Just an update… I lost 2.9 lbs (1.3 kg) this week. It’s not quite the 4.4lbs (2kg) I gained but I’m moving in the right direction. I need to lose 2 lbs (1 kg) this week to make my goal. Wish me luck!

Yesterday I called Sprint to cancel my EVDO modem. When I called, I found out that my one year contract with them was in fact a two year contract and that I was going to have to pay a cancellation fee. When I kept telling the customer service rep that I swore I signed a one year contract, she transferred me to her supervisor who politely explained how they know I had a two year contracted based off the price I paid for the modem and then offered to cut me a break and halve my termination fee from $150 to $75. I was shocked. I’m kinda sad I left Sprint now.

Yesterday, my boyfriend, Dad, and sister all went to the movies to see Disney-Pixar’s Up! in Digital 3D. As with most things with my family there is always drama surrounding getting to the movies and this week was no exception. I really wanted to see the movie in Digital 3D since I saw “Monsters vs. Aliens” in 3D. We got there so late that we had to sit in the front row. I was worried that it would ruin the illusion but it didn’t.

I know I say it with every Pixar movie I see but this was the best one yet. The story was perfect and the fact that none of it was leaked (as always) made it that much more enjoyable. The characters were lovable, the story move swiftly and the ending was uplifting. What more could you ask for? I give it 5 stars… go check it out!

Today, I met up with my friend Roseld for lunch and hanging out at the IKEA near my folks. We decided to eat at the IKEA Bistro, a first for me. I decided against my better judgement due to my diet fisaco to go ahead and have the classic IKEA Bistro meal… the Swedish Meatballs with Mashed Potatoes and Lingonberry sauce.

I must say they were delicious! Worth every calorie. And yes, you saw the child size side of Mac & Cheese I had too! To make matters worse… I had a Frappuccino at Starbucks after! Sigh. Well you gotta splurge sometimes!

About 100 days ago, I decided to start losing weight. I didn’t blog about it because I was too nervous to fail miserably and have to admit it to the world. About 3.5 months ago, I got on a scaled and almost died when I saw I was at my biggest weight ever… 274.5 lbs (124.5kg). I’ve never been this big in my life and I decided that for my health I needed to go on a diet.

I chose Weight Watchers Online because:

1. It’s online and I don’t have to go to meetings
2. It’s a lot cheaper than going to meetings
3. I could use the site online with my iPhone
4. Both my dad and sister had great success on it
5. And because they professed a change in my eating style and not just a diet

And… largely it’s been working! I my first 100 days I had dropped 24.9 lbs (11.3kg)! I was so happy. My goal weight is 210lbs… but my first little goal was to lose 25lbs (11.3kg) by June 15th. I was so pleased, I was almost at my goal! But then… I had my first setback. Last weekend my friend Chuti was in town and I really went off my diet. I ate so many bad things and then… I was sick for 3 days with a sinus infection and I ate more bad things and when I got on the scale this morning… I had gained 4.4 lbs (2kg)! I’m so upset with my self. I really can’t believe how easily the weight came back. I am sure it was a combination of both eating poorly, being sick and not working out at all (I had been walking and riding the exercise bike) but still… 4.4lbs?

I’m not going to let it get to me. I’m going to get right back on track. I really hope I can drop the weight by June 15th and now that I admitted it… I’ll keep you all posted.

This morning, I’m on my way back to the city to see a friend who is in town. While taking the 1+ hour ride down the PA Turnpike and the Schuylkill Expressway, I’m testing out my lastest tech toy the Verizon MiFi 2200.

