Eek, where's my money

I had my first experience with identity theft this past month. My PayPal account was compromised and someone was helping themselves to my money. What was annoying and a little frightening was that that account was tied to our debit card and so was actually taking our money out of checking. I found out when I checked my checking account to see if my economic stimulus package had bee deposited yet.

The thing that was very frightening was that I received no notice from PayPal that this was happening (not PayPal's fault by the way). Either on purpose, or by unhappy coincidence, @paypal.com had been added to my blocked senders list in my hotmail account. This meant that any message from PayPal was automatically deleted. I still don't know if my hotmail account was compromised as well. Of course, I have since changed both passwords.

Fortunately, no other information was changed and I was able to regain control of my account quickly. PayPal determined in about 5 days that the charges were fraudulent and refunded my money.

morals: do not use a debit card on line, do not have the same password to your email account as to PayPal.

utah car seat / booster seat law - finding the data

From my previous post, it is obvious that I don't like Utah's new safety seat law, but I'm willing to be wrong. Maybe the car seats offer an amazing improvement over lap and shoulder belts. Let me be clear, I plan on keeping my children in car seats until they are 8. The question is, what risk am I taking having them only restrained by seatbelts (for example, an emergency). What I want to see is the hard data. I want to see if the numbers being quoted in the news media and by proponents are fair.

What I'm looking for:

• How many restrained children between the ages of 4-8 were injured in car accidents (both seat belts and car seats)
  
• How many restrained children between the ages of 4-8 were injured in car accidents in ways directly attributed to seat belts.
• How many restrained children between the ages of 4-8 were in car accidents and not injured (restrained by seatbelts and also car seats)
• Injury rates at different car speeds
  
• As a control, the injury rates of adults sitting in the back seats of cars that were properly restrained.

Well it looks like the state farm survey answered my questions. It is very technical so this link might be more readable. Most interesting fact: while booster seats help, the single best thing you can do is have your child in the back seat. That is, children in the back seat in seat belts or booster seats did better than children in the front seat.

If you believe the surveys done by CHOP, state laws are how most parents decide how to restrain their children. That is, many parents believe that it is safe and preferred to use just a seat belt on a child over the age of 4 if the state does not mandate otherwise. I guess in that case the law is a good idea, I just wish they made more provisions for emergencies.

Other sources:
KSL - http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3187493 - mentions State Farm and Philadelphia Children's Hospital safety study
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2808436
fact sheet put out by partners to child passenger safety with sources: http://stokes.chop.edu/programs/injury/files/PCPS_Reports/CPSIR_3.pdf
The big state farm/ children's hospital study : http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/289/21/2835
bunch of pdf charts of various things like injury rates, booster seat compliance, etc.: http://stokes.chop.edu/programs/injury/educational_advocacy/reports.php
a bunch of statistics for 2007 of injury rates for children based on where they were, how far from home, etc: http://stokes.chop.edu/programs/injury/files/PCPS_Reports/2007_TraumaLinkRptEnglish.pdf
booster seat ratings: http://www.nhtsa.gov/portal/nhtsa_eou/info.jsp?type=booster

Watermellon cake

Here's the watermellon cake I made for my baby's first birthday. I think it turned out reasonably cute.

Utah Car Seats - May 5, 2008

I'm slightly peeved at the Utah State Legislature for passing HB 140. Starting on May 5, children under the age of eight will need to be in a car seat. (This is a change from the age of 5. If your child is over 57 inches, before age 8 they don't need a booster.) What bothers me about this bill is I heard nothing about this bill until it was passed. Usually bill sponsors are out there trying to get people to write to their legislators to support their bill. In this case, nothing, maybe because they knew they'd get a lot of annoyed parents. And yes, I know I should keep track of what the legislature is doing, but I didn't this time.

Now, I intended to keep my child in a car seat until she was tall enough for a regular seat belt, but it bothers me that now I have to. It makes emergency pickups of children very difficult. For example, I have a friend who cannot drive, so I occasionally pick up her son. Now I have to have an extra car seat all the time or juggle the car seat back and forth between us?

The other thing that bothers me is the statistics cited. Now that I've waited this long to complain, I can't find them again, but there was no source cited for the statistics. It was something like 2,000 kids a year die or were injured that wouldn't have if they were booster seats. I'd really like to see where those statistics come from. Is a seat belt really that much more dangerous than a booster? If anyone can point me to the orgin of these statistics I'd appreciate it.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll get over my current annoyance after a while.
Here's the only news article I could find.

April Fools

For April Fools dinner, I made a faux berry pie (really a shepard's pie) and shamburgers for dessert (really cookies). My kids weren't too thrilled by the pie, but they really wolfed down the hamburgers.

