First Hurdle

Well, it's been one week into the challenge and I've hit my first hurdle... well two actually. I cannot live without either.

Crisis #1: Black and Beautiful

I've had my ipod for about 3 years now and named it Black and Beautiful (Snoop Dogg). I dropped B&B Monday morning in my haste to get to work. It slightly cracked the screen and damaged some of the pixels or cells or whatever they're called. It has created what I call a black hole on the screen. Not a large one and it's towards the top - no big deal, right? But each day the black hole is getting larger and larger. It has now overtaken the banner and battery display across the top. At this rate I won't be able to navigate my ipod in two weeks.

What's weird is that when the ipod is in sleep mode, the black hole is the original size and doesn't disrupt the view. But when I wake up B&B, the blackhole is back. That may be the only way to work the ipod in the future. I'll have to wait for it to go to sleep mode and then memorize the steps to select music. That also ruins the functionality of it being a video ipod.

I looked into pricing to replace my ipod -$250. Not terrible for 160 GB.... but I can't spend money!! I'll just have to wait and see what kind of damage the black hole creates in the upcoming weeks.

Crisis #2: Travel mug with a leak

A year ago I spent $20 on the best stainless steal coffee mug in the world. It absolutely does not leak. I enjoyed this endlessly for the first few weeks as I demonstrated the guarantee over my coworkers' heads. They, unfortunately, did not. In any case, the mug was perfect. Several tumbles and curse words later, the mug still works great. That is, until the day I took it apart to clean it. Although it has been reassembled (perfectly if you ask me) it leaks. I learned this the hard way on the way to work. I have tried everything and cannot figure out why it's leaking.

My alternatives are to tolerate a less than adequate travel mug for six months and possibly risk every work blouse I own. Or, I could fill it only half way and reduce the risk of slosh-and-splash. Or, I could relocated my coffee maker to my office and cut out the middle man. I don't really drink coffee on the weekends anyways.

I'll give option #2 a try and if it fails move on to option #3. But seriously, that's a bad ass looking coffee mug, right?