I’ve had a 3G EVDO modem for about a year and a half now, Sprint’s version of the Novatel Ovation U727 USB modem and while I probably don’t use it as much as I could, it’s been a life saver and a wonderful companion for my travels. There have been times where I’ve skipped paying the hotel’s wifi charges because I have my own, decent speed connection to the internet right in my pocket and that has been a nice option to have. The Ovation modem when I bought it was the smallest lightest USB Modem I could get. As I have both a MacBook for my personal use and a DELL Latitude for my work machine, I decided to go with a USB Modem. It seems more useful and to be honest, it was, that modem has been used not only on my machine but also on my boyfriend’s MacBook, my Mom’s MacBook and several other people’s machines so that I could get them on the ‘net. I even used it a few times to share my internet connection over WiFi with others using OS X’s Internet Sharing. Suffice it to say… it’s been a good investment.

Now although I’ve been quite happy with it, there have been some drawbacks. One of those issues was the size. Even though it’s quite small, it does protrude quite a bit out of the side of my MacBook and even more so out of the MSI Wind. More than a few times I’ve thought that the “antenna” was going to have been snapped off but so far.. so good. Add to this that the last software update to the Sprint Connection Software stopped me from being able to share my internet connection via WiFi. I had a feeling this was coming because Verizon supposedly does the same thing but I can’t sort out why. Its my connection, I have a cap, if I don’t exceed it, why do they care? There is still only ONE node on their network as my Mac is handling the proxy between the clients and their network. Enter the MiFi.

The MiFi is another product from Novatel and the concept is simple, it’s a 3G EVDO Rev A modem and a Wireless Router all built into a package about the size of a six credit cards stacked on top of each other. Small, light and most importantly wireless. You turn the MiFi on and you’re instantly a walking WiFi hot spot. Up to 5 people can share your WiFi (which baffles me as to why you can’t just use Internet Sharing on your Mac). I thought that this might really be the answer to my issues with my current EVDO modem setup. Both Verizon and Sprint will carry the product but as I’m out of my Sprint contract and I’ve heard Verizon’s network is bigger and faster, I decided to give Verizon a try.

I picked up the MiFi on Friday at my local Verizon store. The price is reasonable after $50 rebate, with a two year commitment it was $99, a one year contract brought the price to $169. Luckily I get a discount via work and my one year contract price was a lovely 79.99 so it made it a very easy decision.

I’m going to put it thru it’s paces and see how it performs over the next two weeks. If you have any questions about it, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you!

I’m absolutely no tech writer but I thought I’d go ahead and start talking about some of the applications that I use and adore on my Mac and my iPhone.

When I sat down to think about which app to talk about first, there was no hesitation… Teleport.

Teleport, from Abyssoft is a virtual Keyboard, Video, Mouse (KVM) application. It helps you to control other Macs on your network. It doesn’t do this by using VNC but rather by letting you use the keyboard and mouse on the Mac you’re using on another machine. At first this wasn’t clear to me and it still sounded like another screen sharing app but it really isn’t.

Here’s how it works. Install Teleport, which is preference pane on both your Mac and the Mac you want to control. Do a little configuration and now you can move the cursor off of your screen and onto the screen of the Mac you want to control, now your mouse and keyboard input is on the OTHER Mac. This works great for me in two situations. I can control my MacPro without having to reach for the keyboard and mouse and more importantly… I can control the Mac mini from my MacBook.

It works very similarly to an extended desktop. From the preference pane you add other Macs running teleport. You will be asked to authenticate yourself on the Mac you wish to control, which seems smart to me since you wouldn’t want a stranger controlling your Mac without your knowledge! Now you can arrange the remote Macs around your screen so that when you move to a side or a corner or in the case of my Mac mini, the top of my screen and your cursor will slide right on to that Mac and your keyboard, mouse and even your clip board are available to use over there.

It’s a brilliant program and I use it pretty much every day. Check it out for your self. And thanks to Pinoyboy for cluing me into this amazing app.

Today I got my first real chance to drive our 2008 MINI Cooper for a long-ish jaunt. I decided as an anniversary gift for my hubby that I’d get the windows tinted on the MINI. One of the things we noticed about the car was that it’s abundance of glass makes it very hard to block the sun when it’s beating down on you.

