KirstenL4W

Hard to believe that it’s been over a month since my last installment of On The Internet. Since then, I’ve gone on vacation and spent the rest of my time just trying to keep up with everything. I have a feeling that the upcoming holidays will be pretty rough, schedule-wise.

• Speaking of holidays, Wii prices have been reduced! As you remember, last Christmas I wanted a Wii, but Santa was not able to find any at the stores because it was the Cabbage Patch Kid / Tickle Me Elmo of 2008. Now that there’s a recession going on and everyone either already has a Wii or can’t afford one, I hope Santa will be able to procure one for me.
• I currently use Mister’s alarm clock so that I know when to get up in the morning, along with my cell phone’s alarm clock feature to remind my lazy ass to get out of bed. Other than that, I don’t have an alarm clock of my own. But hopefully soon I will - I came across this vintage-inspired beauty at Urban Outfitters today. Yes, Urban Outfitters has something other than clothing for skinny cool kids! Check out all the stuff they have for the home in their Apartment section.
• I’m still totally crushing on the Thesis theme, which just came out with version 1.6 and has new options for design and layout. I really, really want this theme and hope to get it within the next few months.
• Some health tips surrounding the dreaded flu this year: Doctor Anonymous discusses his take on the H1N1 flu, the folks over at I’ve Tried That discuss scams that capitalize on the flu scare, Summer Tomato and AltDotLife have some excellent tips on things you can do to avoid getting the flu (or any communicable illness, really), and John and Sherry at Young House Love interrogate Sherry’s little brother, Almost Doctor Dan, for the truth about antibacterial products. As for me, I’ve had my seasonal flu shot and am waiting for the H1N1 flu shot to be more widely available, and in the meantime, I make sure I use soap when I wash my hands.
• Anyone who’s ever worked with the public will love the blog Not Always Right. The stories can be a bit hard to believe at times, but those of us who have worked in customer service will believe every word. Oh, and there is now a book to go along with the blog!
• House of Turquoise recently featured my favorite color combination, turquoise and red. These colors always look fresh and inviting next to each other!
• In the blog maintenance category, ProBlogger has tips to stop scrapers and scammers and Essential Keystrokes has an article regarding disclosure policies. I try to keep spam off my blog, check for scrapers regularly and I hope my own disclosure is clear and complete.
• Also in the blogging category, check out Kristan’s list of what you can do for the blogger you love - there are ways to support your favorite blogger and still stay hidden behind the internet.
• This list wouldn’t be complete without some mention of The Guild! Check out the Halloween Special, an acoustic version of Do You Wanna Date My Avatar, and an educational video from NASA’s Spitzer Science Center featuring Felicia Day.
• More from Young House Love: their dog, Burger, has his own blog now. Check out Hamburger’s House for views on life from a Chihuahua’s point of view.
• And finally, here’s a list from WiseBread of 10 small businesses that are free or low-cost to start up. There are lots of ways to expand your income in any market, but it takes work. Be sure to check out I’ve Tried That for tips to avoid getting swindled.

Now that I’ve spent the better part of the day catching up on the internet and writing this darn post, it’s back to real life for me, at least for tonight. Happy Halloween!

This is where I’m supposed to offer up all sorts of lame excuses as to why I haven’t been posting, like the lure of the TV with all sorts of Halloween movies (not scary ones - I don’t do horror), but I won’t do that. All I’ll do is promise to try and get a proper post up sometime this weekend. Maybe I’ll do another On The Internet post, since by now I must have about a hundred different things to post about, using the various methods I have to keep track of them. But first, let me catch up on some more blog reading.

I should really try to post more often, but you know how it is when you get back from vacation… so much time spent catching up that it’s like you’re still on vacation from your day to day life! Ok, almost, but not really. Work’s been busy, it took me almost a week to catch up on all the posts in my reader, and there’s all the laundry and housekeeping that I’ve been thinking about but not actually doing. Where does the time go?

So, vacation.

Mister and I went to Massachusetts and New Hampshire to visit my family. We didn’t get as much sightseeing in this time, instead focusing on spending time with friends and family. The day we got in was my dad and stepmother’s 30th wedding anniversary, so we took them out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant of their choosing. Delicious food, and I hope they enjoyed their celebration! We also met up with my friends Belching Biker Babe and Officer Friend (now Detective Friend!). Belching Biker Babe and I got to reminisce, and yes, old pictures came out. Hello, big hair! We also got a bit silly reciting some old George Carlin routines from the album Playin’ with Your Head, which I borrowed from my mom when I was like, 14, and never gave back because BBB and I wore it out memorizing it. Detective Friend met us for dinner in Newburyport, and we got to hear all about his promotion to detective, and about Baby #2, who is due in the spring. Amazing what happens when you move away from home!

