AutoZone Customer Service

I keep forgetting to blog about this, but I finally remembered today! =) AutoZone has a great customer service offering where they will help you read your check engine light code with a ODBII code-reading tool. AutoZone sells car parts and so this little extra service of theirs helps customers figure out what's actually wrong with the car rather than just guessing and repairing several things before figuring it out.


Over the last few years, I've taken my cars to AutoZone multiple times just to see why the check engine light is on, saving me a $75 diagnostic fee every time. Then, after reading the code, you can reset it using the tool and see if what you did to repair it actually worked.

It's one of those little-known facts, so I thought I'd pass it along. If you ever have a check engine light, you can save a bundle by going to AutoZone rather than a dealer.

Only Two Fears

I read something recently about fear that was fascinating and seemed to ring true. We are all born with two fears: the fear of loud noises and the fear of being dropped. All of our other fears are learned, and as such, can be un-learned.

Peanut Butter Woes

With the recent outbreak of salmonella related to peanut butter, we checked our stash and -- low and behold! -- we are lucky winners of the dreaded batch starting with "2111." I've single-handedly eaten more than half of our big jar and haven't been sick yet, but it's not worth the risk.

I might have rethought that hasty decision to throw it away, however, if I realized that every jar of regular peanut butter at the grocery store had been removed from the shelves. So we've been peanut-butter-less for a few days now. It's been tough. Especially when the ice cream and brownies come out.

Speaking of... the brownies are ready. Special thanks to our friends Patti & Rodrick Rhoads for providing such a nice meal for us the other day!

The Worst Roads in the USA

Bad roads and bad road signs... Both are huge pet peeves of mine. This week, I followed signs twice to nowhere. And I live in this town. Drives me nuts! Coming south on I-35, I followed signs to I-44 to cut diagonally across town from NE to SW. The exit ramp "to I-44" took me directly to the turnpike to Tulsa. Nice. You can imagine my frustration when I saw that the first place to turn around (legally) was 44 miles away. So, I spent a pleasant hour and a half driving halfway to Tulsa and back.

Oklahoma has some pretty poor road signs... and terrible roads.

My first few months living here, I bent three rims on my car from water-filled pot holes. I thought Chicago was bad, but after several years of living there I never bent a rim. And the City of Chicago would actually reimburse people who bent rims due to poor streets and highways.

An acquaintance of mine blogged recently about the big traffic jam he was in a few days ago in Pennsylvania. They spent 18 hours in their car, unable to move or turn around. People were running out of gas, etc. Quite the mess. He referenced this article that ranks PA to have the 2nd worst roads in the US according to pro truckers. I don't see how that can be since I've lived in PA for half my life. Oklahoma has worse roads by far, and our "cross-town" I-40 is #5 on the worst roads in the US. PA's I-80 is #2 on the worst road list, but is also #2 on the most improved road list.

I think they got the bad rating just because they get more truckers through there than Oklahoma does.

Colts Praying after Super Bowl XLI

How cool is this? Here's a photo of the Indianapolis Colts praying after the Super Bowl XLI victory over the Chicago Bears. How awesome... Peyton Manning has had a huge impact on the team with his Christian testimony, and now the entire team impacts the world by publicly acknowleging God after winning the Super Bowl. I love it.


You really never know how you'll impact the world. Treat every person you meet and rub shoulders with as a significant world-changer.

HOUSE HEARING ON 'WARMING OF THE PLANET' CANCELED AFTER ICE STORM

Tue Feb 13 2007 19:31:25 EST

The Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality hearing scheduled for Wednesday, February 14, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building has been postponed due to inclement weather. The hearing is entitled “Climate Change: Are Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Human Activities Contributing to a Warming of the Planet?”

The hearing will be rescheduled to a date and time to be announced later.

That is just TOO funny! I heard a guy on Jay Leno last night that made good sense to me. He said basically, I'm no scientist, but you'll have to excuse me if I don't trust the accuracy of earth temperature measurements taken back 100 years ago. Even if they are accurate, we're talking about a 1.8 degree difference in average temperatures today vs. 100 years ago. Wow. No wonder everyone's really getting worked up over it! (*Sarcastic grin*)

Then he started talking about President Bush and the way he's been fighting terrorism. He made a good point when he said that he judges how well he's doing based on how long it's been since we had an incident of terrorism here on the continental USA. Do you realize it's been more than 2,000 days? Not too bad, considering the climate of terrorism in the world. I'm all for taking the fight to them and not retreating, bringing the combat zones any closer to home than they have to be.

Just my $0.02.

Those Yellow Rubber Bracelets

My "Live Strong" bracelet broke a while back. Found this online today... Is this cheaper than the original "Life Strong" bracelets? =)


The Onion is so funny...

CF Bulbs, Paintball

In the last 2 or 3 days, I think I've replaced about 30 regular incandescent bulbs around the house with compact fluorescent (CF) bulbs. If what they say on the packaging is true, we'll save about $2000 in electricity over the lifetime of these bulbs. Not too shabby.

