Friday, March 09, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Not for swimming. Still too cold for that.
This is what happens when you don't take care of your pool the way you should:
We're having our pool tile cleaned tomorrow. If you didn't already know, Arizona is dry dry dry and because of that we have to pimp our water from whoever will give it to us. I think for the most part it comes from Colorado. Somehow along the way the water seems to accumulate tons of minerals, especially calcium. As a result, the water here tastes like pure ass and even though I was raised on California city tap water (also from colorado, i'm sure) I refuse to drink the water here.
This is what happens when you don't take care of your pool the way you should:
It looks much worse when it's dry but I assure you there is some nice blue mosaic tile under that. I have no idea the last time these were clean...probably a few years ago.
Today we are draining our pool so the tile guy can come blast all that lime crap off. We love hanging out in the pool in the summertime and can commit to keeping it cleaner so it's worth the pricetag to get it done.
OHHH and other news, my coworker just had a brand-new very large home built and she moved in around New Years. A week later there was a sewer back up and it ruined some of the carpet in her basement (basements are also very rare and very expensive in AZ). The builder replaced ALL the carpet in the basement even though it was just a small hall area that was ruined. She GAVE me the 20x30 remaining piece they replaced for FREE. Weeeee!!! Free carpet!!! So now the pink room will lose the last remaining piece of pinkness whenever we get around to having it installed. Hooray!
Labels: Home Improvement
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
I've neglected my blog. Guilty as charged!
However, we have some new developments on the horizon: the husband got a new job he starts next week AND we are having our pool drained and the tile cleaned on monday. We are shopping around for a hybrid car so he can cruise down the HOV lane without a passenger. Exciting, I know!
I also bought some new living room furniture that got me in some hot water with the husband but I think once it gets here and is all assembled he will be okay with it.
What else, what else? I'm dragging ass re-doing the second bathroom but I need to get on the stick because a LOT of family will be descending upon us at the end of March.
That's pretty much it for now. I will post again if anything cool happens. We're still planning our trip and all that nonsense. And no, I'm not pregnant.
However, we have some new developments on the horizon: the husband got a new job he starts next week AND we are having our pool drained and the tile cleaned on monday. We are shopping around for a hybrid car so he can cruise down the HOV lane without a passenger. Exciting, I know!
I also bought some new living room furniture that got me in some hot water with the husband but I think once it gets here and is all assembled he will be okay with it.
What else, what else? I'm dragging ass re-doing the second bathroom but I need to get on the stick because a LOT of family will be descending upon us at the end of March.
That's pretty much it for now. I will post again if anything cool happens. We're still planning our trip and all that nonsense. And no, I'm not pregnant.
Monday, February 12, 2007
The husband and I went to dinner with Heather and her husband on saturday night. I am happy to report that she is indeed alive and well (and way taller than me).
Monday, February 05, 2007
Saturday, February 03, 2007
It's been a bit boring around here lately, I'll admit. Everytime that happens I start thinking about changing things, like my hairstyle or my blog. This time it's the blog.
I'm pondering doing the whole hosted-with-your-own-URL blog thing. IF I were to do that, I need input from you people.
www.PhoenixChristine.com
www.ChristineR.com
www.WithLoveFromPhoenix.com
or your own ideas
thanks people!!!
I'm pondering doing the whole hosted-with-your-own-URL blog thing. IF I were to do that, I need input from you people.
www.PhoenixChristine.com
www.ChristineR.com
www.WithLoveFromPhoenix.com
or your own ideas
thanks people!!!
Friday, February 02, 2007
We went to a party in Paradise Valley tonight and the hosts asked us to pick some grapefruit from their trees to take home. 
I like fresh-off-the-tree citrus and all that, but I can't wait for summer!!
I like fresh-off-the-tree citrus and all that, but I can't wait for summer!!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
I finally saw Al Gore's movie tonight. It was rather interesting. In case you haven't seen it, he discusses how he learned early on from a college professor that rising CO2 levels correspond with rising global temperatures. He presented data and information for various scientists, military groups and others involved in global-warming related research.
