★ January 16, 2013 ★

Had to run to the station yesterday evening to check up on something, but unfortunately couldn't stay. I didn't even go in, just had to check something in the parking lot. Drove in, drove out. The FD got toned out to another EMS call last night RIGHT before the meeting, I took out a hot cocoa packet for breakfast (at some late hour of the evening) & didn't even make it. Pete got home before I got to it & then I forgot about it today. Maybe I'll remember in the morning tomorrow. I managed to clean the house yesterday. I only got 5 pre-planned things done yesterday, same as the day before. I did manage to clean the bathroom counter, change all the bedding, blew the dust out of the knitting machine, did 4 loads of laundry, finished what Kyle half did in the kitchen, dining room, & pets. After that Pete got home & we had a quick dinner & watched NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, & something else.

My memory is failing me at the moment. We got to bed really late, but I really needed to unwind in front of the TV after the day I had. Got a late start on today & so far have only gotten THREE pre-planned things done. I'm backsliding here. Not good. The FD got 2 early morning EMS calls. When I woke up, even though it was later than usual, I did manage to load up Sims & finally relax for the 1st time in days. I

crawled into the Matrix & unwound. I finished another bathroom in Breckenridge & then loaded up another house I built a while back called Coventry. My 3rd gen Sim Piper aged up & her final trait became no sense of humor. She decided to be a Hit Movie Composer (Symphonic Branch). She married Colin Whipple (she met him in school). They had a son, Joel Whipple (4th gen). He's friendly & a loner. A Libra who likes songwriter music, tri-tip steak, & the color black. Right before I shut the game down for the day, it turned into summer with a warm 82° @ 8:a. During the game I received a very sad phone call. Terrible news for our family. I won't get into that here though. If you are very close with us, you already know. If not, ask & I'll tell you privately. I picked Josh up from work, came back & did the banking, then spent some time on the phone. When I got off the phone I noticed an e-mail come in for a television I was inquiring about, so we went to pick it up. A nice 32" stereo television that's now in the bedroom. It's HUGE in there, we'll sure have no problem seeing it! It's not a flat screen, but it's crystal clear & works great. After I was done unloading & setting it up, I checked the time & here I am. Calmer now, but still super busy (it's after 8:p ... I'm almost 12 hours behind). No school Monday.

1st roller coaster ever built was in Coney Island, N.Y. On that ride, passengers had to disembark halfway through so attendants could push the coaster up the incline. Then, they could re-board & continue the ride once the cart had cleared the hill.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

Assess your financial health: Look up your credit score, check your balances, & review your retirement accounts.

Entertainer Bill Cosby's son murdered along CA interstate (1997):

On this day in 1997, comedian and TV star Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son Ennis Cosby is murdered after he stops to fix a flat tire along California's Interstate 405 in Los Angeles. The 405, which runs some 70 miles from Irvine to San Fernando, is known as one of the planet's busiest and most congested roadways. Construction began on Interstate 405 in the late 1950s, with the first section opening in the early 1960s.

At approximately 1 a.m. on January 16, 1997, Ennis Cosby, a graduate student in special education at Columbia University Teachers College who was on vacation in Los Angeles, was driving a Mercedes-Benz convertible on Interstate 405 when he pulled off to Skirball Center Drive to change a flat tire. A Ukrainian-born teenager, Mikhail Markhasev, and two friends were at a nearby park-and-ride lot using the phone. Markhasev, reportedly high on drugs, approached Cosby to rob him but when Cosby took too long to hand over money he was shot and killed. Ennis Cosby was the third of Bill Cosby's five children and said to be the inspiration for the character of Theo Huxtable on the hit TV sitcom "The Cosby Show," which originally aired from 1984 to 1992.

In August 1998, Markhasev, then 19, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for Cosby's murder. During his trial, Markhasev reportedly showed no remorse for his crime; however, in 2001, he confessed his guilt, stopped his appeals process and apologized to the Cosby family.

Prior to the Cosby roadside homicide, Interstate 405 was in the news as the scene of the famous June 17, 1994, televised, low-speed police chase involving former football star O.J. Simpson in a white 1993 Ford Bronco driven by his former college teammate Al Cowlings. Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman had been found brutally murdered days earlier, on June 12. Simpson was later arrested for the murders. However, following a highly publicized trial, a jury found him not guilty on October 3, 1995.