These are the old ones. The incandescent bulbs that I hear California is trying to outlaw by 2010 or some such madness.

And here are the new CF ones.

The CF bulbs have come a long way in just a few years. They're a much more pleasant soft white light now than they were back when we tried them last. I got some "Sunlight" temperature bulbs to put in the closets, too. They are 6500K light (same color temperature as daylight) so it helps when you're picking out your clothes in the morning.

Anyway, it was a pretty fun project. I like working on things that will eventually save money, even if it costs $200 up front for all of the bulbs.

Had a fun time playing paintball with Titus (Holly's brother) and some of his friends. Here's just a small gallery of pictures, if you're looking for them, guys.

The Joys of Babies

Today has been one of "those" days already. It started out with a terrible night's sleep since Storie was up every hour to beg another meal. Then Addie woke up and erased any hopes of catching a morning nap.

The brain is a wonderful thing, erasing horrible and painful memories very efficiently. We had mostly forgotten what it's like to have a newborn in the house, but we're shocked back into reality.

How do other couples do it?! We have such a wonderful support network. Probably second to none. Seriously. I mean, Holly's Mom spent the first week back at home with us and did SO much to keep the household going. Neighbors have made and brought over multiple delicious meals with salads and desserts even! And our church gave us a really nice gift card and has brought over meals and has been praying for us... My parents are planning to come next and stay for about a week, then travel on to visit my brother in California, and then back here again for several days to help out yet again.

And with all that, we're still reduced to tears today in frustration at not being able to sleep or keep up with all that needs to be done just to live and run a household and business (and it's our slow season even!).

And here's another interesting fact... Today, and the feelings we have today, will all come back to me the moment Holly brings up the idea that maybe it's time to have another baby. I'm immediately overwhelmed with the awesome and daunting work and responsibility of it all. Not Holly, though. She thinks of all of the beautiful and cute things that come with kids. I wish we could put our heads together and combine both of our thoughts on it when it comes up in a couple of years. =)

I guess that's life, and the difference between guys and gals, if I can be so bold as to make a broad generalization like that. I know it's not always the case, but it's generally the case, I would say.

Anyway, hope I haven't completely bored you. Today is our 4th wedding anniversary, so I hope Holly can get a nap in so she might be able to enjoy going out to eat or something. The kids are headed down to Grammy & Pa Pa's house as I type. Talk about a welcome relief and an amazing support network. Maybe we'll just sleep our entire date night tonight. I can't imagine we're going to feel like watching a movie or spending a long dinner at a favorite restaurant.

Safety vs. Looks

A funny thing happens as we get older. We seem to care less and less what other people think. At least I do. I realized this today when I shamelessly put attached little circular mirrors to both our cars' side mirrors and donned my tight black circulation-socks before putting on my black velcro dress-sneakers.


Don't look too closely, my mirror is actually dirty, as it my car. Murphy's law of car-washing and weather keeps kicking in when I wash it. (Oh, and I took this photo with my camera phone, that's why it's not very good quality. Had to put that disclaimer in there. =)

Anyway, it got me thinking, life would sure be a lot easier if we learned earlier on not to really care so much what other people think. I mean, it's good to care what your spouse, parents and family think, but all too often, we care more about what our friends think. Or what total strangers think.

I saw a really nice car driving down the road last week with heavy-duty rubber adhered around the entire back and front bumper. I guess the guy likes to bump into cars as he parallel parks, or maybe he bumps his garage wall when he parks it at home. I say, "Good on ya, man!" Way to be functional and do what makes sense regardless of how your Lexus now looks. Beats repainting your bumper every 3 months.

Okay, I was joking about the compression-socks and shoes, but the mirrors are great and they're staying. I don't care what you think. =)

Happy Groundhog Day

We heard on the radio that Punxatawnie Phil (the official Groundhog Day mascot) has been right only 38% of the time. That's quite a bit better than our TV meteorologists.

So, I thought I'd just let everyone know not to worry about us during the forecasted "Deep Freeze 2007" since they turned out to be incorrect again. It's like 40 degrees outside, compared to the expected wind chill index of like -10 degrees.

Crazy meteorologists. I say we cut their base salaries and give them bonuses for every time they're right. Maybe that would give them some incentive to be accurate and stop predicting weather 2 weeks out.

I think this guy has a good idea: If groundhogs can be so accurate in predicting the 6-week forecast, why don't we use them all the time? Check out the answers... So funny!

Blogger Uploading Only 2 Photos at a Time

What's the deal with Blogger only allowing me to upload two photos at a time on the blog I host on my Prints Charming Photography site? I can upload 5 at a time on the kids' blog and on my blog, both hosted on Blogger's servers. Seems like they'd not care about limiting photos on private servers. It's just a waste of time.

If anyone knows how to change this, let me know what I can do! Thanks!