(edited 4/5/08 to add recipe links)

Roomba 510 review: Initial thoughts

Buy.com was running a deal I couldn't pass up, the Roomba 510 for around $140 (after a google checkout rebate). I guess the 510 has been discontinued, so it is available at a good price. I've been wanting a Roomba. Actually, that isn't true. Recently I've really been hating vacuuming and sweeping my floors. I read on-line reviews and decided I had to have one.

The Roomba 510 is an entry level Roomba. It wanders randomly over the floor and vacuums. It doesn't dock, schedule, or use the lighthouses. It will use the virtual wall. I do wish it could charge itself, but I wasn't willing to pay $100 to get a model that would do that. I figure for $100, I'll pick it up and plug it in.

The Roomba was bigger than I expected. In my head, I pictured something the size of a dinner plate. This is larger than that. It is about 3" tall. It feels sturdy (read heavy) when you pick it up. It isn't as loud as I had feared.

I charged the Roomba overnight like the directions said. Then I pressed the "clean" button twice and off it went. (Actually, my three-year-old son pushed the button. He'd been begging for the honor.) The first area it cleaned was the "L" shaped main level of my house consisting of my dining room (parquet floor), kitchen (vinyl), and front room (carpet). It did a great job. It was able to get under my dining room chairs and get the crumbs under the table. It was able to handle a few, small, welcome mats I have scattered around. It also went under my couch (brave robot). I was worried it would get stuck because it can only barely fit. It did get stuck once, half in and half out, but the rest of the times it manged to get out just fine.

It is much quieter than my vacuum or my my dust buster. It does have a high pitched motor noise that is a little obnoxious, but if I go up stairs, down stairs, or shut the door, I can hardly hear it.

While it was cleaning, I emptied its dust bin when I noticed Roomba seemed to be having trouble picking up dirt I could see on the floor. Boy was the bin full...three times. I comfort myself by thinking most of it must have been under the couch :) I don't anticipate having to keep an eye on its bin now that the first cleaning is done.

I quickly learned that, when emptying Roomba's bin, I needed to be holding Roomba over the trash. Dust goes flying. I also learned that everything I read in the forums is true: open the bin over the trash, clean the filter, and clean the hair off the edges of the brushes. I didn't think I'd have the "hair around the edges of the brushes" problem since I don't have pets, but I must shed more hair than I think I do, because Roomba found plenty.

I've run Roomba on every level of my house. It did a fine job. I am cautiously optimistic. I am happy with my purchase so far. I don't think it could fully replace a real vacuum, but it will keep my house cleaner. I think I will also keep my house less cluttered, since I don't want Roomba to bump into things. And now I don't have to pick up AND vacuum.

Problems:

• Stand up fan - I have a big stand up fan that has a sloping base. Roomba climbs up on that and gets stuck
• Bathroom rugs - the rugs in my bathroom move around easily. Roomba got suck in my bathroom because he pushed up the rug and thought it was a wall. I think this problem only happens with rugs that move. If rugs stay put, he handles them just fine.
  
• Used fabric softener sheets - I had a bunch of these on the floor of my room since I fold laundry on my bed. The sheets fall down and I don't always pick them all up right away. Roomba got these stuck in all sorts of weird places, including one jamming its wheel.
  
• Couch - My couch has a curved W shaped bottom. Roomba can fit under one side, but just barely. He got stuck one time, but has made it out several times.
  

Successes:

• Couch - My couch has a curved W shaped bottom. Roomba can fit under one side, but just barely. He got stuck one time, but has made it out several times. Sitting on the couch while Roomba cleans underneath it is a weird experience.
  
• Under my bed - I haven't cleaned under there since about 2005. It went under there and industriously cleaned.
• Stairs - It is so fun watching it go right up the edge of my stairs and turn around.
  
• Best find in Roomba's bin - small orange plastic frog about 1.5". It also found a pin from one of my husband's shirts. I'm grateful Roomba found it and not my foot.
  
• Best find - Roomba pushed out from under my bed the case to my children's Uno cards. I've been looking for that for a month.
  

Crock pot bean soup

This is a recipe I came up with. The red beans will make their own broth that "feels" meaty.

1 c small red beans
1/2 c pinto beans
1/2 c garbanzo beans (or chick peas)
1/4 of a bunch of cilantro, tied
1 small can diced green chillies
1 med onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp chilli powder
1 sprinkle crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp. cumin
1 can beef broth

night before (optional): put beans in crock pot and cover with about 1" water.

next day: add all other ingredients and cook on high 2 hrs. or until beans soften, then cook on low until dinner time. Remove cillantro bundle and discard. Garnish with chopped cilantro if desired.