Fanhattan:

As seen in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and PCMag Top 100 Apps: Fanhattan puts all of your favorite entertainment apps in one place so you can stop searching for your favorite movies and shows, and start watching them on your iPad or iPhone. With one-stop access to your favorite apps: HBO, Netflix, Hulu Plus, iTunes, NBC, Lifetime, Cinemax, PBS and more – Fanhattan lets you find, follow and watch movies and shows, and even build a universal WatchList so you can get alerts the moment new episodes and releases are available.
With Fanhattan, you’ll always know where to find the Movies and TV shows you love, and even discover new recommendations from your friends, critics and the latest entertainment news. By putting all that you love about entertainment together – from your favorite apps, to ratings, new trailers, actor and crew bios, soundtracks, and more – discovering and enjoying entertainment is easy on Fanhattan. Just like it should be.
Fanhattan gives you one stop access to these services:
HBO, Hulu Plus, iTunes, Netflix, NBC, Cinemax, Fandango, CW, PBC, ABC, ABC Family, Lifetime, Crackle, YouTube
Here's what the reviewers are saying:
★ "Enter Fanhattan, a beautiful, versatile new app that aims to be a navigator on this sea of movie and TV services...I consider Fanhattan a smart product, and can recommend it."
Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal
★ "Fanhattan blew me away...the depth of the content, utility of what the site does, and clarity of the interface just puts this app on a different level than anything else I've seen."
Rafe Needleman, CNET
★ "Fanhattan points you exactly where you need to go and more...the interface is movie star gorgeous."
Casey Chan, Gizmodo
★ "Fanhattan is probably the best movie/TV discovery app on the market right now."
Jordan Crook, TechCrunch
★ Fanhattan is absolutely the required guide for TV/Movie junkies... a super-cool, easy-to-navigate interface (that looks absolutely stunning on the iPhone 4).
Eli Milchman, Cult of Mac
★ "Fanhattan for iPad is one of AppAdvice’s favorite apps and today’s update makes it better than ever."
Bryan Wolfe, AppAdvice
★ “Fanhattan, the mesmerizing iOS app...continues to improve and impress. And since the app is free, in the spirit of the holiday season let’s just call it the gift that keeps on giving.”
The Gadget Guy
★ "Fanhattan combines a consistent, easy-to-navigate user interface with a deep database of movies and TV shows to make discovering videos from the Internet even simpler than finding them on cable TV."
Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch
★ "Fanhattan seeks to unify web movie services."
Nick Wingfield, Wall Street Journal / AllThingsD
★ "Fanhattan is one-stop shopping for everything related to your favorite TV shows and movies."
John Falcone, CNET
★ "Fanhattan works well, and fast, and is easy to navigate around the various sections."

Kiddie Bank:

For every parent who has been caught without exact change on allowance day, or has difficulty keeping track of what was paid when, KiddyBank offers a simple way to manage your children's allowance.
Set up an account for each child, choose the amount of weekly allowance, select the day on which it is to be paid, and KiddyBank will automatically credit each child's account with the appropriate amount each week.
You can also manually credit accounts (for extra chores, good grades, birthday money, etc.) and debit accounts when the child makes expenditures.

Raise the chairs of everyone in the office by 1".

Southern California ... isn't like any other place in the U.S. ... I guess all the fads, cults, a lot of them start here. The religious cults. Have you seen 1 cult out there? I won't give you the name. They live, actually, in the back seat of a '64 DeSoto & they believe that when they die, they become an orange traffic cone on the Ventura Freeway. Weird. -Johnny Carson 1985

Ways to save money top 10:

1. Eat less
2. Shop at Goodwill & the Salvation Army
3. Watch only free TV
4. Sign up for pay-as-you-go cell phone
5. Use Craigslist
6. Save & use coupons
7. Rent housing, don't buy
8. Barter your skills among your friends
9. Shop yard & garage sales
10. Recycle everything

We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes & behaviors grow out of those assumptions.