We did spend quiet a bit of time driving around, since everything was so pretty due to the fall colors. Mister got to visit Maine for the first time evah when we drove into Kittery just for the sake of going to Maine. I stopped at one of the outlet stores in Kittery and bought a new Christmas ornament and some wild blueberry jam. Maine is known for blueberries, amongst other things, so I recommend anything made with Maine blueberries. Driving around is a much different experience in New England than it is here in Vegas. Here, you drive around town, on roads that are 3 lanes in each direction, or you get lost in master planned communities. Once you leave town, it’s at least 4 hours of barren desert until you get to the next town. In New England, there’s lots to see - pretty houses, interesting shops, lovely scenery, and nice winding roads. We drove Rt 1A up the NH coast, a scenic drive which Mister absolutely loved.

I wanted to spend some time with my Dad’s family, and the best way to do this was to have the family all gather at The House on the Hill. My dad, Gram, aunt and uncle all live within a half mile of each other, so it’s easy to get everyone together. We dined on wonderful homemade food (hard to get when you’re traveling) and got to visit with everyone. One of the biggest things I miss about being back there is gathering with The Family, so it was really nice to be with everyone.

I also got to spend time with my mom’s family. Uncle N Period and Uncle Caboose came up to visit, and Uncle Caboose made Swedish Meatballs! Yes, real Swedish Meatballs, using the recipe that my great-grandmother brought with her from Sweden. Mom also made a birthday cake for Mister since she somehow found out that he would have a birthday during our vacation. Again, it was really nice to visit with people I don’t get to see often enough.

Since it was Mister’s birthday, I stopped at Newbury Comics to browse and to find a birthday gift for Mister. I got him a retro New Wave Halloween CD, Just Can’t Get Enough: New Wave Halloween, The Misfits Box Set, and the book Weird New England, since I knew he’d like a book like that. He stayed up way too late reading it, so I guess he did like it.

Overall, it was a relaxing, refreshing vacation that wasn’t long enough. It was really great to visit with everyone, and we’re already planning our next trip back there. Maybe on the next trip we can do some more touristy stuff so I’ll really have something to write about.

Not that kind of high. You people should know I don’t do that. No, I’m talking about flying in an airplane.

Mister and I just got back from a vacation to New England to visit my family. Being so far away, the only practical way to get there was to fly. I looked over the fares available and found a really decent fare on Virgin America. I flew Virgin Atlantic when I went to Europe way too long ago now, and I was eager to fly them when I went back east for Grandma’s funeral last year. Their low fares didn’t hurt either.

Virgin America doesn’t have the stuffy attitude that the other carriers have. None of that “you’re gonna sit in a cramped metal tube, get charged way too much for everything, and like it, dammit!” attitude that the legacy carriers seem to have. They’re hip, with it, and have a pretty good sense of humor. They also have rocking customer service. All their planes have regular electrical plugs in every row, and their headphone jack is standard, so you can use your regular headphones instead of typical sucky airline headphones. There’s also an in-flight entertainment system on the back of every seat that offers satellite tv, movies on demand, music, video games, seat to seat texting, and you can order meals and drinks through it as well. They deliver meals really fast too, and if they’re out of something, they take it off the menu so you don’t try to order something that’s in someone else’s stomach. Overall, I give Virgin America a huge thumbs up.

But I have a BUT. Virgin America is based out of San Francisco International Airport (SFO), so they have quite a few more gates there than at other airports. My biggest issue is that when we landed at SFO, no one could tell us what the gate assignment was for our connecting flight. For example, on the way home, we landed at SFO nearly an hour late, leaving us only an hour until our next flight was scheduled to board. You’d think that at this point in time, someone would know which gate we can hang out at. But no, that was not the case. We were directed to a customer service desk on the other end of the terminal that was unmanned. We sat there for awhile, got a snack, and no one even came near the desk. Finally, I went to a nearby gate and finally found out that our flight would be leaving from… the gate we came in at. Now mind you, all this running back and forth was a huge ordeal because [insert confidential reason here]. I just thought that it was really unorganized of them to not know gate assignments. It happened as we connected through SFO on our way to Boston as well, but we sat tight and ended up not having to move then. That part of it was probably the worst part of the whole experience.