You can also just start this the day of. If you start beans around 1:00 on high, they will be done by dinner time. pre-soaking just speeds up cook time. Watch this recipe because if the beans absorb all the water, there won't be any broth for the soup :)

Americanized version of Baba's Cabbage Soup

This is based on a recipe I got from my grandmother of a soup her mother (Baba) used to make. I simplified it and left out things I hate like sour kraut and lima beans :) It involves pork ribs, cabbage, beans, and potatoes and is a great comfort food. My kids eat it like crazy.

Baba's Cabbage Soup (Americanized)

1/2 bag Coleslaw mix
4 med potatoes, pealed and diced
1 can white beans (great northern, etc.), rinsed and drained
1 med onion, diced
1 can chicken broth
later: 1 pack pork ribs (bone in preferred)

mix ingredients in soup pot and let simmer until potatoes are tender, about 30 min. - 1 hr.

mash potatoes, I just stick a fork in the pot and squish some of the potatoes.

Add in pork ribs and cook an additional 2 hrs. Add additional broth or water if needed.

Pepper to taste.

This soup will be very think, more like a stew. Add more chicken broth if it is too thick.

Mother's Day Vase with cute flowers

I made the cutest Mother's Day presents for my mom and mother-in-law. (If you are my mom or mother-in-law stop reading now, unless you really want to know what you are getting.) I made a flower arrangement of grandchildren. This was one of those projects that actually came out as cute as I had hoped. I got the idea from a Paper Crafts magazine. I also lucked out because Michael's had a big sale, so I got the vase and rocks at a great price. See the finished product here.

materials:
vase
river rocks
rub-ons for the vase
bamboo skewers (like the ones you grill with)
ribbon
scallop punch
2 circle punches that nest in the scallop (or a colluzzle) (1 3/4" and 1 1/4")
pattern paper and coordinating card stock (I used pretty in pink, real red, bashful blue, apricot appeal, and wild wasabi from stampin' up)
pictures of people small enough to fit inside the smallest size circle punch
optional:
small ladybug or butterfly stamp

Directions
1. Apply rub-on to vase. Put rocks in vase, you'll want it about 3/4 full unless you are putting Styrofoam at the bottom. Tie ribbon around jar neck.
2. To make the flowers, Punch scallops out of pattern paper. Punch larger circles out of coordinating cardstock. Punch out pictures using smallest circle punch.
3. Glue picture into circle, then the circle onto the scallop.
4. Cut the bamboo skewer to the desired height. (I used a pair of garden shears.)
5. Glue flowers to skewers. (I used glue and a glue dot.)
6. Make leaves by punching out circles with either size of circle punch then cutting in half. Glue the halves together at an angle so they make a wide "V". Attach leaves to skewer.
7. optional: Stamp ladybug or butterfly and cut it out. Glue it to one of the flowers.
7. Place flowers in vase as desired.

My Stampin' Up haul

My friend and I hosted a stampin' up party about a week ago and our goodies have arrived. I got a few stamp sets, watercolor crayons, and a mat pack (oh, and new blender pens). I really like the watercolor crayons so far. The main thing I don't like is that using them is like coloring with crayons, so it is harder for me to be precise, but I can handle that with a blender pen. The main thing I love is that everything I color looks so much better because all the colors in one family go together. I'm looking forward to playing with them some more.

Spinach Garlic dip

I made this for my stampin' up party yesterday. It was so good. It is based on this recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/118103

Ingredients

1/2 large package frozen spinach , thawed and drained (about 200 grams)
1 (250 g)package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup onions , chopped
4 garlic cloves , minced
1/2 cup cheddar cheese , shredded

Directions

Blend all ingredients in food processor, except cheddar cheese, adding as much milk as necessary for a smooth and creamy consistency. (I used one clove of garlic and the rest garlic powder. I used a garlic press and crushed the clove over the cream cheese then added garlic powder until I liked the taste)
Spread in pie plate and top with shredded cheddar cheese.
Bake at 375F for 20 - 35 minutes or until heated through and cheddar cheese is melted.
Serve with pita crisps, crackers or tortilla chips.

I made this ahead of time and let it sit uncooked in the refrigerator until it was time cook.

