LadyCrimson

If gas was $8 a gallon in the US, it might inspire states to actually build effective and truly usable mass transportation in all areas to all areas, including recreational/national parks, beaches and so on - not just a bus to the local store or office. Even where there is some mass transit available, as long as it's not stop n go rush-hour, it's still faster & less hassle to drive yourself there instead, hence people don't use it much. Feels like you either stay at home and never go/drive anywhere, or you're always driving for hours to get anywhere/do anything.

He probably shouldn't have been trained in the first place - too old w/too much emotional baggage & anger already in place. Doesn't matter who he was apprenticed to...

Re: Why my hubby uses so many servers I asked him. What little bit I understood of his answer went something like this: multiple different operating systems that need to be able to talk to each other simultaneously - I guess if you install multiple OS on one computer, while running one OS the others are 'off' so they can't talk to each other or something? He sometimes uses them for testing out/troubleshooting network problems & programs for his work (he'll bring home servers from work to hook into it all, too). Other than that, I'm still clueless. And ... yesterday I built a barn-shaped cat-nap-hidey-house out of cardboard boxes - which is much better & more elaborate than the first cardboard box 'house' I made. Kitty loves it. A pox on all those high-priced cloth and foam or wood and carpet things at pet-stores.

I always feel so cheesy voting for my own, but... 1 - 7 2 - 3 3 - 15 4 - 10 5 - 4 6 - 12 7 - 11 8 - 8

They're not up to bone yet ... maybe in 10 years, they say.

I barely know what he does with all of them, so I don't have much of an idea. Most of them are fairly old hardware wise...he doesn't need "new" to do most of his stuff...and I think most of them run different versions of Linux. I'm sure he has a reason for keeping them separated/isolated...hubby doesn't do anything without a reason.

To be fair, Anakin had no choice, since otherwise there would've been no Vader .... harhar.... But mostly, what went wrong with Anakin was he couldn't let go of his fears ... particularly the fear of being left alone.

...I dunno...I'm not sure I believe it either. Seems like some kind of magical exaggeration to try and get more funding/stir up excitement for their (claimed) interesting, but less than magical, research. But who knows. If it is true, it's certainly ... intriguing.

I'm tempted to get a smallish scooter, ala the Vespas, tho preferably a cheaper type...

Not what I did, but what hubby did, today. It's not finished, but it's good start on getting his server racks put together for his office. Which is nice because it empties out the garage somewhat. Hehehe

You guys crack me up. I guess beyond gentle finger flexing, the rubber balls seem the best thing - I'll look for some of those "dinky hand strengtheners" that work each finger - couldn't hurt to try one.

Hubby likes the basic beef stews I've tried, but I'm not into those - I don't like the boiled/canned like texture of meat in those kind of dishes. I have several little books on slow-cooking, but the only thing I've made in the crock pot that I've liked is my jalapeno/meat/olive spaghetti sauce - definitely less hassle than doing it in a conventional pot.

But could you do so, anyway? I want to strengthen the tendons/muscles around the finger/hand joints, in the hopes it'll help increase mobility/strength and lessen the frequency of flare-ups. There are arthritis sites that list some basic hand exercise stuff, but most of them seemed designed for people with already severe problems or very weak hands...ie, they're too gentle to be much use to me. Edit: I don't, btw, actually have arthritis - at least it hasn't been diagnosed as such, yet. I'm also partially double-jointed, which makes some of the 'normal' finger exercises actually worse for my joints, because my fingers are not naturally 'straight' when held up flat/outspread, and joints tend to pop/lock a lot as a result. I don't know if that makes any sense... I'm afraid that's likely not possible for me at this time. I have a hard time opening glass jars or even pushing in doorknob buttons on many days, let alone lifting heavy weights.

That oven looks really awesome, except I think I'd still use the regular oven for short-time meats like burgers/small steaks, to make sure they're cooked hot enough long enough. But cutting the time for cooking anything that usually takes 30-60 minutes or more is always fantastic. Interesting, the way they seem to use a combo of microwaves and airflow cooking.

...

So I thought I'd ask the exercise guru's - what's the best way to exercise the hands/finger joints? I gently squeeze rubber balls ... is there anything better?

Researched the "anti-inflammatory diet" fad, decided it was, in most cases, largely the same years old common-sense diet rules wrapped in a shiny new title, then went and ate some non-fat yogurt w/fruit and popped some more Advil.

The Ark of Truth - which is a direct-to-DVD movie-length continuation/plot wrapper for the Stargate series, or something. It was ok. The series was pretty much gasping for air when it stopped production, and this movie doesn't improve on that at all. But it was nice to have the whole Ori thing wrapped up, since they left it hanging at the end of the series.

Never finished Kotor1, but the game I started I picked female. Kotor2 I was always female. I tried to play as male to see the other options, like w/Handmaiden, but then hubby played the game and I watched him play instead... I don't mind a male chr. and have used one many times in many games, but I tend to prefer playing the same gender as myself, if given a choice.

Sounds like what hubby was dealing with before the move. We were on the border of Morgan Hill and he had go up to Redwood City/San Carlos border 3-5 times a week, along with other far-flung Bay Area spots. It was, as they say, where the work was. It was only the recent housing crunch that let us buy and move up here, even if we did have to downsize a bit. Our families are mostly here, too.

Considering how much we pay the Feds every year, I'm not exactly jumping in anticipation over their piddly "rebate." But I suppose, assuming we get one, it'll go into our savings account, which we're trying to rebuild up again after buying this house. Altho, remodeling the kitchen sounds like a fine idea, too ... but nah, not this year.

True enough that we still generally have pretty cheap gas compared to other countries. But I think in any country, if anything has a fairly noticeable impact on your budget, where you can't easily adjust to accommodate it, you have a "right" to complain. This kind of rapid rise in price at the pump hurts a lot of people - even in the US. Especially in areas - in any country - where housing/rent/insurances etc. vs. income have so many people on very tight budgets already. That said, anyone obsessed with gas-hungry vanity vehicles when they don't actually need such a vehicle (SUV's etc....)... and could afford to get a more efficient vehicle (I know many can't right away...), I don't have much sympathy. I hate hubby's van, but he needs it for work (he moves huge loads of servers and other bulky equipment fairly often). We moved just in time - hopefully even w/the gas prices, with his reduced driving mileage, it'll be better than before, budget wise. Me, I hardly drive at all. I'd like a more efficient car (my '98 Legacy wagon only gets about 22mpg), but on average I only fill up my tank once a month or so - sometimes less. So I figure it can wait till our budget isn't so tight. Just for fun, here's a picture of a gas station from Feb. 2, 2008. The same exact station, last time I filled up a couple weeks ago, was $4.11 for the middle unleaded fuel. 70 cents in 2.5 months. It's probably gone up a little more now, even since that last time. Heh.

Oh, no, I didn't mean there was anything wrong with what's in your post. Only that my own personal words would be too strong. Most of it would never get past the filters.

If I turned all that pink blue, I'd like it a lot. Love the simple design ... just color preference.