• Fun - RemoteDance

    Camping: an Introduction to our Fourth of July Adventure

    July 6, 2009 - By 

    For the Forth of July, Chris and I planned a camping trip with four of our friends (and their 3 Chihuahuas). The average temperature in Phoenix that week was 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and Southern California was hitting the 100’s, so everyone was ready for some 75 degree weather. Due to thunderstorms clouding the skies from LA to Phoenix, we opted to drive instead of fly the plane. (Read: small aircraft and thunderstorms do not mix well). Aside from a brief moment of panic when the air conditioner cut out in the middle of the Mojave desert (it came back on)…

  • RemoteDance - Throwback

    Spring Cleaning

    June 30, 2009 - By 

    This May, Chris and I decided the house needed a major makeover. Especially since we had some potential tenants to rent our spare rooms. The list of “home makeover” items included cleaning/organizing the house (finally putting away our boxes of wedding gifts!) and landscaping the backyard. More on the backyard later. My first spring cleaning project: cleaning out unnecessary stuff from the garage. When I moved in to the house from my apartment, there was a lot of my stuff that landed in the garage, in boxes, and the boxes have been collecting dust ever since. Chris had cleaned out…

  • RemoteDance

    Don’t Skimp the Small Stuff

    June 25, 2009 - By 

    Sometimes, it’s the little things. Like getting excited that your ice cube tray actually makes ice cubes. Our teeny little RV fridge supposedly has an icemaker. I say “supposedly” because it’s never worked. We haven’t bothered to get it fixed, and in the meantime we’re using a temporary ice cube tray. Have you ever seen one of those miniature ice cube trays that come with the dorm-sized refrigerators? Each ice cube is about the size of a marble? That’s what we used the first six months (yeah, temporary). Eventually we got tired of using the entire tray ON ONE DRINK. We…

  • RemoteDance

    Mr. Davidson, as in Harley

    June 17, 2009 - By 

    The husband has been drooling over a Harley. A friend of a friend is selling it dirt cheap and plus, says the husband, it’s got like, $5000 worth of chrome on it! Which, apparently, makes the asking price a fantastic deal. So we have to buy it now, he says. Deals like this don’t happen every day, he says. “But,” I argued, “do you really need all that chrome? I mean, without the chrome it’s really just a fair price, rather than a fantastic steal, right?” He maintained it was a fantastic price. I tried another tactic. “But won’t all that chrome get hot? You know,…

  • RemoteDance

    Diet Fail

    June 11, 2009 - By 

    As you may remember, the cat is on a diet. But, as you may also remember, she is not losing any weight. We finally figured out why. One night, we were in our room getting ready for bed, when we heard a noise coming from the kitchen. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. (pause) Crunch. Crunch. I looked at Chris. He looked at me. “Did you hear that?”“Yeah, it sounded like—““Someone eating the dog food?”“Well, Chloe’s in her kennel, so who…” We opened the door and turned on the light in the kitchen. And there she was. The cat was eating the dog food. Of course,…

  • Marriage - RemoteDance

    A Simple Solution

    June 8, 2009 - By 

    The other evening, Chris and I were watching one of the few television shows that we both really enjoy. Chris got up during a commercial break and left the room, and just as he got up, the TV screen turned black. No sound, no picture, nothing. The television was on, but the cable wasn’t. I pulled the remote out of the couch cushion where Chris had been sitting, and mess with it for a while trying to get the TV to work. No luck. “Chris,” I say mournfully when he returns, “the cable’s not working.” He checks to make sure…

  • RemoteDance

    Twitterpaeter

    May 29, 2009 - By 

    twit·terpaeter (twĭt΄ēr·pæter) n, twitterpaeter: a person who uses the mini-blogging site Twitter etiologyv, twitterpaeted: a state of nervous excitement synonymsn, tweeter: someone who obsessively tweets; ref, tweaker When I was twelve, I came very close to buying an 8-track player. Some clever salesperson almost managed to convince me that an 8-track was a good investment… in the 90’s. It’s not that I’m technologically backwards. I do the blog thing (obviously) and the Facebook thing and the iTunes thing, etc, etc. It’s just that I’m not very good at picking out which technologies are going to be a success. For example,…

  • RemoteDance

    Chloe gives *us* a present for *her* birthday

    May 26, 2009 - By 

    My favorite local radio hosts, John Jay and Rich, do this segment on Mondays entitled, “After this weekend, I will never do ______ again.” So let’s just say that after this weekend, I will never get on the airplane without hand sanitizer again. Wednesday was the dog’s birthday. She turned 2, and in celebration of this event the husband bought her a giant steak, which he grilled and cut up into little pieces. We tried to get her to pose for a photo, but she wouldn’t tear her face away from the food dish long enough to snap the shutter.…

  • RemoteDance

    Celebrate Slippers

    May 14, 2009 - By 

    Today is Thursday, May 14th, 2009. Did you know? Today is “Let’s-everybody-wear-our-houseslippers-to-Subway-day.” I say this because, in the space of 15 minutes while ordering my sandwich, I saw – not one – but TWO people wearing slippers in the store. And no, these people did not know each other or come in to the store together. It wasn’t some sort of statement, they really were just wearing their house slippers out in public. And when I say house slippers, I don’t mean those Croc things that somehow, despite all the best efforts of the Fashion Police, managed to become acceptable…

  • RemoteDance

    Thanks for the gift…

    May 8, 2009 - By 

    To Whom It May Concern: We would like to thank you for your excellent choice in wedding gifts. The glasses will come in very handy for beverage consumption. Our Labrador retriever, Chloe, has already field-tested them, and they hold up well in rugged outdoor conditions. Not that we ever expect to throw them down on the grass and roll them around the yard, or chew on them, but if we ever did, we know that these glasses would remain both unbroken and unscratched after a long day of such activities. You see, when the mail person delivers our packages, it…