Cute Baby

My baby is now nine and a half months old. She is starting to babble. I was worried because she wasn't babbling for quite a while, but I think that was because she was perfecting her pincer grasp. Anyway, here's an exchange we had while I was changing her diaper:
Me: You're a wet baby.
Baby: wababa
Me: Yes, you're a wet baby.
Baby: wababa
Me: Now you're a dry baby.
Baby: dababa

Babies are so fun. She also grabs by hands to play pat-a-cake. She won't clap her hands, apparently mine are much better.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

My kindergartener said something interesting the other day. She mentioned how her teacher hadn't been born when King was alive. The same is true for me. This means the civil rights movement is now in the time of grandparents. I remember going to school and some of the older teachers had marched in the demonstrations, my parents remembered the times. Those events didn't seem that long ago to me. To my children though, it will seem forever ago, like World War II seemed to me when I was young. Equal Rights for African Americans, to my daughter, won't seem like something recent, but the way things have always been. And maybe that is the way it should be.

Utah Republican's Worst Nighmare

I've been watching the caucus results in various states (huckabee will win...no wait McCain will win...wait Romney will win...) and I've come up with the worst possible combination for my voting: Hillary vs. Huckabee. I don't think I could vote for either of them. I've never liked Ms. Clinton and Huckabee lost my vote when he started underhandedly attacking Romney over religion. If those are my choices, I may have to vote for Dave Barry. I think he's running again this year as a write-in candidate.

review of the nokia n800

I'm typing this review from my Nokia n800's thumb pad and so far it isn't too bad. Far better reviews than mine have been written, so I'm going to list the pros and cons. I am running os 2008.
pro:

- screen is nice
- handles flash reasonably well-I can watch Chuck previews
- much more stable than my Dell Axim- couldn't run that pda without it running out of memory
- on-screen thumbpad so I don't have to type with the sylus
- runs blogger, mostly
- plays flash games on PBSKids (actually, this is probably a con since my children think it is cooler to play on mom's n800)
- battery life is reasonable
- can use autocomplete as a spell checker
- charger is a cell phone-like plug-in charger (much better than dell's weird plug)
- can run a bunch of Palm software with its emulator

cons:
- my thumbs must be small because it doesn't autodetect I'm using my thumbs. (but I can push the button in the center of the dpad to make it come up)
- video has to be re-encoded to play well on it
- no equivalent of jawbreaker available for it yet (Update 12/31/07: found one that runs on Garnet VM)
- lots of cool software, but a lot of it is in beta (but then in linux you come to expect that
- no always visible clock/time/date
- a little too big. This was the trade-off for a larger screen. In its case (see hint below), it doesn't fit in my purse, although I expect it will some day when I don't have to keep a diaper and a pull-up in there.

hints:
Wal-mart has a case for the Nintendo ds lite that fits the n800. It cost me $7. Take your n800 with you since not all ds lite cases will fit.

Nokia n800 links

This seems to be the easiest way to keep track of random things I want to remember about the nokia n800:

• Good forum: http://www.internettablettalk.com
• how to video call/ video conference: http://www.rahulnair.net/blog/2007/05/02/video-chat-on-the-nokia-n800-internet-tablet/
• how to turn off auto-capitalization on n800: http://madabar.com/techblog/2007/12/08/updating-the-n800-to-os2008/ (short answer) Panel->Text Input->Languages->Settings->Auto-capitalisation

this is a test from my nokia n800

I bought a nokia n800 and really like it so far. The thumb keyboard is ok for short messages, but I wouldn't want to write “War and Peace” on it

Circuit City ships fast

I've been pleasantly surprised at the speed of circuit city's free shipping. I bought a christmas present for my husband and it was here in three or four days. I ordered a present for me on black Saturday and it is here by Wednesday. That means it got here in 5 days with a weekend in there. To me that is really good.

Upgrade my PDA? on finding a portable wifi media device

I'm considering upgrading from my Dell Axim x30. I like it. But it has been flaking out recently. (Note: since I've started looking at other devices it suddenly decided it had 2 more megs of memory and has stopped crashing so much.) I really do like my Axim. It does everything I want it to, at least most of the time. Since it is older it has started having trouble with flash-based webpages (ebay crashes it almost every time). With Christmas and my birthday coming up, I decided to take a look around and see if there were any devices worth upgrading to. First thing I learned was that Dell has stopped making Axims. Oh well.

The devices I came across that mostly fit my needs were the nokia n800, the iPod touch, the Asus 626, the archos 605, and the Sony mylo.

I've noticed I really don't use the PDA functions of my Axim much. It might be because text entry is such a pain in the fanny. The hand writing recognition just doesn't work for me, so I'm typing on the little key board with the stylus. This means I use it for reading email, but not responding.

