MikkiStreak

NO WAY! Especially since photography is majorly important to me and most of the venue photographers don't have the skills I want in a photographer.

Hey Mel, we used Sunrocket for a few years until they went out of business. We loved VoIP... way cheaper and better features (like remote ability to turn features on/off). The thing to be aware of, is that your internet connections affects your quality of service. So, even if you have 1.5mb download, if you only have 386k upload... what happens is that you hear the caller great, but they hear crackling from you. Other thing to consider is whether you have your home line hooked to a monitored house alarm system at all. If you do, you'd want to get a UPS with at least a half an hour of backup power supply. Most home alarm systems will trigger the monitoring company if the phone line goes dead and they'll send someone to investigate if they don't get a response when calling you, and since VoIP is powered by the electricity of the PC... when your power goes out, so does your phone line.

Yummy! We make tamales from scratch every year around Thanksgiving/Christmas, and sell them all over the place. We've been putting together ideas for doing test batches that are more "tex-mex" instead of just the traditional tamales. If you've never made tamales before, the only thing I would suggest, is modifying the time the husks soak. Every recipe says to soak them for 30 minutes, but we've always had to soak them overnight or else they're still brittle and break apart too easily when spreading the masa. (And we wind up having to put a brick or something heavy on the husks to keep them submerged in the water.) We bought a tamale steamer at Garden Ridge for about $25 the first year we made them. It was cheaply made, but definitely did the job just fine. We put a ball of aluminum foil in the center of the steamer, then put the tamales around the foil ball (like an indian teepee format). Then we put forks in the water at the bottom of the steamer. For some reason the forks and aluminum foil help evenly distribute the heat so that the tamales on the outside don't finish earlier than the ones in the center... If anyone else has good tamales recipes or tricks, would love to hear them. We love tamales too, even tho making them is a bitch (mostly because we spread it out over 4 days because we make about 100 dozen each year..).

Being a smart-ass... i've decided my gift for my boss is going to be a talking bobblehead of "Bill Lumbard" from the movie "Office Space".

Hey Tara--- those look really good!

Quote: Originally Posted by Maura what do you guys think some of the questions asked will be? "What are your favorite news magazines? Here, let's make it multiple choice this time so everyone can answer....." (totally meant in humor, not as a 'dig' to flame things up... just couldn't resist being a smart-ass)...

Jaime, I hope this isn't isn't too blunt and intrusive; but didn't you just get your inheritence this summer? I know this is none of my business and you don't have to respond to this, but if your dad is on the brink of foreclosure on his home, why is he paying your bills? I completely understand wanting to get the best rate you can, and most doctors in DFW will give you a professional discount if you explain you don't have any health insurance. In regards to a herniated disc, go to the WB Carrell Clinic on 75 around NW Highway. Ask to make an appointment with Dr. Andrew Dossett. If you google his name, you'll easily find his credentials: he is (literally) the best spinal doctor in US and one of the best in the world. When famous people have back injuries, he is the one who is called for media opinions/analysis, as well as being called by the patient for his care. He's an awesome guy too, with great bedside manner.

It's weird that all of this is coming up right now - after he's lost his job, and 10 years of being together (and 2 kids), with the wedding only 3 months away. The fact that he seems to just want to "drop" this news on you, but not actually talk about it, seems as if he really can't deal with what he just told you. I agree, take the kids and go away for a few days. Give him time to process & digest. My guess is that somewhere inside, is the little "man voice" that says if he can't provide for you, he shouldn't be moving forward. (No matter how much men evolve, they always have this little voice inside them that mostly "hides" during everyday life. And a job loss usually stirs this voice up.) If he seems to be backing off communication, then I'd say take it slow... no matter how hard it is, try to get him talking about things that might be less "emotional"... like maybe look at his news from the perspective of: "well, we need to talk about how we're going to cancel the wedding"... maybe it would be easier for him to begin talking when the subject is more 'matter of fact', and could then ease into what really needs to be discussed. I'm sorry you're going through this... and I hope it works out the best way for everyone involved....

If you made it using powerpoint, and saved the original as a powerpoint, you can go back and edit it. Otherwise, the only way to try and edit a JPEG, would be thru an editing software like Photoshop, Elements, etc....

I think the buyouts were necessary, but it now poses the question: what programs are going to be cut to fund the buyouts? or how much will taxes raise to offset the buyouts? Because if taxes raise without wages increasing, it saves the business'es, but screws the consumer... I also think the end result was inevitable (the buyouts), but what about fixing what caused the collapse? We had a presidential directive to decrease regulations for the finance/mortgage industry back in 2002 in order to use real estate and banking to boost the economy after the tech collapse in 01. But then they took the 'no government involvement' approach of not regulating business to make sure businesses were acting ethically. We also changed bankruptcy laws so that no one can walk away from debt; which means that these companies could have absorbed the losses slower and easier over the last 5 years, than having it all come crashing down suddenly. And, the bankruptcy laws changed so that now, when a consumer files for bankruptcy, they use poverty level for that area as the guideline for how much "income" that consumer needs to have for survival, and everything over that poverty level goes to pay debt. It will be interesting to see not only what transpires over the next 1-2 years for bailout's, but what congress does to prevent this situation from replaying over and over... I, personally, think we're just starting to see the "bottoming out" of our economy, and it'll probably be another 1-2 years before we see the consistency of a "recovery" occurring. Question is: how bad will it get before then?

Tara, it looks awesome! I've always had this impression of you, as being down-to-earth and sincere--- basically, someone who "has their head on straight".... this dress perfectly matches my impression: stunning, timeless, and perfect to the environment where it will be worn. Excellent choice, and it looks awesome!

Reports that Track Palin vandalized school buses aren't true, says pal just found this: disproved.

wow... this lady is going to wind up rivaling bush for the longer list of 'scandals' if all this stuff winds up being true...

Quote: Originally Posted by 2bebridejamaica Monsters lurk everywhere!!! We all have them, and THEY SUCK!!! I think we do need to write a book.. I like that idea---- title it "The Wedding Wreckers.... stories of those who tried to rain on everyone's parade"

This is the news article that scared the shit out of me this morning: Break the Buck Basically, this is the second time in history that a money market account has lost money for the investor! And not only that--- they are "freezing" the fund so no one can bail out on it...

The news is reporting different stuff.... first, it's a Category 2 when it hits landfall, but then the path is supposed to even reach as far north as DFW with tropical force winds... We just heard downtown Houston is getting 105mph winds and they're expecting a lot of damage to the skyscrapers... then I heard the path was 600 miles wide and the eye is almost 60 miles wide.... Frank's family lives in Beaumont and all of them evacuated up here. They stuck it out for Rita, and learned from that experience to get out while they could...

I use WAMU too, and have a crapload of CD's there. I heard the rumors of this too... I'm concerned because there's no way we could wait for FDIC payments on the CD's (it's for my daughter's college fund and she graduates this spring)... but at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if they get bought out (espcially by BOA because they have been going thru a lot of mergers and buying out other banks over the last year or two...)

I had just moved to Dallas and was on my way to my first day of work with Enron. I was about a block away from our office when I heard about the first tower. My first thought was that it was an accidental crash. Once I got my laptop set up, I started getting emails from friends and family who were telling me about it, and trying to check on who had heard from whom, etc.... We spent two weeks watching footage every day and all the news reports at work. It's still surreal to me--- whenever I see firefighter memorials, or police memorials, it reminds me of all the people who were in NY trying to help. What I remember most was just feeling helpless--- wanting to go there and help, but not able to.