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March 30, 2006

Does anyone know...

...where I can find a 12 foot cable for my shiny new TV? It's the same sort that's used on DVD players, TiVos, and pretty much every other piece of home entertainment hardware.

Thus far I haven't found better than 8 feet. Any help would be appreciated.

Posted by Janice Ryan at 11:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 22, 2006

Reducing credit card offers

If you're anything like Terry and I, you get at least one credit card pre-approved application a day. I've always torn them in half and thrown them out. However, today, I received an email that suggests that this isn't enough. Read this. Pretty scary, huh?

In an odd coincidence, I got the following in a newsletter from my mortgage broker, Megan Carroll at Quicken Loans (highly recommended, btw):

Question: How do I stop getting credit card junk mail?

Answer: It's easy! Just call 888-5-O-P-T-O-U-T (888-567-8688) and the three major credit bureaus will remove your name from the lists they sell to companies sending out unsolicited pre-approved credit and insurance offers. You can have your name and address removed from future lists either for five years or permanently. The three major credit reporting bureaus – TransUnion, Equifax and Experian are required by law to remove your name from these lists once you opt out.

You may also contact the three credit bureaus directly and have your name removed from their lists by visiting www.optoutprescreen.com. You can also opt out your spouse as long as you have their Social Security number.

I've already done this, I suggest everyone else does too! I'm also going to add a shredder to my wedding registry on Amazon. However, if the smoke detectors and fire extinguishers on my regular wishlist are any indication, no one will buy it for me....tsk, tsk...how do you not indulge someone who wants a gift for their safety?

Posted by Janice Ryan at 2:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

But it could be an industrial by-product!

After some idle IMing with Ryan (aka Haplo) led to discussion of the Donut Spot on I-76, we each Googled it and I found this:

Biodiesel can be made from recycled cooking oil, in which case, car exhaust would smell like doughnuts! Now, that's a way to get the convienence food lobby to push for renewable fuel sources - if all highways smelled like donuts, we'd all drive to the donut store more often!

Posted by Janice Ryan at 12:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 16, 2006

What's so hard about merging?

Yesterday, I was driving along I-95 and I noted again how much merging screws up traffic. There's a lot of construciton going on along 95 right now that involves lanes shifting and closing. Listening to the traffic report, there were at least two accidents in these sorts of areas while I was in the car and I personally noticed that it was a little scary being a part of a merge. What is so difficult about taking turns? Why do people try to cut others off when they need to merge in? I had someone almost run into me at 65 miles an hour, because he had to be in front of me, couldn't let me merge into the lane. Later, I sat with a big space in front of me, trying to let a car in, and had to wait for him to decide that he wasn't going to get a better spot, he had to merge because the lane was gone. Duh! How hard is this? Why can't people figure it out? It's not like it's a skill that you learn, then completely forget about, because you never have to use it, like parking on a hill or parallel parking (I grew up in the 'burbs, I had to re-learn to parallel park when I moved to the city, and I still sucked at it). We have to merge all the time. What's the big freakin' deal?

Posted by Janice Ryan at 12:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 15, 2006

Progress hurts

Yesterday, I saw a sports medicine specialist for my hip. He felt it was best for me to have a cortisone injectiion to reduce the inflammation and sensitivity in my hip, since I can't just stay in bed forever, and even though I'd been off my feet for a few days and was feeling pretty good yesterday, there was still a pressure point in my hip that I yell when it's pressed. I also have pain in my leg muscles that I didn't even know about. Apparently, that's bad. So I had the shot, directly into that most painful spot. Cortisone is a steroid and the shot is mixed with a numbing agent for the pain. However, they have to drive this into the joint *through* the muscle to get it in the right spot, and that kinda hurts. I haven't been this gimpy in a couple of weeks. But the reaction from the shot should go away soon, and then I'm supposed to feel magically better. Bring on the magic!

Posted by Janice Ryan at 3:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 12, 2006

Mmm...Memory Foam

Last night, Terry and I went to Target and bought a Memory Foam cushion for our futon/sofa. The futon matress wasn't terrible, but it wasn't comfortable on my ailing hip, so I was spending most of my time upstairs. I kinda thought that memory foam was just a marketing gimmick of some sort, but let me tell you, this cushion rocks! It's so comfortable! Memory foam, I'm sorry for having doubted you. You're wonderful.

Posted by Janice Ryan at 8:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 9, 2006

Heaven in a jar

I was wandering around Whole Foods today, with thoughts of eating apples dipped in some sort of peanut butter sauce and I happened upon this wonderful product - Peanut Butter & Co Dark Chocolate Dreams. It's incredible. Terry and I had it for dessert tonight - we cut up apples for dipping, then melted the PB for about 20 seconds in the microwave. It was wonderful. I'm thinking of trying their spicy flavored peanut butter, too. I bet it would be an awesome dip for pretzels, but after looking at the sandwich shop menu, I'm more excited to try it on chicken. Check it out - if you happen to be in the NYC area, I'd love to know how the sandwich shop is. But I think all the different flavors are at Whole Foods, so we can all enjoy the peanut buttery goodness at home!

