FABOO MAMA

NHRA Museum at the Fairplex

Did you know that there is an NHRA Museum on site at the Fairplex in Pomona? I didn’t. All these years and I had no idea. When we went to the LA County Fair on Saturday, we stumbled upon this place. It’s packed full of racing history. Admission was $1 for adults and frankly, should be more. The place is detailed in racing history, complete with roadsters, motorcycles and drag racers from the beginning of racing history on down to today.

Melrose Missle III

Helmets

Original Batmobile

Wally Parks

Bench with racing stickers

Engine

Humor / Pop Culture / Quotes — Comments
02
Sep 09

MMMMMM MMMMM bitch!

Humor / People / idiocy — Comments
02
Sep 09

headdesk

I just had the most painful conversation of the week:

Me: I’m calling to confirm that the appoitment for my son is today is at 1:30.

Receptionist: What’s your name?

Me: It’s a Anika, but the appointment is for my son

Receptionist: Oh. Okay. What’s your name?

I start spelling my name.

Receptionist: I can’t find it.

Me: You asked me for my name. This appointment is for my son. I just want to make sure it’s for today and not tomorrow.

Receptionist: Didn’t you write it down?

Me: I put it in my phone, but the girl I spoke to said something like, “It’s set up for the 2nd, I mean the 3rd” or vice versa.

Receptionist: Your son’s name is Vice Versa?

Me: What? [laughs] No, his name is Alton.

Receptionist: Oh. What is his first name?

Me: That is his first name.

Receptionist: Oh, that’s a weird first name.

Me [thinking]: This coming from a lady who thought Vice Versa was a name???

Me: Anyway…is his appointment today or tomorrow?

Receptionist: Spell his name.

Me: [spells name]

Receptionist: Has he been here before?

Me: No.

Receptionist: Oh, okay. Then we won’t have him in the system.

Me: [sigh] Look. I set up an appointment for him last week. It’s either today at 1:30 or tomorrow at 1:30. You will not make me believe that since he’s never been there before, he’s not listed for an appointment. That makes no sense.

Receptionist: Oh. Um. Okay. It’s today at 1:30.

Me: *headdesk*

Uncategorized — Comments
02
Sep 09

Cheating hair

As we drove the streets of Oakland, I was discussing with a friend about why I keep my dreadlocks a certain length and had been considering cutting them a bit shorter. At a stop light we saw an older lady with long, grey dreadlocks.

“See, that’s what I want”, I said. “Grey dreadlocks. I live for that day. After that, maybe I’ll cut my hair short.”

My friend had cut her dreads off back in ‘03 after 12 years of having them. She replied, “Yes, I love that look. I think maybe when my hair turns grey, I’ll lock it up again.”

“But that’s cheating!”, I exclaimed.

“No, it isn’t. My hair will be grey no matter how I wear it”, she answered.

Still, somehow I think it’s cheating.

Los Angeles / Nature — Comments
01
Sep 09

Moon Sept. 1, 2009

Kids — Comments
27
Aug 09

She’s a swimmer now

I’m a hands-off sort of parent. I don’t believe in doing things for my kids, preferring they figure it out themselves. It makes for frustrating times, but the payoff when it clicks is well worth it. Ilia’s been in swim class for 6 weeks now. The first couple of weeks, was her just getting used to being wet. She’s a stubborn one and doesn’t pay attention to my directions at all. So, there were a lot of tears and frustrations on both our parts. Eventually, it clicked and she was willing to explore more. The brightest day was when she learned the backstroke. She’s a natural at it, even her instructor was impressed by the form and quickness. Still, she was wearing the swim belt.

As we walked toward the building, on Tuesday, Ilia turned to me said, “I’m going to swim without the swim belt today.” I smiled, “That would be wonderful”, I replied. To my shock, once we got to the pool, she jumped into the water and started doing something she had been unable or unwilling to do before: She swam. She kicked her feet, face in the water, and moved. WOW! I can not even begin to explain how proud of this stubborn yet scared little girl just getting it. She wants to continue. She wants to learn to dive. She wants to compete.

