Catwoman's Weblog What part of MEOW don't you understand :)

New IPhone....ARRRGGGHHH!!!

On Saturday, I was sitting home watching television when all of a sudden the hubby comes up and says to me, "let's go to the Apple Store and get you an IPhone."

While I've been wanting one since day one, I was ready to wait until after I got back from my Namibia trip, closer to my anniversary. But who am I to look a gift horse, or in this case, a gift hubby in the mouth...

So on Sunday, I traipse down to my local Apple store, after contacting both Verizon and AT&T about early termination fees and if I'd be able to use the phone on my trip, and purchase my very own 8 GB IPhone.

That first night I couldn't do much with it as I needed to set it up and charge it etc and since I was porting my number from my Verizon account, I could make calls but couldn't receive calls until the porting was complete. I have a wireless home network and we couldn't for the life of us get the phone to access it instead of my neighbor's unsecured network. That was day 1.

Day 2 rolls around....I finally get the wifi connected, I also get my Motorola H700 bluetooth headset working with some help from Motorola tech support. With the help of my Sun colleague, I'm able to get my Sun email account up and running. Now to the fun part...I have an sbcglobal.net email account. SBCGLOBAL is owned by AT&T and I usually access it via a browser by going to the Yahoo page. First I tried setting up my sbcglobal account via the preset Y! Mail but that doesn't work since it ends up having an email address with the @yahoo extension. I search the internet and find a hack to that and try again. Now I can read my email and see all of the folders I have on the account (just like I do when I'm accessing the mail via a browser). I'm thinking, cool, I did it....but no!! I compose a short test email and try sending it to my sun email address. The IPhone says that it sent the email as but nothing shows up in the sent box and it never got to my Sun email address (nor back to my sbcglobal account when I cc'd it on a second test). Next I try to set up my sbcglobal account as a POP account using the incoming / outgoing mail server settings. I'm temporarily successful...I can send emails from that account but then I hit another issue...all of my emails are duplicated. I worked on trying to get that account to work yesterday for hours with both AT&T (who didn't really help) and with Apple Tech support (who did a much better job in trying to help) and I'm no further than I was yesterday morning in terms of setting up my sbcglobal email account so I can actually send emails.

And let's not forget the nightmare I could run into in Namibia...I've been seeing on the internet horror stories of folks coming back from international trips and having HUGE bills from AT&T. I signed up for AT&T's World Traveler to save money on my international minutes in France / South Africa and Namibia. But I guess that won't help with the data part. So, as I see from the postings on the internet, I have two options...remove the SIM card and use wifi only (but then I can't use the phone for calls) or try to get in touch with the RIGHT AT&T International Dept rep who can disable EDGE (what the iPhone uses when you are out and about and not tied to a wifi network for data service) properly during my trip (some AT&T reps say it can't be done while others say it can).

Bottom line, once I get the kinks out, I'm sure that this will my best phone ever but until then, it's really driving me crazy!!

WORKAROUND! Not the prettiest one but it will work for now....

While on the phone with yet another Apple Product Specialist, I signed up for a FREE YAHOO account and after several password attempts (make sure you use all lowercase letters, no numbers, no special characters...I know it isn't the securest way of creating a password but this hopefully is only temporary!), I finally got the IPhone to validate and recognize it. Then he helped me set up a POP mail account on my Mac Mailer for my sbcglobal.net. Then we created a rule in the Mac Mailer where mails sent to my sbcglobal account would be forwarded to my new free YAHOO account. When I sent a test email from my Sun email account to my sbcglobal account, while it wasn't exactly instantaneous, it did finally get to my Yahoo account and I was able to view it on the IPhone. The last test is sending emails from my YAHOO account. If that doesn't work, I guess I can go back to reading my sbcglobal emails via Safari on the phone.

( Aug 21 2007, 10:54:18 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

ACS Livermore Relay for Life 2007....A HUGE SUCCESS!!