As a science person I always enjoy hard data like the graphs he provided for various things. He also seemed to portray scientists as absolute and ethical authorities on the subject. Naturally, I like scientists and hard data can be hard to refute. However, I still think its good to question everything. I would LOVE to have his sources for his info, preferably in written format for reference. I'm not saying I doubt global warming and the impact of our actions on the environment; I just think you can't always take everything at face value. Scientists, just like any other profession, want to put their best work forward. Sometimes perfectly good info is omitted from journal submissions because it complicates the main focus.
Just because things get published doesn't make them reputable. We had a seminar this week discussing the ethics and temptation of image manipulation in research journals. Only ONE journal has routinely scaned EVERY SINGLE IMAGE submitted to them for the past 3+ years to check for tampering or over-manipulation. It's kind of an unspoken issue in the scientific community. If you can adjust the image contrast to make your picture look awesome, why not? Why NOT remove ugly background? Obviously its WRONG and unethical to completely fabricate results (and we were shown examples of data that some scientists DID fabricate, unfortunately).
It was very interesting to hear from a major journal editor that some manipulation is okay but for the most part fellow scientists (and the public) need to see data as it was observed, as ugly as it may be. So now I am skeptical of everything I read. Did they really include everything? Probably not. Did anyone check to verify their results, or their references? Al Gore did make a point that 0 scientific articles disagreed with the theory of Global Warming and yet 53% of media articles took a skeptical position. Interesting. Scary.
The media drives the taxpayers. Taxpayers drive research. Most taxpayers can't sort through intellectual journals to decide what is true and what is merely a media sensation. Hell, even a lot of scientists can't do it.
Regardless...recycle your shizz. It isn't hard.
As a science person I always enjoy hard data like the graphs he provided for various things. He also seemed to portray scientists as absolute and ethical authorities on the subject. Naturally, I like scientists and hard data can be hard to refute. However, I still think its good to question everything. I would LOVE to have his sources for his info, preferably in written format for reference. I'm not saying I doubt global warming and the impact of our actions on the environment; I just think you can't always take everything at face value. Scientists, just like any other profession, want to put their best work forward. Sometimes perfectly good info is omitted from journal submissions because it complicates the main focus.
Just because things get published doesn't make them reputable. We had a seminar this week discussing the ethics and temptation of image manipulation in research journals. Only ONE journal has routinely scaned EVERY SINGLE IMAGE submitted to them for the past 3+ years to check for tampering or over-manipulation. It's kind of an unspoken issue in the scientific community. If you can adjust the image contrast to make your picture look awesome, why not? Why NOT remove ugly background? Obviously its WRONG and unethical to completely fabricate results (and we were shown examples of data that some scientists DID fabricate, unfortunately).
It was very interesting to hear from a major journal editor that some manipulation is okay but for the most part fellow scientists (and the public) need to see data as it was observed, as ugly as it may be. So now I am skeptical of everything I read. Did they really include everything? Probably not. Did anyone check to verify their results, or their references? Al Gore did make a point that 0 scientific articles disagreed with the theory of Global Warming and yet 53% of media articles took a skeptical position. Interesting. Scary.
The media drives the taxpayers. Taxpayers drive research. Most taxpayers can't sort through intellectual journals to decide what is true and what is merely a media sensation. Hell, even a lot of scientists can't do it.
Regardless...recycle your shizz. It isn't hard.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
We met the husband's dad in Sedona for dinner because he was "in town" for a conference. It's a nice 2 hour drive and man is it cold up there!
Here are some pics from our mini-adventure:
We took these standing on top of some vortex view point. People believe there are these areas in Sedona that have spiritual energy and they resonate with your inner being (or something like that. Google it.) The area has a lot of "interesting" art colonies and voodoo/weird/psychic shacks set up. It also has beautiful viewpoints. And snow. Meh.
Poor things. They had no idea what was coming to them.
Here are some pics from our mini-adventure:
Lame, I know. I couldn't resist.
We took these standing on top of some vortex view point. People believe there are these areas in Sedona that have spiritual energy and they resonate with your inner being (or something like that. Google it.) The area has a lot of "interesting" art colonies and voodoo/weird/psychic shacks set up. It also has beautiful viewpoints. And snow. Meh. 
Poor things. They had no idea what was coming to them. 