Somebody Call Ripley's

Ok, somebody call Ripley's Believe It or Not, the Queen of Random Thoughts is actually posting more than twice in one month! I don't know, but this may become a habit, it just depends on how random those thoughts are. Today I was pondering those stickers people put on the backs of their cars. You know, the ones that say "Susie, Dance Team" and some high school or middle school name. I had one of those when I was in high school, but it was on MY car, not my parents'. My parents were never really into that brag-about-your-kids'-accomplishments thing. I was very proud of being in the Clark High School Band though. I can't believe that next year is my ten year high school reunion, this year is my husband's. What is funny is that my husband and I went to the same high school and knew mostly the same people, I think he knew more people in my HS class than in his, or associated with them more because we hung out together in the band hall. Ahh, high school band, it was tough, but at least I belonged to something, I had pride in something. Right now I don't feel like I belong anywhere. Oh, but I ramble. Sorry about that. High school was fun, when I look back, though I wouldn't have admitted it back then. It seems like it went by in the blink of an eye. OK, more random thoughts later.

-QRT

Random Thoughts, Too Long?

I am sorry that my random thoughts have been rather long and rambling lately. The tragedy in Virginia has made me think long and hard about my life lately. I am happy with my life for the most part and I am thankful for the people in my life. Most people just think about what they are thankful for at certain holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I am thinking about it today, April 18. So, thanks for everyone who is in my life and who is supportive of me when I am down or up or when I need to chatter as I tend to do. Hopefully some happier random thoughts will occur later.

QRT

Shop Hop

One of my avid hobbies is fabric colllecting. I do eventually hope to make something with all of the fabric that I collect but mostly I just collect it. My mother in law and I joke that we are part of the Fabric Acquisition team, hehe. I love to visit quilt stores, and my friends at work even poke fun at me because they say that if they give me the name of a state I can probably tell them where the quilt stores are in that state. Well, it's almost true. I am quite familiar with most of the stores in Texas, although they almost always are in teeny tiny towns that are difficult to remember. There is one in Waxahatchie, which is where the Spring Renaissance Festival (my other hobby) is held, we drove past that store, it's in an old, OLD wooden building that used to be a general store. Unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there, but at least I got to drive past it. Plus, they have a very good website to visit. There are at least five well established stores in San Antonio, and three in Austin. Somewhere, sometime, someone figured out that it would be fun to create an incentive for quilters to visit more than one quilting store in a few days, thus, the Shop Hop was born. Actually, I have no idea if it really originated with quilting or with something else, but the only time I have heard about it is from the quilting stores. So here's how it works, several area quilt stores are put on a list and they basically promote the shop hop and promote the other shops as well. They put the list of shops in their e mail news letters and on their website, and on a printed flyer in their stores. This is three days of extended hours to allow the "shop hoppers" to visit all the stores. The Bluebonnet Patchwork Trail Shop Hop 2007 includes 12 stores between San Antonio, New Braunfels, Austin, Fredricksburg, Kerrville, and Castroville. Now, that's a pretty large area of land to cover in just three days (and the third day, is Sunday and they are only open 12pm to 6pm) but my mother-in-law and I are hoping to visit ALL 12 stores. Why, you may ask, would we want to break the bank on gas costs alone just to visit 12 stores in 3 days? Because! If we visit ALL 12 stores and get ALL 12 stamps on our "Trail Pass" then we get entered into a drawing to win a basket of quilting STUFF from one of the 12 stores worth over $1200!!! And since both my mother-in-law (MIL) and I will be entering, that DOUBLES the chance of winning. Now, I don't know that I could ever win such an amazing prize, but I will tell you this, with gas prices on the rise and a large group of 12 shops that span a VERY large area (everything in Texas is big and it takes at least 30 minutes to get to any of the shops outside of San Antonio, most of the time more than that), I am hoping that the number of "hoppers" who actually make it to ALL 12 stores is going to be very small, which will increase our chances even more. I will be sure to take my camera along and try to take pictures of all the shops which I will post on my flickr site at some point. This shop hop is the only thing that has willed me out of bed each morning in order to get through the day and be one day CLOSER to SHOP HOPPING! And the weather is probably going to be pretty nice as well! Oh yeah, did I mention that I recently purchased a really nice laminated map of south central Texas in order to map out the best routes between stores? Well, I did and tonight I plan to mapquest the directions to the stores that are in Austin so that we can get there faster and have more time to SHOP (heehee). My husband doesn't even try to resist (he knows resistant is futile) so he gives me a budget, (thank goodness for e filing that tax return) a kiss on the cheek, and says "Have fun dear." His mother (my shopping buddy) really trained him well. Yeah! Ok, more thoughts later.

QRT

Passwords, Security or Sillyness?

Sometimes I think that everything is just a giant conspiracy developed to make life more difficult. For example, isn't technology supposed to make our lives easier? That was probably the original intent but now it just causes a huge debate about equal access for all and the effectiveness of using technology in schools, etc. I love technology, mostly computers and specifically the Internet. But when it comes down to it, are passwords really necessary? OK, I admit, they are, but I think that I have about ten different passwords, and I can never remember them all. I always have to reset my password anyway so what is the point of having one in the first place? And isn't it true that you aren't suppsed to use the same password for all the accounts or write them down anywhere? How am I supposed to remember them if they are all different and I don't write them down? I also noticed that sometimes it is very easy to get into a website that is supposed to be password protected. Once when I tried to access my bank account, it turned out that the bank decided to change their system, therefore I had to change my password. I changed it initially but, of course, couldn't remember it the next time I needed to see my bank account, well, the site kept sending me a message that my password was incorrect, so I tried a different one, I did this about ten times until I found the correct one. Is that really security? Also, what is the deal with security questions? I mean, some sites use security questions so that you can get to the page to send you an e mail to reset the password to access the online account. (Sounds like the house that Jack built) Well, if I can't remember exactly the way that I typed the answer to the question, then I can't continue with the process can I? Or, I have been asked questions that I know the answer to, but I am sure I have never told anyone on that site that answer before. The creepy part is when I enter that answer and then it allows me access, I KNOW I never told them the answer to that question before. Hmm. Is that security or just sillyness? I saw a commercial one time for a laptop that has a thumb pad scanner on it which scans the person's thumb (a not very easily copied thing) and allows the person access to...well, to something, maybe the computer itself? I don't know but all I can say is that at least I can remember my e mail account password, because without that, I would probably be lost. I mean, I don't have my parents' phone numbers memorized (they are in the memory on my phone), but at least I know my e mail, because that's all that matters. Oh, and did I mention that on the first day of class this semester (which is my last semester, YEAH) my professor suggested that everyone log into our University accounts and tell the system to send messages to our usual e mail address, well I hadn't used that University account in probably three years, and didn't know my password, it was very embarassing! I also forgot the password for the OTHER account I have there that I used last spring but actually hadn't used in awhile. Now, is this just my own fault for forgetting the logins and passwords? Or is it really necessary to have three different places to log in for each student? OK, done venting. What do you think about passwords?

QRT