A good friend of mine works at a car dealership and he offered to have the work done. They did the work on my Volvo XC70 and I’m very pleased with it, so I decided to take it up there to get the work done. Lucky for me, another friend who lives in the same area asked me to take a ride to NYC with him to meet up with a friend of his from out of town. I checked with the window tinting people and they were available that day so it seemed as if it was a perfect coincidence.

I headed out early on Sunday morning. The forecast was for clear skies, ample sunshine and a temp of about 60F (15.5C), a perfect day for a drive. I’ve driven the MINI a few times and even to work (about 25miles) quite a bit, but I hadn’t taken a 2-plus hour, 120-plus mile trip in it yet. Being used to the Volvo’s large, wide and over stuffed seats, I was worried that the MINI would give me some discomfort in the back department, but I’m happy to report that it didn’t. The seats are very comfortable and not too narrow. The seating position though is low, much lower than my Volvo’s but I was never uncomfortable for a single moment.

Our MINI is an regular Cooper and not a Cooper S, it’s also a six-speed automatic and not a manual. I prefer to drive the MINI in manual mode instead of automatic as I think it makes me feel a little bit more sporty and it does make it easier to get power out of the smallish four cylinder. Don’t get me wrong the MINI is not a slow car, or under powered either. It’s just the difference between a laid back easy going ride and a more sporty, fun one. Add to the “manual” mode of the transmission the obligatory BMW “sport” button and the MINI changes it’s character completely. The shifts are quicker in both “manual” and automatic and in automatic, the transmission holds gears longer and downshifts more purposefully. The suspension seems firmer (if that’s even possible) and the steering is much more sharp. The car is an absolute blast to drive in SPORT mode. So far we’ve covered that the car is quick, fun and comfortable to drive and these are all important things for a long drive, but perhaps the most important thing (to me at least) is the interior, how did the interior and the “car tech” fare?

In a word it was GREAT. On the whole everything was easy to find and use. I personally still find the center speedometer to be completely useless. It is possible for the LCD in the tachometer to show you a digital read out of your speed and it’s essential as the speedo is out of the line of sight and it’s too vague. It’s damn hard to tell if you’re going 55 or 65. 50 or 60… no problem but 65… yeah… not so much. The radio (we have the upgraded HD radio with 10 speakers) is good. The speakers aren’t bad.. they could be better. The iPod integration is terrific with access to everything on your iPod btu the display (3 lines in the bottom of the center speedometer) is a bit small compared to the much larger display on my Volvo, but it does it’s job very well. I also made use of the built in bluetooth which was not bad though people have mentioned it’s a little hard to hear me. The iPod integration also extends to the iPhone and even does some neat tricks my Volvo doesn’t. It actually pulls your entire phone book into the radio so you can dial from the radio. Down side to this is… it’s hard as hell to find a name on that little display while you’re going 65mph.

So over all, my trip with the MINI strengthened my affection for this cute little ride. It’s comfortable, functional, fun to drive perhaps most importantly… fuel efficient. I averaged 33MPG on my trip, a far cry from the Volvo’s 22MPG.

For our anniversary, my hubby surprised me with an amazing gift, a LEGO Creator’s Series model of the Eiffel Tower. It is a 1:300 scale model which means that it checks in at just over 42 inches (108 cm) tall. It’s by far the largest (in size) model I’ve ever worked on. There are 3428 pieces in the set and it took me about 20 hours to complete it. It is impressive once built and is so tall that I had to clear an end table to fit it in to the decor. It is built in 3 sections for easy transport. Thank goodness because if it was all one piece I don’t know how I’d ever be able to put it together. It was incredibly fragile during the construction of each stage. Once the “top” was on each section it was by far more stable but the 3rd section of the tower alone is over 2 feet tall!

I have posted a set of photos of the construction over on my mobile me page. Click here to check them out.

Me, my niece (almost 1 yr old) and nephew (almost 3 years old) at the Rusty Scupper for Easter Brunch!