Radiant Rachel Reflecting on Ruby, Rails, Righteous Rants and Random Rubbish
Archive for August, 2009
Dent Fitty
August 17, 2009
in Cars
Some other damage done
Rear wheel missing
A few months ago, while I was sleeping soundly in my apartment above, some thieves had the gall to ransack my poor, dear, Honda Fit and remove its rear wheels. SIGH! They had attempted to get all the wheels but only managed to get two before someone spooked them off. Fast forward a bit after GEICO refused to pay for damages because of this stupid New York State law I wasn’t privy to, I’m now stuck with a semi-ugly car. I still love her though.
As things calm down a bit with what I want to do with my office and other apartment-related stuff- it’s probably about time I try and quantify what it is I need to get fixed on my baby.
- 2 New chrome wheels to replace the temporary ones
- Fix the molding that was broken by the thieves and their stupid jack
- Fix the puncture hole I made from slowly rolling into a truck’s hitch
- Paint touch ups
- Try and fix the dent caused by the ceiling panel falling on my car. (grr)
- Repair the rust spots and dings on back bumper from when I backed into the Taurus and the basketball hoop back from whenever I still lived at home (we had too many cars in the driveway that day!)
- Get a back seat cover so Izzie’s flying fur stays under control
- Get a seatbelt harness for Izzie so I don’t have to cram her kennel in the trunk and I can actually use the trunk for luggage
Okay, so the last two aren’t fixes but they are things I want to do to get my car back into peak condition! 
Last week Adam showed me a new site called DentBetty.com and it looks so promising! Unfortunately, it is so damn new that no one from my area in New York (or anywhere I’d be willing to go) has entered their body shop in the database yet so I can’t really compare quotes.
Oh well, I guess I’ll just work on getting the wheels fixed and pimping it out so Izzie can ride in style. 
Adventure Weekend
August 17, 2009
in Adventures
Can't you tell we're sisters?
My sister Jennifer graduated from college in the spring and recently moved to Philadelphia for her new job post-graduation. She lives about 2- 2.5 hours away from my place so we have been talking about how easy it should be for us to visit each other every few weekends. Since her apartment doesn’t allow dogs and she’s still trying to unpack, I suggested that she visit me first so I didn’t have to make special arrangements for Isabella.
I had plans to hang out with some of my Westchester Geeks Friday night and see District 9 (which was great by the way) and she timed it to coincide with us just getting out of the movie. Poor Jenn. The trip wasn’t long, but if you knew her you’d understand. I doubt if she’ll ever drive up again to visit because she now absolutely despises paying tolls and using the George Washington Bridge.
Traffic and car trips aside, Adam came along and over the weekend we decided to take a trip to the Bronx Zoo and get some beach time in. On Saturday we all managed to sleep in to a relaxing hour and then organized ourselves to get down to the Bronx Zoo which is only about a 20 minute ride away. Luckily, this weekend was in rare form and it was quite sunny and warm!
Tiger working through enrichment activities.
Last time I went to the Bronx Zoo was with Adam and it was either soon to be winter, winter, or just getting out of winter and there was very little to see except for the big Siberian Tiger which I had re-learned is a winter-loving animal and thus most active in the winter. Luckily for us he decided to come down that afternoon to do enrichment activities with the trainers at the sanctuary.
We also got a chance to see some swimming puffins and bee-catcher birds who could catch insects on the wing. They did a demonstration for us at the zoo but because they had been overfeeding the birds since little hatchlings needed every opportunity to be fed, the birds weren’t dive bombing as much today.
After a long walk the park was closing and I suggested to take Jenn to my favorite Korean BBQ restaurant in New York City for dinner. We managed to find “cheap” parking and had a nice dinner cooked in front of us on the burner (the first time Jenn had a chance to do it.)
On Saturday, Adam had to wake up early for his Rescue hours on Long Island so he stole my car and sped off. Jenn and I took our time and slept in until almost noon! We then got our stuff together and drove down to Long Island for some beach therapy. It was a nice afternoon/early evening and managed to nap some more while sun bathing. We finished the day with some pizza and I sent her back, begrudgingly, towards the GWB and on her way home.
1 Year Checkup
I was hoping to make a post about Izzie and how much she has grown in the short time I’ve had her and come back from the vet with a clean bill of health, but unfortunately not!
I got Isabella from her breeder last June, so now Izzie and I have been best buds for more than a year now. She was due for her yearly checkup and rabies and parvo yearly vaccinations. I had told the vet that she has been bitten by a lot of ticks since we moved into our apartment and that I wanted the Lyme disease test done on her just in case.