Well, starting from 7:30 am PT on Saturday, 23-Jun-07 all the way to 9:30 am PT or so on Sunday, 24-Jun-07, I spent my weekend at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in my hometown of Livermore, California.

When the event started at 9 am PT on Saturday, we were at about $206K. Our goal from the American Cancer Society was $235K this year. By the time the Luminaria ceremony started that evening around 9 pm PT, we we were a little over $234K. By the time we had our closing ceremony on Sunday morning, we had raised over $250K. Can't wait to see what our final total is after we stop accepting donations for this year's Relay on 31-Aug-07.

I was the third highest fundraiser for Livermore's Relay with $2800. And this amount doesn't include the almost $700 in matching funds that was donated to the cause by Sun Folks (thanks Sun Folks for your support, you know who you are!!). My hubby who is a Certified Massage Therapist had a massage tent up during the event raised almost $1000 the day of the event. All in all a very successful event here in Livermore....

P.S. We found out that SHARKS, of the hockey variety, PURR!!! My hubby gave SJ Sharky, the mascot for the San Jose Sharks Professional Hockey Team a massage and he purred! Too cute!

( Jun 25 2007, 06:06:49 PM PDT ) Permalink

Time for my shameless plea too! For the American Cancer Society....

In 17 days, for the 4th year in a row, in memory of my mother who lost her battle with lung cancer 11 years ago and for my pup, Lycos.com who we lost to canine heart cancer last year, I'll be participating in the upcoming American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in Livermore, California.

While my colleagues in Solaris RPE have probably seen enough of my shameless pleas by now, I thought there might be others out there in Sun land who might like to contribute to such a worthy cause because unfortunately, cancer is a disease that doesn't care who it strikes...it strikes mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, grandparents. And for those who lose the battle, there are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles and grandparents who are left behind with their grief.

This year, my goal is to raise $2500 without matching funds! And so far, I've raised a little over $1800 but there's always more to be done, more money to raise in the time I have left before the event.

All of my collected donations are due to the ACS by Thursday, 06/21/07 so please donate online soon! I'll be standing ready to follow up with you via email once I see a donation and take care of all the paperwork in order to get your donation matched by Sun! For matching, you only need to make a minimum $5.00 donation...and while some would consider $5.00 a trivial amount, I truly believe that no amount is too small in the fight against cancer.

Thank you very much for your support.

( Jun 05 2007, 09:31:41 AM PDT ) Permalink

Buy jewelry, save a life!

I love jewelry, especially the really sparkly diamond kind. But there are couple of pieces that I wear every day which aren't my most expensive pieces yet they symbolize two causes very near and dear to me.

On my left wrist, I wear two colored rubber bracelets...one is purple and is for the American Cancer Society; the other is yellow and is for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Having lost my mom to lung cancer eleven years ago, this is a cause that I support wholeheartedly and do what I can to raise money every year so that other daughters out there don't have to experience that loss. Check out my Relay for Life page...any donations would be most appreciated (and can be matched by Sun too!)

On my right wrist, I wear a simple sterling silver bracelet, the Until There's A Cure Bracelet for AIDS. While I've never personally met someone with AIDS or HIV, I have several very close gay friends and the hubby works for Ramsell, a company that is focused on the fight against HIV and AIDS.

The Flowers Heritage Foundation, the nonprofit side of my hubby's employer, has just joined forces with the “Until There’s a Cure” partnership program which will allocate 25% of their AIDS Bracelet sales to FHF. All you need to do is just write Flowers Heritage Foundation in the box on the order form entitled “For donations”.

The Flowers Heritage Foundation has established the Bridge the Gap program to help fund the medication needs of every wait-listed AIDS patient in the United States. To date, they have successfully funded 22 patients for one year. However, there are more than 520 eligible people who are still on waiting lists. This is why they need our support.

Purchasing an AIDS bracelet will now help them and of course, show your support for those afflicted with this terrible disease.

