Thursday, March 11, 2010

Mark's Dad and Technology...



My lovely fiancee's hobby is exploring the seemingly endless possibilities of the iPhone...and convincing his father that Mac's and iPhones are second to none. It's my favorite past time to watch this debate go down. The instructional video is for Mark's Dad, who apparently decided to buy the Verizon Wireless Droid because the salesman Googled "How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck?" with his voice and Wikipedia pulled up the info for him. Mark was in disbelief that this was the convincing factor that his father needed to decide upon buying a Droid. Mark's response was to show his Dad that he too could Google "How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck?" with the iPhone and come up with the same response. Take that, Droid.

My other favorite past time is watching Mark try and teach his Dad how to use the chat feature with Google. Just tonight we were talking with his parents and they couldn't find the video chat window, which apparently was hidden behind another window on his screen. I have included the previous chat with Mark, who is "me," and his Dad, who is "Mom." The best part about this chat is that Mark's Dad lost sound--apparently his microphone quite working (yet another reason to buy a Mac)--and the video chat conversation resorted to Mark's Dad responding with nodding yes or no. I was laughing so hard at work tears were rolling down my face.

10:05 AM
me: you there?
10:06 AM
you there?
10:07 AM
Mom: good morning
10:09 AM
me: there you are
10:10 AM
Mom: can you see me now?
me: not
i can hear you
10:11 AM
you can see me typing stuff
8 minutes
10:19 AM
me: she is at work
Mom: ok
10:20 AM
me: click next to my name and select video and more
10:22 AM
Mom: hi
me: select my name and then select video and more
initiate video chat
10:23 AM
Mom: i did
me: is you camera working
5 minutes
10:28 AM
me: you still there?
Mom: yes
10:29 AM
me: did you plug it back in?
Mom: yes
me: see why i like apple products, they just work...
can you still see me
or hear me
Mom: yes, i can hear you
10:30 AM
ok
yes, and i accepted
10:31 AM
me: good
Mom: yes
ok
10:32 AM
good
yes
no
10:33 AM
i can see my picture
me: is that a yes
or no
Mom: yes
10:34 AM
minus

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Wedding dress nightmare

"It was the best day ever!"
"I'll never forget the moment I laid eyes on my dress!"
"My mother and grandmother cried when I came out of the dressing room."
"It made me feel like a princess."

...those are definitely not thoughts that will ever come out of my mouth when referring to the day I went wedding dress shopping. While most of the wedding plans have been coming along quite smoothly, I will have to say that wedding dress shopping was one of the worst shopping experiences I've ever had. Did I mention that my mother came along?

First of all, I had expectations--not even high ones--and I should have had none. I guess I expected that I wouldn't hear my mother say "If only you were five pounds lighter" when I was standing in front of a room full of people in an uncomfortable gown, but I was wrong. To add to my nightmare, the dress I did love cost close to $1,000, which I think is a ridiculous amount of money to invest in an article of clothing that isn't supposed to prevent bullets from penetrating your skin.

So, the dress I did finally settle on looked absolutely gorgeous on me. Everyone's face lit up when I walked out of the dressing room. It just wasn't what I had pictured and it has taken me about three months to finally warm up to my decision. But now I love it. I love the birdcage veil even more, though. It was the fifth or sixth dress I tried on that day and I was already breaking out in hives just having to stand up in front of a room full of people when I tried on the dresses. Since everyone agreed it looked great, it fit my price range, and I wanted to put my normal bra back on, I quickly made my decision and got out of there as quickly as I could.

The whole dress fiasco took less than two hours. I guess I could have been humiliated, but if you knew my mother--I mean really knew her, like only close family really know her--you wouldn't expect anything less. The only thing equally as awful that day was having the sales girl describe the history of a veil and how a husband 'unwraps' his bride, his gift. Too late, I wanted to tell her and giggled instead. It's all going to be worth it, though, when I see his beautiful face and gorgeous smile as he sees me for the first time in my wedding dress.

Google Voice, my new friend

I got a new iPhone...which is so intimidating and super trendy for me, but I will have to say that I love the Whole Foods app, which chooses healthy recipes with a clickable list to check off in the store. It makes life easier, but to counteract the new cell phone bill, we canceled our long distance phone service. This is where the technology of Google Voice comes into play. If you don't know much about it, please don't ask me to explain it. Pretty much all I need to know is it's free, you call via the computer (some sort of Internet magic), and you can get your voicemails via email and those voicemails are transcribed. The transcribing is the fun part. Sometimes I make up words when I'm leaving messages for Mark at the house just to see what Google Voice can make of it. Other times I don't try hard at all and I get equally as good results. Here is a product of Google Voice transcription that I would like to share:


Molly, Rick. O'Lincoln miss once, and cup cakes and we're home upside down.