The Office - funny sitcom

I've started watching the 30 minute sitcom The Office lately after my friend Matt recommended it. This show is very funny, showing the interactions of various people inside a corporate office environment like - incompetent managers, cubicles, lunchroom gossip, and watercooler stories. If you like reading Dilbert cartoons, or liked the movie Office Space, you'll probably get a kick out of this show. It's on NBC on Tuesday nights at 8:30, after Scrubs.

Cannonball Run - legal version

My friend Enrique, who now lives in Arizona, is once again going to race in the One Lap of America. This contest has drivers from around the nation competing at many different tracks across the country. They drive from state to state, track to track, and must get to each event by a specified start time. No problem, just average 60 mph over your next 10 hour drive and you're there. But that doesn't leave much time for sleeping, showering, and eating. Hence, you better speed a little (or a lot!), watch out for cops, and get there early to do all those other things. He loves this race, I think he's nuts, but he's doing it to help raise money for his favorite charity - Save the Children. If you want to learn more, or sponsor Enrique and Save the Children, visit the site here: http://www.racingforthechildren.org

Infant and Child CPR

Bonnie and I got our Red Cross certification tonight for infant and child CPR. We pray we never have to use it, but it sure feels good knowing that we have the skills to save Ben's life if he is ever choking or is found unconscious and not breathing. On the Mpls Red Cross website we found a special family rate offered at certain locations, $50 + $25 = $75 total. Check the site and look for classes marked with: Registration Bonus! Register a second family member for only $25.00 (numbered courses only). Follow this link and scroll down to find the Infant and Child CPR classes: http://www.mplsredcross.org/Registration/cpr.asp

Inconsistent mail time sending DVDs back to Netflix

Two weeks in a row now, Netflix has shown a longer than normal delay in receiving my movies. I usually mail my movies back from work in zip code 55113. Whereas Bonnie finishes her movie, and sends back from our home mailbox in zip code 55444. This week, I mailed my movie on Monday and it did not appear until Thursday as received by Netflix. Last week, I also mailed on Monday, and they didn't see it arrive until Friday. Yet Bonnie's movies have showed as received the following day. So last week, we both sent movies back on Monday (from different zips), hers arrived to NF on Tues, she had her next movie arrive in the mail Weds, all the while mine didn't show arrived at NF until Friday. What gives?

Leaky Avent bottles

I posted this review at target.com, and figured I should share it in my blog as well.

These bottles work great when they don't leak. In our experience this happens about 50% of the times my wife and I make bottles. It's not much fun when you have a crying baby hungry for a bottle, and right when you start the feeding it leaks on your hand and the baby's neck and clothes! It should not take extra attempts to get the seal "just right" so it doesn't leak. Avent says, "don't overtighten". I say, make a product that works no matter how I tighten it, I don't have time to mess with the seal when my baby is hungry now!

Secrets to the St. Thomas parking ramp

Today I cruised over to St. Thomas for an extended lunch hour to watch a speech by Ann Coulter, best selling political conservative author. After it was over, I went back to the parking ramp to jump in my car and head back to work. Not so fast Troy! leaving the campus took about 15 extra minutes of my precious time as I watched 2 people get stuck at the gate. St. Thomas' ramp has a "simple, automated system" that works like this:
1) from skyway, take elevator down to "R1" where you walk up to a machine, insert your ticket, and pay with cash or credit for your parking.
2) get back in elevator and ride down to "R2", where you parked your car
3) as you drive out, you insert your "pre-paid" ticket again and the gate and garage door open to let you out.
This "system" works great when you have people leaving at random and they follow the signs. It is a nightmare when you have a flood of people all leaving at the same time after an event, and a select few fail to follow the signs. Two cars got to the gate and found out the hard way that they didn't pre-pay their ticket at the machine, and they had a line of a cars all waiting behind them to get out. So now we're all putting our cars in reverse as these folks try to inch back and forth to get out the way, so those of us who knew the "system" and paid our tickets could leave and get on with our lives. St. Thomas probably saves a few bucks by not paying a real person to take parking money, at the same time maybe shaving 50 cents off our costs. But at what cost to people's time and utter frustration are they achieving any success?

Adobe ColdFusion???

Today I found out that Adobe is buying Macromedia. Now there is huge buzz in the CF community about the future of CF and other MM products. It's way too early to say, but if history is any indicator, I'm not too worried. Back when Allaire merged with Macromedia, everyone in the CF community was freaked out, wondering if MM would kill CF. Instead, CF has gone thru 2 iterations, and is strong as ever. Also, Adobe does not have a competing server product, so if anything they may pump in more resources, raising the bar to go head-to-head with Microsoft's .NET and PHP open source. All in all, I'm optimistic about this acquisition. My only concern is that all the great MM employees get to stick around in the combined company, yet this is where my optimism ends, as I'm sure many will leave or be let go.

Home Depot propane sales

Last night I took Ben to the Fridley Home Depot for the first time. He enjoyed riding in the cart and looking around at all the stuff. Each time I grabbed an item to look at it, he wanted to have it, and start gumming on it, yuck! I'm sure that was the first of many trips to that store we'll make in his lifetime :) The reason I went was to swap our empty propane tank for the grill. I went to the Brooklyn Park store at 694 & Boone on Sunday, and apparently Brooklyn Park does not allow them to sell propane. I was very surprised by this, so I wrote the city and email asking them for a reason. I'll blog again if I get a response back.

Sell your stuff on CraigsList

I posted my first ever item on minneapolis.craigslist.com, and sold it two days later. This was our vanity from the 1/2 bath that got remodeled last summer during the addition project. We got our asking price of $125, so I highly recommend giving it a shot if you have anything to sell!

Sponsor me for the 2005 MS Walk

MS Walk for Barb 2005

Bonnie and I are back again this year to participate in the 2005 MS Walk on Sunday, May 1st. We missed the walk last year and hope to make up for it by raising more money than ever. This is the 6th year our family has participated and raised money to help find a cure for MS. I'm sending you this request since you've sponsored us in the past or we hope to get you to contribute this time around. Sponsoring our walk is quick, easy, and secure with online credit card donations.

As you know, Multiple Sclerosis had a first-hand effect on our family when my mom was diagnosed and fought a long battle. Her daily struggle with this awful disease ended on Nov 29, 2002 after complications with pneumonia.

Any pledge, no matter how little or how much, is greatly appreciated. To sponsor our 2005 Walk for Barb team, please do one of the following:

1) Use your credit card online at the MS Society's secured website (our team page):
https://www.nationalmssociety.org/MNM/personal/default.asp?pa=49726206&pd=MNM0EWLK20050501TWC

If you have trouble with the long URL, there is also a link from the MS Walk page on our personal website:
http://home.comcast.net/~tpullis/mswalk.html

2) If you'd prefer not to use a credit card, make a check payable to "MS Society" and mail to Troy:
Troy Pullis
308 75th Ave N
Brooklyn Park, MN 55444

For more info on MS and the walk, visit: http://www.nationalmssociety.org

Also, check with your employer to see if they will match your contribution. All donations are 100% tax deductible. You are also welcome to join us for the walk and help raise more money, just let us know and we'll help you join our team.

In memory of my mom, thanks and God Bless,
Troy & Bonnie Pullis (and Ben)

Blogging bandwagon

Since I tend to jump on bandwagons (sports, politics, etc), I figured it was time to get on the blog bandwangon and start my own. I'll talk mostly about work related stuff - ColdFusion, as well as day to day experiences such as my family, home projects, and product/services vendors. Well, that's my intro, so to quote Todd Beamer, "Let's Roll!"