When we did finally get back to the now-known correct gate, we were entertained with an open Q&A session by the pilot of the flight leaving the gate before ours. Even though it wasn’t our pilot, it was really nice to see that the pilot cared about his passenger’s flight experience. I wanted to ask him why he was answering questions instead of doing preflight checks, but Mister wouldn’t let me. I did, however, get a few opportunities to enjoy Virgin’s adorable safety video.

All in all, I highly recommend Virgin America. Their fares are extremely reasonable, and their customer service kicks ass. Now if they could just get their act together on the gate assignment issue at SFO.

Note: I was not paid to do this review. I paid good money to fly on Virgin, and like I do with other stuff I really like, I wanted to tell the world. Consider yourself told!

I’m back! Did you miss me? Mister and I just got back from a vacation back to Massachusetts and New Hampshire to visit my family. I’ll write more later, but since I really didn’t get online during vacation, I have a lot to catch up on. Just wanted to let you know that I’m still here!

Inspired by Zhu’s post in which she talks about ways that she is still French, I thought I’d list some ways that I’m still a New Englander. As you know, I moved out of New England in 2003 and have been living in Las Vegas ever since, but there are still some habits I have that are particular to Massachusetts/New Hampshire that give away my origins every time.

1. Words - I still call the athletic shoes I wear sneakers, I use elastics instead of rubber bands, and I’ve been known to wear dungarees on rare occasions.
2. Accent - As much as I try to hide it, my Massachusetts accent still comes out at times, especially when I’m tired or talking to someone from that part of the country.
3. Fish - I believe that the best way to have fish is beer battered, deep fried and covered in ketchup. Mister can’t even watch - ketchup on fish makes him sick.
4. Roast Beef - You haven’t lived until you’ve had a roast beef sandwich prepared the way you can only find in Massachusetts (apparently, since I’ve looked everywhere else).
5. Wicked - I still use the word wicked a wicked lot. It’s used in place of the word very, i.e. “Roast beef sandwiches from Harrison’s in North Andover are wicked good!”
6. Fall - Fall is my favorite season, one that I miss sorely being in Las Vegas. And weather? It’s bright and sunny all the time here in Vegas. After 6 1/2 years of the same weather every day, I’m bored. There’s that old saying about weather in New England - If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.
7. Directions - I still have a habit of giving directions by landmarks, which my husband thinks confuses people. But you’ll never find my mom’s driveway if you aren’t looking for the Playskool mailbox that is just past the driveway with all the junk in it. Also, roads with a number designation are called by their number, and ONLY the number. For example, everyone knows that all the stores in Tax-Free Salem, New Hampshire are on 28, not Route 28 or Broadway. Another thing I do is measure driving distance in time. Instead of telling someone that it’s about 7 miles to my office from home, I tell them it’s about 15 minutes. This drives my husband crazy, but he’s getting used to it.
8. Ice Cream - I once read that Massachusetts has the highest per capita consumption of ice cream, but I haven’t been able to substantiate that in my online research. Still, it was a huge let-down when I moved to Las Vegas and the ice cream aisle at the grocery store wasn’t a full aisle. It was more like half an aisle. And I couldn’t find a proper ice cream sundae when I went out, because I missed Friendly’s too much. But I still prefer jimmies on my ice cream. Sprinkles just sounds so wrong.
9. Chowder - I don’t usually go for chowder, but I do believe that it has to be thick, creamy, and loaded with clams and potatoes. That clam and tomato soup that the New Yorkers try to pass off as chowder is just wrong.
10. Liquor - I still can’t get over the fact that you can buy hard liquor at any old store here. In MA, you have to go to a package store. In NH, you head to a state-run liquor store, which is usually on a major highway.

I’ve been thinking of this quite a bit, especially in light of an upcoming trip to visit my family. Going back there is instantly familiar, almost like I never left. Except when I start seeing all the changes that have happened since the last visit.

Here’s a list of some regional humor for you:

You Know You’re From NH When
Another NH Joke List
You Know You’re From MA When
Another MA Joke List
Yet Another MA List
And Some More MA Jokes
How Massachusetts Are You?
A General New England List

There’s some duplication on the lists, but they’re fun. I do have to make a point about the driving, though - no one runs red and yellow lights like drivers in Las Vegas. Seriously - come here and check it out sometime. It’s probably why my car insurance doubled when I moved here from MA.

So, now that you’ve read my list, what are some things that identify you as being from your hometown, even if you’ve moved away?