The test he did checked for four tick borne diseases (ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease.) After a few minutes (the test was to take at least 10) he already started to see in the test that it was coming up positive for anti-bodies responding to a A. phagocytophilum infection (part of the ehrlichiosis test.)
This bacteria causes lethargy and joint pain in the dog. Luckily, Izzie hasn’t shown any of those symptoms yet, but the vet said that if left untreated should could be put in a lot of pain over the years. Why do that to my best friend? The next step was either to watch and wait, do more blood work to see if it is indeed a large infection ($200-$300) or hit her with the antibiotics anyway ($30.) I think you already know which one I chose. I am not sure why my vet would even suggest more costly blood work when a simple, cheap, antibiotic will clear it right up. :-p
So, I throw in 1 1/2 pills into some peanut butter once a day for her and I’ll have to do it for a month. Hopefully, she’ll be A-OK. But now what am I supposed to do about the crazy amount of ticks around my apartment? I talked to some of the other dog owners in the apartment complex and they have all been complaining about the amount of ticks around. We all use a flea and tick treatment on our dogs but we still see them. One lady called up the manufacturer and complained and they responded that the treatment is 99.99% effective. If the dog is getting ticks it means that you have an INFESTATION of ticks in your complex. UGH.
I think I am going to have to formally complain to the management today and see that they spray around the entire complex and not just around your own apartment. Apparently they only spray bug killer if you request and only around your apartment not the whole complex. Too bad for us owners that walk our dogs all over the place! 
Making the Blogenning Easier (Maybe?)
August 14, 2009
in Ruby & Rails, Tech
I’ve been promising this for a while but with regular life and headaches taking over my free time… I have been less than productive. But fear not! I DO have an update. I think I basically have the first version of the “Blogenning” software I’ve been talking so much about right now.
For the time being it will be hosted at http://blogenning.rachelober.com/. Not to be self-serving, but it is easiest for me to update it. I spoke with Brandon and we both thought that if it worked well enough we could each chip in a buck and buy ourselves a proper domain to house the insanity.
Features:
- User login and administration
- Add “rounds”, “entries” for rounds, and “users” for entries
- Main page lists the rounds starting from most recent to oldest entries
On the to do list:
- Registering and password retrieval
- “Special” statuses for “trend setters” and “bastards” (these are inside-jokes for people NOT in the Blogenning)
- API stuff so that a plugin for WordPress and Drupal can add rounds and entries
- User account stuff so you guys can change your password
Also, if you know ruby on rails or want to get in on designing the beast (I refuse to do any complicated CSS for this at this point *looks at Jaco and hopes his artistic sense may help with this one*)… you can join our GitHub site and ask to be put on the development team so you can have some input. Yay!
For the time being only my entries are entered into the database so you’re going to have to add your own damn entries because I’m much too lazy to do everyone’s. Once I get password retrieval working on the site, I have all of your user accounts made, so then you can just do a password retrieval and your password will be emailed to you.
The Story of Izzie and Minty
August 14, 2009
in Pets
A baby Izzie and Minty
When Isabella was a baby and i first brought her home, her breeder sent her off with a small mint-colored stuffed squeaky bear. We named him “Minty.” He immediately became Izzie’s favorite toy.
Before Isabella started to fill into her adult body, her baby bark was very shrill and could be heard through the whole house. My dad was the most irritated of all and would bark back at Izzie and tell her to stop.
Shamed, but not to be outdone, Izzie would grab Minty in her mouth and instead of barking, would squeeze Minty repeatedly from under the kitchen table. While we ate dinner all we heard was… “squeak squeak squeak squeak… squeak squeak!”
Unamused, but defeated, my father decided this irritation was better than broken ear drums.
The friendship lasted for months until Izzie had figured out how to rip the innards from Minty’s bowels and was sad to realize that he no longer squeaked. Being the good mommy I am, I went a-searching on the intar-webs and found a store online that sold these silly squeaker toys for under a dollar each. Not only that, but for each one you bought you got one for free.
Suffice it to say, I now have a large collection of “Mintys” for Izzie to play with.
Every few months she’ll get bored with just squeaking the damn thing and decides it’s time to play doctor. She’ll rip him apart and pull all the stuffing out and rip each stitch out like a trained professional.
Izzie and What's Left of Minty
Eventually, for the safety of her stomach (and my carpets) I’ll take his corpse and dispose of him in the nearest trash receptacle. I’ll wait a week or so later again, and then I am the hero once more when I “resurrect” Minty, all well and unscathed, for Izzie to squeak once more.
She runs down the hallway squeaking and giddy, gets to the bedroom and throws Minty into the air and catches him only to quickly tear into him and rip his poor little ear off. And the cycle continues…