Features I want:

1. can read ebooks
   
2. Wi-fi
3. email
4. rss
   
5. general web browsing
6. flash support
7. resonable text entry
   
8. decent battery life
   
9. internet videos (like homestarrunner.com and nbc.com)
   
10. music and movies
11. can add on programs
    

Here's the devices I've found so far that might work. They all fall in the $200-300 range and have WiFi:

1. Nokia n800 (internet access device)
2. iPod touch (media player)
3. Asus mypal a626 (PDA)
4. Archos 605 (media player)
5. Sony Mylo

Note: please be aware that except for the Axim x30 I do not own any of the above mentioned products. I'm basing my reviews on my needs and the reviews of others.

Products in depth:

Product Name: Dell Axim x30
Size: 3 in x 0.6 in x 4.8 in
Screen Size: 3.2, 240 X 320
Weight: 4.9 oz
Battery life: 4 hrs. 30 min, or 2.5 hrs according to mobile review
opperating system: Windows Mobile 2003 2nd Edition
memory: 64 MB, 64 mb ram
memory expansion type: SD
browser: Pocket Internet Explorer
flash: sort of
formats supported: mp3, wma, .txt,
text entry: stylus
quirks:
websites: cnet



1. Product Name: Nokia n800 Internet Tablet PC
Size: 5.7 x 2.95 x 0.5 inches (WxHxD)
Screen Size: 4.1 inch (800 X400 pixel)
weight: 7.27 oz
Battery life: 3 hours
opperating system: Maemo
memory: 256 MB flash, 128 MB RAM
memory expansion type: SD (2 slots, 2 gig limit)
browser: Opera
flash: flash 7
formats supported: AAC, AMR, MP2, MP3, WAV, WMA, Real Audio
text entry: stylus, touch screen keyboard
quirks: video play back issues, lots of free programs available, video camera
websites: cnet, amazon

2. Product Name: Apple ipod Touch
Size: 4.3 x 2.4 x 0.31
Screen Size: 3.5 inch,
Weight: 4.2 ounces
Battery life: 6 hours
opperating system: apple
memory: 8 gig
memory expansion type: None (no extra slots)
browser: safari
flash: no
formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible 2, Audible 3, Audible 4, Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF, mpeg-4
text entry: touch screen
quirks: can't paste text, you tube player which means safari can't handle youtube
websites: cnet, amazon

3. Product Name: Asus mypal a626
Size: 2.8 x 0.6 x 4.6 inches
Screen Size: 3.5-inch TFT LCD touchscreen with 65k colors, 240 x 320-pixel resolution (QVGA)
Weight: 5.57 ounces
Battery life: 4.5 hrs
opperating system: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0
memory: 128 MB Flash ROM and 64 MB SDRAM
memory expansion type: SD
browser: Pocket IE
flash:
formats supported: MP3, WMA
text entry: Stylus
quirks:
websites: zdnet, mobile review, amazon

4. Product Name: Archos 605
Size: 5.1 x 3 x 0.65 inches (W x H x D)
Screen Size: 4.3 in, 480 x 272
Weight: 9.5 oz
Battery life: 4.7 hours
opperating system:
memory: 4 gig
memory expansion type: SD
browser: Opera (extra $30)
flash: yes
formats supported: MP3, WAV, WMA, protected WMA, JPEG, BMP, PNG, MEGP-4, and WMV
text entry: touch screen
quirks: have to pay for other features, doesn't appear to do email
websites: cnet, amazon

5. Product Name: Sonly Mylo
Size: 4.8 in x 0.9 in x 2.5 in Screen Size: 2.4-inch LCD display (320 x 240 resolution),
Weight: 5.3 oz
Battery life:
opperating system: linux (closed source)
memory: 1 Gig
memory expansion type: memory stick pro duo
browser: opera
flash: no
formats supported: MP3, WMA, ATRAC3
text entry: keyboard
quirks: for college students, doesn't seem like it will do ebooks
websites: cnet, decent review

Conclusion:
if I upgrade, it would probably be to a Nokia n800 or the asus mypal 626

Birthday list 2007

OK, it's November, here's my birthday list (it's much shorter thanks to all the early birthday presents):

• Sound of Music DVD
• spectrum pad (stamp pad with multiple colors)
• aqua painter size medium or large (it's a pen that holds water for watercoloring)
• stamp scrubber and stamp cleaner
• metalic colored eyelets
• buttons (all shapes/sizes/colors)
• flying cow (http://www.handhelditems.com/slingshot-flying-with-sound-p-5064.html)
  

I can dream (aka really expensive):

• willow creek nativity
  
• winter carols nativity
• breadmaker that will make 2 lb loaf
• trip to hawaii