( May 03 2007, 01:39:47 PM PDT ) Permalink

I've been blogging since...

24-Aug-2004.

I've blogged about my tastes in music and movies, my trips abroad, my feline and canine furbabies and and of course, I've blogged a couple of times about Sun Stuff.

While I may not have the readership of some of the more well known bloggers like our leader, Jonathan and the Queen of Marketing, Mary Mary, it's nice to see that some folks do read my blog entries. Sometimes they even comment on them...

A most memorable comment for me came last year when I blogged about the loss of our dear little border collie, Lycos.com.

That first week after losing him was very hard for me and to see a comment from someone who I don't think was even a Sun employee offering me their condolences and support, well that was a great thing that came from my blogging.

Thanks to Sun for continuing to let us have this great way of communication....Happy 3rd Birthday, blogs.sun.com!!!

( Apr 26 2007, 06:08:57 PM PDT ) Permalink

Rod Stewart Concert Review

A couple of months back, the hubby and I were talking and he mentioned that he had been hearing a song by Rod Stewart on the radio called "Have You Ever Heard The Rain?" He said that he really liked how Mr. Stewart handled the song given that it wasn't an original for him. He was covering it on his new album, Still the Same...Great Rock Classics Of Our Time.)

Rod Stewart is tied to some pretty significant events in our household. Early in our dating days, during the year that we had a long distance thing going on, the first time I went to see him in concert (without Patrick) at the Hollywood Bowl, when we got home from the concert, Patrick was waiting for me. What a wonderful surprise that was! And on our wedding day, Patrick did a wonderful dance routine for me and our guests using the music of some our shared favorite artists. And of course, Rod Stewart's "You're in My Heart" was included in his musical set.

So I surprised him and bought tickets for his upcoming tour....last night we headed down to San Jose's HP Pavilion for the concert.

Rod Stewart is one of those musicians that, AFAIK, is only getting better with age. Despite almost losing that unique gravely, instantly recognizable, voice to throat cancer and being over 60, he definitely still has that "it" factor and knows how to entertain the crowd. At 8 pm, the lights went down, the tartan curtain went up and there he was...no opening act. Just Rod, his band, his extremely talented backup singers, a fantastic sax player, and a woman who did double duty playing the mandolin and the violin throughout the concert, which lasted about 2 1/2 hours with only a 15 minute intermission. Definitely worth the price of the tickets!!

We rocked all through the night with Rod...he played a couple of songs from the new album, including my favorite track, a Cat Stevens song entitled "Father and Son" but most of his songs were his past hits, which was exactly what most of us probably wanted to hear anyway. Of course, we waited, would he play "our song"? Yep, he did! And of course, his encore had to be "Maggie May".

Keep on rockin' Rod! We'll always be fans....

( Mar 16 2007, 10:17:23 AM PDT ) Permalink

He may be right, I may be crazy...

My next trip is scheduled for Sept07...I'll be traveling to Namibia to volunteer for two weeks with the Cheetah Conservation Fund through Earthwatch Institute. It won't be as cushy as my other trips particularly since I've had to become a human pincushion with all the shots I've needed to get for the trip.

Let's see, there's been three (3) for rabies (recommended since I'll be working with wild cheetahs and one could decide that I'm good enough to eat or at least nibble on), one for Hepatitis A, a booster for polio, a booster for Tetanus / Diptheria and Whooping Cough (all in one shot thankfully), one for Typhoid and three (3) for Hepatitis B (I have two down, one to go).

As my colleague put it, if you have to get that many shots to go to a country, maybe it's not a good place to go? He has a point there and call me crazy, but I think that this is a once in a lifetime experience to be able to work closely with a beautiful creature of such speed and elegance.

( Mar 08 2007, 11:49:29 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [1]

Las Vegas Observations...

I just spent a long weekend in Las Vegas (aka Lost Wages in a past life) and while I had an AWESOME time with my husband and two of our newest friends, Josh and Dean (yes, how lucky is that for me to spend a weekend in a city that never sleeps with three great, cute guys!), my, how things have changed in Vegas.

What's up with coinless slot machines?

We were so busy with:

Our vocabulary lessons (DON'T ASK!!) and quoting Blazing Saddles again and again and again whenever we saw the "Voodoo" sign on the Strip!

Zumanity (O is still my favorite Cirque show, followed closely by Dralion)

Bodies - The Exhibition (not as gross as I thought it would be)

Star Trek - The Experience (the BORG Experience was better than the KLINGON Experience! But I'm sure others will disagree with me...)

The Fremont Street Experience

MGM Grand Hotel Lion Habitat (we saw some really cute lion wrestling!)

And partying until 5 am PT on Thursday night (after our flight touched down around 7 pm PT); 2 am on Friday night and 11 pm on Saturday night, it's no wonder I didn't get much time to gamble and then, the horror!

A great majority of the slot machines in the hotels now are coinless, meaning that you can only gamble with bills and then if you hit, you get a ticket that you need to exchange for your moolah instead of the ching-ching-ching of falling coins. I had a system that I used when I was in Vegas every time I'd been there before - I could make $60.00 last all weekend with it but with these machines, it's all about making even more money for the casinos. I mean, if you've been partying and gambling, how many folks will forgot to convert their tickets back to moolah before they head out to either a new casino or to their home base. I foresee that my nickel slot gambling days are over in Vegas...

( Jan 23 2007, 05:22:19 PM PST ) Permalink

I didn't get the Memo but here goes anyway...

I didn't get the "5 Things You May Not Know About Me" tag but it sounded kinda fun so I'm tagging myself :)

1. One of my first jobs, back in high school, was at the local Burger King in San Bernardino...they just called me the "Drive Thru" Queen then! Meal of choice, as we got them free, was a Whopper with Mayonnaise, Lettuce, Cheese and Tomato only with french fries (as there was no other option back then).

2. I tell my husband all the time that he ruined my best laid plans...I had planned to be a single career chick since dating sucked back in college, but then he came along...thank god!

3. I attempt to play the harp, not a full sized concert one, not a small celtic one...but one that falls right between the two. I also used to play the clarinet way back when.

4. This year will be my 20th High School Reunion....OMIGOD, I'm getting friggin' older every single day!! Can someone please stop the insanity of it all???

5. Not that I don't love working for Sun, but if it was a perfect world where you could do what you want to without having to worry once about moolah, I probably would have ended up going with my first career choice...Egyptologist. Like Indiana Jones, only prettier and of course younger :)

Who to tag now?

How about Diann, our illustrious leader in Solaris RPE

JIMMO, who always tells it like it is in Solaris RPE

Kimberley, Solaris RPE Horse Woman extraordinaire

Keerthi, our resident "quiet" Solaris RPE engineer (but still waters run deep, right?)

and last but not least, JoeG, one of Solaris RPE's resident manager extraordinaires in Bangalore.

Tag! You're it!! Heck, if Jonathan can play along....

( Jan 22 2007, 04:16:23 PM PST ) Permalink

Another Sun Global Resolution (SGR) class down...thanks...

As an SGR Program leader here at Sun, a great way to keep up on SGR and not lose the process skills is to actually teach your fellow Sun employees about the processes themselves. I just finished co-teaching yet another SGR class here at Sun. It was different than some of my other classes for a couple of reasons:

1. We had to break the class up from 4 days in one week to two days a week spread over two weeks because our students were Solaris gatekeepers and they have lots to do for S10 etc. Not that any of the past students didn't have anything to do at Sun, it just would have been too hard to keep these folks away from their work for four straight days.

2. This was the first time I was able to co-teach with someone that I think is one of our best SGR facilitators here at Sun, Mr. Roy Garcia...now, Roy, if you are reading this, don't be modest...you know that you know the stuff like the back of your hand. I'd love to teach with you again soon but I don't want to be too selfish :)

3. As I said to Roy, when the students "get it", it sure makes our job as instructors that much easier...these folks got it pretty quickly and I think they enjoyed it in the process (or at least I hope they did!)

So, without further adieu, thanks to each of you for flexibility wrt the scheduling and for making this SGR class one of my enjoyable classes to date (last names have been excluded to protect the innocent!):
Adam
Brian
Sherry
Ada
Kevin
Khai
Jason
Erik
Mark
John ( Jan 22 2007, 02:29:46 PM PST ) Permalink

Who needs collagen when you have a border collie pup?

I was getting hugs from my pup, Rosalynn, this morning...she likes to give us hugs by wrapping her paws around our necks. I think she really missed us as we were in Vegas for the weekend (details to follow in my next blog) and it was the first time she has been away from us for an extended period of time (don't worry, don't yell pup abuse, our neighbors were watching and feeding our pups and bringing them in at night so they would be warm).

Well, in the course of her hugs and kisses (she likes to lick my ears and my neck), she got a little rough and cut the inside of my bottom lip with her front paw and nail....ouch! ouch! ouch!

Hmmm, I wonder if that's how Angelina got her lips...I'd guess that it's a heck of lot cheaper than collagen injections!!! ( Jan 22 2007, 09:37:25 AM PST ) Permalink

Finally...some of my photos from my UK / Ireland Tour, Sep06

Here is a link to some of the photos I took during my UK / Ireland tour back in September 2006...enjoy! ( Jan 07 2007, 10:55:45 AM PST ) Permalink

Silly Dog!

Had to snap this picture of my girl Glory "in all her glory"...pretty flexible for a 9 year old dog which equates to about 49 human years :)

Wonder if I'll be that flexible in my late 40's?? ( Jan 04 2007, 01:22:48 PM PST ) Permalink

Rosalynn's first visit with Santa...

Back in April, Patrick and I adopted a border collie pup after we lost our boy, Lycos.com, to cancer. She has been such a joy to us and being primarily my pup as I've been training her and feeding her and letting her out to do her business at 5 am PT, she has really helped me make peace with losing Lycos as suddenly and as unexpectedly as we did.

A couple of weeks ago, the local humane society was having pictures taken of your pets with Santa as a fundraiser. I couldn't resist and had to take Miss Rosalynn for her first visit with Santa as this is her first Christmas.

While she looks like she is ready to bite either Santa for being a stranger or me, the mommy, for putting her through this, I am really glad that I got this picture of her...it was for a great cause and having lost two pets this year, each and every picture that I have of my dear furbabies is very special to me. ( Dec 19 2006, 08:58:56 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [1]

What ever happened to "Don't bite the hand that feeds you?"

This weekend, I was petsitting my neighbor's dog (Cody) and a friend's dog (Sadie) next door. Cody is an extremely friend pup but Sadie definitely has some issues...the first time I met her, she snapped at my fingers. Because she's so skittish and weird at times, you have to be cautious with her. I was over there feeding them yesterday morning and after I filled their bowls, I slowly started to walk out of the yard...when all of a sudden, I felt a dog nip my leg. That d**ned dog had just bit me!! No blood but a nice bruise on my leg now.

Well, needless to say, I called my friend and left her a message that even though I was supposed to feed the dogs 2X a day, I wasn't about to go over there again and maybe get bitten again, possibly worse than I was. She called me later that night and was fine with that and understood why I would also no longer watch her dog under any circumstances. She also said she now really needs to think long and hard about what is best for this dog...while I didn't ask to be bitten, I'd feel really bad if she decides that the best thing is to put the dog down. I hope she finds some one like Cesar Milan, aka the Dog Whisperer, to help with Sadie. ( Nov 20 2006, 09:31:15 AM PST ) Permalink