Books — Comments
21
Aug 09

Just Read: Contact by Carl Sagan

Contact by Carl Sagan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I like the movie Contact. True, it’s simplistic, but it’s a fun watch. I realized that we owned the book all this time, yet I had never read it. It’s *amazing* how different, yet similar the book is to the movie. I sort of understand why changes were made, but I do believe the book gave us a more dynamic, yet less sympathetic Dr. Arroway.

One thing I liked was how we followed Ellie Arroway from childhood through the entire message part. Getting a lot more about Ellie’s background made it easier to understand why she was so hollow. Another think I liked in the book was that the religious debates were toned down. To me, the movie kind of hit you over the head with trite arguments.

If you like the movie, I suggest you read the book. If you haven’t watched the movie, I still suggest this book as a good read.

View all my reviews >>

Fitness / Shopping / Technology — Comments
16
Aug 09

If I don’t get the Forerunner 405CX, I will die

Garmin Forerunner 405CX

I like my little Sportsline watch/heartrate monitor, but I really, really, really want need the Garmin Forerunner 405CX. I am…obsessed with this watch. I mean, I visit the website every other day.

As you may know, I track my workouts on MapMyFitness.com. All of my running routes and EA Sports Active workouts can be found there. When I’m running, I try to keep track of my heartrate. The only problem is that there’s usually an hour lag between the end of the run and the time I can actually input my data. This means that sometimes things are forgotten. If I had the Forerunner, I won’t ever have to remember! I can just connect it to my computer and upload the information to MapMyFitness.

Loaded with serious training features, Forerunner 405CX continuously records your time, distance, pace, calories burned and heart rate. Each workout is stored in memory so you can review and analyze the data to see how you’ve improved. And advanced training features will challenge you to step up your pace — race against Forerunner’s Virtual Partner® to improve your times, or set up interval workouts without having to circle the track. You can even download recorded courses to compete against previous workouts.

How can I resist that? How can I not own this perfect piece of gadgetry?

This will save me from having to remember what my route was when I ran. No more guessing. And as much fun as entering routes on MapMyFitness can be, it can also be pretty tedious. Uploading those routes would save me a large amount of hassle.

I need this watch.

Social Media — Comments
10
Aug 09

My self-serving thoughts on Facebook acquiring FriendFeed

I got back from swimming today, opened the laptop and a flood of ‘OH NOES!’ rained down on my feed. Facebook has acquired FriendFeed. In the grand scheme of things, this doesn’t rate, but as a FriendFeed user, it’s pretty big. Congratulations to the FriendFeed team.

FriendFeed is one of those sites that just does it right. I’m not 100% pleased with it, but it’s easy and straightforward to use. There’s no guessing at what does what. And it’s easy to manage your content. I use FriendFeed as a Twitter search. I use it as a micro-blog. I use it as a profile introduction. Most importantly, I use it for conversations. The conversations I have on FriendFeed would *never* happen on Facebook.

I do not make it a secret that I detest Facebook with a passion. It’s one of the clumsiest and stupidest user interfaces I have ever seen online. There’s no way to track your comments, there’s no rhyme or reason why this link leads to that page. Even privacy features to loaded under layers and layers of crap. And while Facebook has lifted many features from FriendFeed, they still did it wrong. It is my hope that the FriendFeed team unburdens the Facebook mess and brings innovation to the site.

What does this mean for my FriendFeed account?

FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being. We’re still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team. As usual, we will communicate openly about our plans as they develop — keep an eye on the FriendFeed News group for updates.

What worries me is what happens to my content; my comments, my entries, the crossposting I’ve done to this blog and others. Where does that go besides Google cache? There is a reason I do not have Facebook imported onto my FriendFeed stream. There is a reason, I don’t post my FriendFeed content to Facebook.

I do not want it on Facebook. If I wanted it on Facebook, it would have been posted there in the first place.

FABOO MAMAInside the mind of an opinionated mama…