through.

So now I know why I was doing it even though I knew it was unreasonable. But really, now that I can look at the reasoning – with the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) skills I have now, I think I’m just going to do what my sweetie would suggest…. and stop it. I’m going to choose to not get upset, because it doesn’t help me any and just leads to me wasting time.

And now that I’m thinking of fruit, I’m realizing why I love cherries so much. They’re one of the few fruits that I actually prefer best raw. Strawberries are rarely sweet enough, so I need chocolate or sugar on them, or they need to be on cereal or something. Raspberries, blackberries, etc. are similar – I prefer them in pies, as toppings, with ice cream and so on. Blueberries I can eat raw, but I have to eat them in handfuls so the sweeter ones balance out all the tart ones. Or I throw them on top of stuff like I do with the cane berries. Apples I can only really eat Gala plain, and even that’s so-so, I prefer them with peanut butter or caramel. I love citrus fruits, but you have to peel them and get your hands messy (except for kumquats, but even though I love them I can only take so many at a time). Peaches & kiwi have the fuzz to remove. Melons are a hassle to cut or are drippy messy. Pineapple has too much acid so you can’t eat too much without burning your mouth raw after a while.  I don’t like the texture of papaya or mango really (they’re ok dried). Dates are another I can only enjoy a few at a time before I’m done or I’ll get sick of them and not be able to stand them for months. Dried cranberries are fine on salads and cereal.

There are probably other fruits, but really, fresh raw cherries are the best – I can happily eat a pound or more in one sitting (and have done so) – no additives or prep other than rinsing and somewhere to spit the seeds.

And really, that doesn’t even touch the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my picky eating. Unfortunately, the CBT isn’t going to work with my tongue and tastebuds. Can’t win them all!

“The problem is that the boys are having all the fun. Women are doing better than men in school but school is not what makes kids successful at work. What actually prepares you for life is athletics, aiming high, breaking rules, playing video games. Girls should do those things more. Then, as they grow up, they should spend their time figuring out how to get more orgasms.” – Penelope Trunk: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/06/02/new-gender-gaps-for-the-new-millennium/

Quote:
Never do anything that would embarrass you if anyone knew about it.
The reason students plagiarize is because they believe they won’t get
caught. That’s simply the wrong attitude to take, about anything. This
is a very simple moral rule: if being caught would be humiliating –
even if you’re not technically doing anything wrong – don’t do it.
From:
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/lessons-from-a-plagiarist.html

I definitely try to follow this. I often think of it as: Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want to put in your blog.

Last night made a Costco run and then took Meow out to dinner at BJ’s for a (belated) birthday dinner with J&BW. Had their delish pizza, but the artichoke was too strongly marinated, so next time I’m going to stick to pepperoni, onion, garlic and basil. We were gonna try their chocolate doom pizzookie, but they brought us the wrong one. It was free though, so who’s to argue? Our waitress actually remembered us from when Meow, my pirate and I went there for my birthday brownie Sundae (sadly J&BW were sick that night and couldn’t join us).

I saw my psych today and he agreed to let me slowly start backing down on my meds to see how it goes. He suggested against it considering how long I’ve dealt with depression, but he was ok with trying it since that’s what I wanted to do. I have an appointment to see him again in a month to see how things are, and I told my pirate to let me know if I start getting moody or cranky. My two major deciders were that first, usually my meds stop working for me (depression wise) after 3-6 months. It’s been significantly longer than that since our last adjustment. Also, our last adjustment wasn’t for moodiness, just fatigue/migraine. Second, when the meds stopped working for the depression, they also stopped helping me sleep and my migraines. I haven’t been sleeping soundly for a while (I’m sleeping long enough, just not deep enough since I’m often aware of my dreams), and my migraines are creeping back. But they aren’t work stress triggered ones, I just get small ones right before bed or wake up with them, but often they go away on their own. So to me that says the meds have stopped working for me…. but my mood has still been fine. I’ve even dealt with losing my little loves way better than I expected to be able to. Mostly it’s been distraction techniques (can we say WoW?) or reminding myself that I’m wasting time now with Khalua pitying myself for missing Cookie & Mocha. That usuallly snaps me out of it.

I have my annual check-up tomorrow. Hopefully I remember to ask for a referral for skin mapping. I have a few moles that have probably always been there, but I don’t remember, so a full check-up and mapping would probably be a good idea to be safe. I’m pretty religious about sunscreen now, but I burned plenty as a kid.

I probably won’t go out salsa dancing tonight as I have WoW plans with Tora & have to be up early for my appointment. Happy Cinco de Mayo folks!

Tuesday night after work we went to dinner at Cafe Italia and I finally got to try their brownie sundae – I’m happy to report that it ranks right up there with the best. I’m sad though (but it’s probably for the best for my waistline) that they don’t have it on a regular basis. One of my Bay Area friends was in town and joined us, so we got to catch up. I’m planning to go to her opera performance in the park at the end of June – I’ll finally get to hear her sing in person. I also got her Christmas card/cd, so I need to get that imported so I can listen to that. My pirate & I were going to go salsa dancing afterwards until we remembered the cleaning service was coming at 7am. I love having a clean house, but the waking up so early isn’t my favorite.

Had lots of fun with Noblegarden in WoW this week. Children’s week starts today, so I have that to look forward to. My sweetie accepted an internship in the Bay Area, so he’ll be living there for three months. I’m gonna super miss him lots. It’ll be nice to at least be able to play the game together while we’re apart.

This quote (via Unclutterer) really speaks to me:

“I can explain it best by something which Mahatma Gandhi said to me. We
were talking about simple living, and I said that it was easy for me to
give up most things but that I had a greedy mind and wanted to keep my
many books. He said, ‘Then don’t give them up. As long as you derive
inner help and comfort from anything, you should keep it. If you were
to give it up in a mood of self-sacrifice or out of a stern sense of
duty, you would continue to want it back, and that unsatisfied want
would make trouble for you. Only give up a thing when you want some
other condition so much that the thing no longer has any attraction for
you, or when it seems to interfere with that which is more greatly
desired.’” — Richard Gregg

I had been on an uncluttering rampage for a while, but it’s petered off currently. I love clean open zen style, but on the other hand I love my books and little collectibles. So I’m trying to find a good balance between the two.