Posted by Janice Ryan at 9:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart LIVE

So, yesterday, we went up to NYC and saw a live taping of the Daily Show. It was pretty cool. I was surpised by a few things:

1) The studio is much smaller-looking in person. The way they use the cameras, it looks much bigger on TV than it really is. Rob Courdry did a segment and he was literally standing 4 feet from Jon while they were doing their "remote" interview.

2) They don't shoot extra material and then cut the show together. It's pretty much shot as a live-like show. On the monitors during the taping, you could see them change the camera angles during the interview as they were shooting it. Those little graphics that show up over Jon's shoulder as he's reading the stories are literally on the screen behind him, over his shoulder. It's not a special effect superimposed graphic. I was surpised, since it looks so crisp on TV, but the screens seemed more fuzzy to me, maybe because of where we were sitting in relation to the lights. I guess that's the magic of TV. During the commercial breaks, they play music in the studio, Jon makes notes or looks over his paper, and talks to one of the crew - probably a producer or something like that.

I'm going to wait a little while before I plan another trip to do this. When you consider that it's a 3 hour train ride each way, and then you have to line up early to get seats, since tickets aren't a guarantee, it's a lot of effort for only short entertainment. But it was fun. If you ever make the trip yourself, I recommend getting there really early - they hand out the audience passes at 5, and recommend you get there an hour early at least. We arrived at 3:30 and were 170 and 171 out of 216 possible seats in the audience.

I did enjoy our audience warm-up guy. If you happen to be in NY next week, Paul Mecurio is doing a show at Caroline's. He's a staff writer at the Daily Show and he was the one to joke around with us and psyche up everyone to cheer before Jon came out. If I could easily get back up to NY for a 7:30 show on a Thursday, I would totally go to his show at Caroline's.

The rest of our trip was fun, too. We got a late start, since my medicine makes me really sleepy, so I slept late. We ended up catching a noon train from Philly, so we got to NY and decided to have lunch, then head directly over to the studio. I SMSed Google Local to find the closest pizza place to the studio - it was a total hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but the pizza was really, really good. After the show, we caught up with a few KA people- Seth Goren, Chris Spina, and Brad Moore- for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant. It was nice to see them and we had a good time. They were surpised to see us, since we arranged it with Seth, and he told the others that we were mystery guests. After dinner, we said really long goodbyes, then caught the train back to Philly. We had a long layover in Trenton, but Terry and I had fun talking.

It's been a long time since I've gone to NYC. This was the first time I ever had to figure out my own subway trips - it felt very empowering. In the past, I've left that to other people, or just waked longish distances to avoid the potential for ending up in the complete wrong direction. But it worked out okay. I was pleased. Hopefully, I'll get to do it again soon. We realized during the day that there were a lot of people in NY that we didn't get to run into for a while, so we'd like to try again, maybe after the semester ends and life feels a little less crazy.

Posted by Janice Ryan at 4:41 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 8, 2006

I like narcotics

I'm still having trouble with bursitis in my hip (that's what my apparent knee problem two weeks ago turned out to be), so today I went back to the doctor and complained a lot and she gave me a script for Percoset, which I filled as soon as I got home today. I feel SOOO much better now! Apparently, I'm also much more tolerable to be around. Pain makes me cranky. But drugs are good. I like drugs.

Posted by Janice Ryan at 1:11 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 7, 2006

Worth Every Penny

Tonight, I, Terry, Kris, and Ryan saw Billy Joel in concert at the Wachovia Center. It was a great time. He's really one of the best performers I've seen in concert - this was my 3rd time.

One of my favorite things is the way he uses the whole stage, with multiple pianos and keyboards, to give the best possible view to everyone. Tonight, the main piano was on a rotating platform, so he didn't have his back to one side of the audience alll the time. It makes the seats behind the stage actually really, really good, because you're much closer than you can get on any other side, without sacrificing much in the way of view. He also takes a few minutes to thank the audience for attending and crack a few jokes. I don't know why, but engagin in a little conversation with the audience is important to me at a concert.

And then there's just the fact that he has so many great songs that are so energetic and fun to observe/sing-along with. The keyboard cam next to the piano lets you admire his handiwork while playing incredibly complex melodies. I was a litte disappointed that Pressure didn't make tonights playlist, but Angry Young Man and Scenes from an Italian Restaurant did, so I'm still quite happy. The time flew by, even with a little nagging pain in my hips. I had a really great time.

If you are ever presented with an opportunity to see a Billy Joel concert, I say GO! And take me with you!

Next up on my media kick, a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I think it took nine months to successfully get tickets, so I'm really looking forward to that, too. I've never seen a show being taped before, so I don't really know what to expect, but I hope it's good. If it is, I'll probably request tickets again right away, since the wait is really long. I'd also like to get tickets to Late Night w/ Conan O'Brien. I've been watching his show, though not regularly, since it first started. Since that's another long wait, maybe I'll request them soon too...that could be a fun summer day trip.

Posted by Janice Ryan at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack