romanian cracker

things is changing!

2009-01-25T17:27:00.002-07:00

25 days in to the new year. First I just have to say that the AZ Cardinals are in the Super Bowl! OMG, who ever thought this would happen? Now you know I'm not in to sports but do enjoy a good game if it's the home team and they're in the playoffs. I watched the last 3 games as if I'd been a life long fan. I naturally root for our home teams but the Cardinals haven't always given any of us a lot to root for. I watched the first two games alone at home and wow, Larry Fitzgerald is my new hero. That man is a graceful swan! And a touchdown machine. I watched the last playoff game at Jackie's and we were all glued to the set and hooting and hollering like we were actually there in person. I missed the last touchdown because I was in the bathroom and I heard them all screaming and I ran out there and we were all hugging and jumping around. I learned what a 2 point conversion is (shut up, we can't all be sports savy) and that interception and turnover are interchangeable terms. I feel even more well rounded person now!

Next, we have a new president and one I actually voted for. That's never happend. What an amazing time we are living in. I caught some of the inauguration at work but didn't get to actually see the swearing in portion. Here's hoping all the hope we're putting in to our new president is deserved. But lets face it, he couldn't possible screw things up as bad as the last administation!

Economically, everything sucks. I'm doing okay alone but am grateful that I have a stable job/income and also lucky that I've seen much harder times before and know what I am capable of and how little I need to survive. Many of my friends are struggling and some have been laid off or are very close to being laid off. We still manage to have fun together (for free) and in the end I think that's the most important thing.

I'm still here. Just me and my dog. Going with the flow and liking it. I've gotten out of my head and wow, it's nice out here! Work is good and I love my employees. My assistant manager is totally a saint and don't know how I ever got along without him. Overall I am pretty grateful for the state of life right now. I know, it's boring to read here when I'm not complaining! I'm falling asleep just typing this!

forgot to post pics

2008-12-29T23:15:00.004-07:00

Jackie got her first ever speeding ticket....92mph

yes, I'm 30 today

sunning and pooling before more partying

anytime I think I look great I stand next to Jackie and then not so much!

hey look at me I'm 30!!!

11 of us total. 5 more than last year. we had a lot of fun

I never posted my vegas pics. I had such a great bday in vegas. was sick as a dog but still managed to have fun. I was determined no nausea was going to ruin my weekend. enjoy.

Endings

2008-12-29T22:38:00.003-07:00

For those of you who don't already know, Chad and I broke up in November. A very hard decision. But it was amicable. We didn't break up on hard terms or because of anger or any specific incident. I don't really want to discuss such a personal thing here but felt that I needed to address it since he has been the biggest part of my life the last 9 years. We are still in contact and getting along. I hope it stays that way. Of course I still love him and always will.

Other than that life has been normal. Work and friends keeping my mind occupied. Strange being in my house alone but I am doing well. Chloe and I go for walks. I am going out more and enjoying all my friends. Xmas was hard but I knew it would be. Its done now and I hope next year it won't be so sad. I don't see how it could possibly be.

I hope everyone is doing well and having a great holiday. I have lots of hope for 2009.

nice girls finish last too!

2008-10-18T01:00:00.006-07:00

Goosebumps I tell you!
Took these from my seat. That's Jordan up front... very cute.

Some of the girls that went with me. Corina and Stefanie.
corina took this pic. she had seperate seats on the floor and they moved mid floor in the middle of the concert for 3 songs. I didn't take too many pics cause my camera doesn't do well in the dark and it doesn't zoom in well either. My videos on the other hand are so freaking awesome! That is until my memory card filled up and I couldn't take anymore.
stage is behind me but they had some fog machine going so you can't see it.

I did not win my contest. Nope. Some girl who posted 20 comments won. I posted 500+ comments and I lost. I was robbed. Really just fucked in the goat ass robbed. That's how I felt. I waited until 4:30 in the afternoon the day of the concert only to hear some girl named Jennifer take my prize from me. I went in to the arena pretty bummed but by the time New Kids hit the stage I was over it and so excited. They put on a terrific show. I sang along to all the songs and danced and felt like I was a preteen again. I got goosebumps when they came out. I couldn't stop screaming! There was a super creep behind me with his mom or maybe it was his wife. I don't know but he was the oldest guy there who didn't bring his daughter and knew all the lyrics even better than I did and every chance he got he'd scream out "yeah, you guys rock, yeah, you're so awesome!" Kinda scary but he was just there the same reason the rest of us 20,000 girls were so I can't really fault him. We tried our best to get backstage after teh concert but the security were very uncaring and unimpressed with our pleas and in the end escorted us out of the arena.

The next day I told everyone and they all agreed that I got royally screwed out of what will probably be my only opportunity to meet NKOTB. My dear friend Kristian actually emailed the DJ, Chino, at the radio station:

Hi Chino....

I have a friend that busted her butt posting on your blog for the chance to see the New Kids backstage....She clearly had a majority of posts...but it looks like you chose from your page rather from the actual posts to your blog? Maybe this was an oversight She emailed you prior asking for clarification and you said to keep doing what she was doing....and she did....and someone else won.

Do you think you could do some secondary kind of NICE thing by possibly just calling her before the show and mentioning her effort? I would mean the world to her since she is still going to the concert but isn't going to be able to see them back stage.

Nothing came of it so he wrote Chino again:

Hey...I just want you to know that just a few extra minutes of your day could have made a huge difference in someone's life.

Friends of Joana's, along with me, went back to your blog. The "winner" had 20 some posts....Joana had over 500 posts. We can't figure out the rules and how the 'winner' won...but please, if you would, call her just to acknowledge all her work on your blog. If you look, you would have had relatively few posts and energy spent on it at all if it weren't for her.

Yea, it may all seem very juvenile, but what would it hurt to give her some credit as well as making a faithful listener just a little bit happy?

That apparently did the trick because Chino actually did call me and said "wow, you have some pretty great friends chewing me out over here." I told him that I did not put Kris up to it and he said he was sorry that I wasn't chosen the winner but that it wasn't about quantity and that it was completely random and he wasn't even involved in the picking of the winner. Seems silly to me to put your name on it and not pick the winner but I guess it's just a job to him and he does what he's told. My name is on a bunch of shit at work that I don't necessarily endorse or care about so I assume it's the same thing for Chino. He promised me that if I went in and posted a comment on the new blog I would for sure be the winner for the 8x10 autographed photo of the entire group. I did and he did. He called me and put me on the radio and eveything. He posted me as teh official winner on his web page and everything. See far left and also top center of the page.

The next day I drove my happy ass down to the radio station and the receptionist couldn't find my photograph. Lucky for me Chino was just showing up for work and walked by. Corina got his attention and he came over and I thanked him. He knew where my photo was and he handed it over to me personally. He apologized again and was very nice about the whole thing.

It was a silly contest but I took it very seriously. I don't normally care about celebrities like I do in this case. They were a huge part of my adolescence. My first concert. They were everything to me when I was 12 and now they making another impact on my quiet little life again.

confessions of a NKOTB fanatic

2008-10-12T19:16:00.004-07:00

This is only a tiny sampling of what I had.

my 7th grade year book photo. had to represent! I loved Joe.

That's New Kids on the Block to you. Just my favorite band and obsession from my early teen years, that's all. Heading in to the 90's this country was hungry for a break from big hair and giant shoulder pads and a group of 5 young singers would come to show us relief. Truly I don't think I was ever so obessessed with anything as I was with NKOTB. I owned tons of merchandise and video taped every appearance they made, which in those days actually had to be done by hand, in real time, gasp. My friends and I were boy crazy and loved cheesy bubble gum pop music. It was a good time to be alive. They disbanded in 1994 or so and by that time I had moved on to alternative music and grunge clothing as most of my cohorts had. In my heart they remained but in secret. Many reunions were rumored but never amounted to much until this last April. They came together again and released a new album and are coming to my hometown tomorrow for a show. I bought my tickets the minute they went on sale. I bought 4 tickets and tomorrow night we are going to be blockheads again. I don't really talk to most of my old friends from back in my youth but one of the girls is coming with me. Wendy and I recently started hanging out again and I am happy to be sharing this with her. I've known her since 5th grade. we lost touch late in high school and then Karin reintroduced us a few months ago and as soon as I told her I bought a ticket for her she flipped! We are so excited. So, the radio station is giving out tickets left adn right and they are also giving out passes to see them in the sound check for a meet and greet. HOLY COW, I need to meet New Kids! clearly. I've never met a celebrity and in general don't really care about many of them. I mean not enough to want to meet them but NKOTB is a different story. They were there in my formative years. That doesn't go away. So the contest on KISS FM is to comment on one of the DJ's blogs about which new kid is the hottest and why. The each comment is a chance to win the sound check passes. Well hell, I can comment. So I did. told all the girls to also. Then I noticed several people left several comments and read a comment from teh DJ himself that said something like "I've got peopel watching this closely to see who really wants this the most" and bam boom that did it for me. I started commenting over and over and over and over again. I have barely left my computer since Thursday night at 5. So far I have left over 400 comments out of 916 and there have been a few girls who have tried to go head to head with me. I have a strategy. The one girl who was my competition all day Friday all of sudden stopped posting. Then two other girls showed up and started posting but I never stopped. I posted up old pictures of me with all my old NKOTB stuff, new pictures of Chloe and other random stuff. I wrote poems, songs, haikus etc. BAsically whatever came to my mind I commented about it. I even made up a brother who antagonized me and I would retaliate against him in funny ways. Most of what I said was true. Old memories of the first NKOTB concert I went to in 1991. These other amateurs were cutting and pasting from other sites. No originality, no heart. Although I started posting pics from google I always put in a cute saying or thought to go with them. When I couldn't post comment I had the girls login and post for me. My eyes hurt. my fingers are absolute jello. my neck and lower back ache. I hope I win. Now nothing is guaranteed. But I am hopeful that I am the very clear winner in wanting it the most. Either way I'm going to the show but damn I'd love to meet them in person. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

the vortex is getting worse

2008-09-28T20:26:00.004-07:00

not sure if I've ever mentioned our vortex. basically, there is a big black void where air waves and sound waves and all sorts of frequencies and signals come to die. it starts at our community mailbox, approx 100 yards away. not sure where it ends but most of the time if i'm on my cell phone and I'm driving home past the mailbox I can almost pin point the exact moment where my call will drop. when we moved in we discovered that the ceiling fan in the living room would turn on by itself at usually the same time each weekend or in the middle of the night. Either the lights or the fan or both at random dimness and fan speeds. nothing completely out of the ordinary but now I'm noticing other things that seem to be associated, or at least unexplained and therefore related until explained! the TV in the living room skips out audio every few minutes for a second to five seconds sometimes. I told Chad to ask the TV repairman about it when he came out a few months ago and the idiot (not Chad, the repairman) told us to call the cable company. I think he thought that we didn't know the diference in censorship from the networks and poor audio output. oh well i guess. now the garage door has stopped responding to both Chad's and my clickers and also the pin pad on the outside of the house. It still opens from the inside of the garage. Besides the fact that my cordless phones only ring every 10 calls or so (I miss a lot of calls) now one of them drops calls at random, usualy when I check voicemail. I have never heard of a land line dropping calls. Even back in the 80's when we had some of the primitive cordless phones with the metal antenna's that everyone would eventually break did they ever drop a call. Very very very annoying! Several light bulbs have gone out and when I replace them they still don't work. And as if that wasn't weird enough my computer (and I think Chad's) drops the internet connection. Today it's (oh there it goes again "local area network cable unplugged") been happening a lot. Last night I plugged my camera in to charge for 2 hours before I went out and not only did it not charge but wouldn't work again until this morning. The battery was so dead. Deader than a door nail. The guy who lived here before us was an electrician and did a lot of his own work on the house so that could have a lot to do with it but I still say it's the vortex. It's getting much worse. If it's not a vortex than we're sitting on top of some indian barial ground. Anyone know a good witch doctor?

kids say the darndest things

2008-09-01T20:12:00.003-07:00

Did some shopping today. nothing fancy, just groceries. while walking through the produce section I witnessed a kid, maybe 6 years old, put his butt on some potatoes and fart. His mother didn't seem to notice (or worse, didn't care) and he was quite pleased with himself. Then later in the bread aisle I heard a little girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old, tell her mother "I know where daddy hides cigarettes!" I was turning out of that aisle and didn't get to hear mom's reaction. But I bet it was good. Earlier in the week I had this mother and her brat of son in my store. I don't know what she did to piss him off but he threw one of the ugliest tantrums I've ever seen. He was crying and carrying on and then proceeded to hit his mother repeatedly and yell at her "you make me angry!" over and over again at the top of his lungs. All little reminders of why I am glad I don't have children.
Got through rush last week. The week prior my assistant manager quit. long story short some customer called her a bitch and she got mad when I didn't reprimand the customer. There's a lot more to it than that but basically that was her last straw and she quit. So Corina and I handled rush without her. It was our best rush ever. I hired some phenomenal temps and we kicked some serious butt together. Everyone was in sync with everyone else. Customers got what they needed when they needed it and in the end, my 63 hour work wee was very fulfilling. Now, I have to train a new assistant and I have this great candidate that is a temp. He can do it all and also with a big smile on his face. He even caught a shop lifter on Wednesday. The only problem is that he has a parole officer he has to see every Tuesday night for the next 10 weeks. That means if I want him to work for me I have to quit working for Weight Watchers on Tuesdays (which I am sad about) so I can close the store. But I think he may be worth it. I don't know what he went to jail for and really, as long as it's not theft, I don't care. I mean if he was some crazy killer or something he wouldn't be out so whatever. I am not allowed to ask him. I'll have Corina do it for me.

Oh and just a last note. I got a $65 check from the county because the judge dismissed my ticket. Pretty sweet.

'it figures' is my middle name

2008-08-11T18:20:00.002-07:00

Went to traffic school weekend before last and paid my debt to society. $120 for four hours of traffic jeopardy and a silly video where this old guy took out another driver with a harpoon in a bout of road rage! Last Tuesday was my court date. Very interesting how they the court system works. Six different city courts all lined up in rooms and when you walk in you get to see all the other jerks who messed up and got caught by the popo. Probably 50 people in there waiting to see the judge. Some of these people were in jeans and tank tops and I remember thinking 'is that seriously how you dress to go meet a judge, jackass?' Most of them walked right up and either pleaded guilty and assessed a fine or they pled not guily and got another court date. Everything from DUI to Boating DUI and one kid had window tint that was too dark (been there, done that, paid that $40 fine) and he woulda had to pay $125 if he hadn't fixed it. Two different kids under 21 for DUI. One guy had aggrevated driving and no license or registration and was drunk and he didn't even speak english. Prime example of why it is sometimes a good idea to block the borders. His fine was $450 for just one his violations. So I finally get called up and when I get up to show the judge my proof of insurance he says to me "good afternoon miss krackuh" and I say "uh, no, it's miss cracker' and he says "what's that?" and I say "my last name is cracker, not krackuh, the officer spelled my name wrong." He asked to see my license then handed it back to me and told me he was dismissing my ticket. Didn't even bother with my proof of insurance. Both charges dropped. WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?! Seriously couldn't have planned that if I had tried. Everyone in the court room was like "oh man, no fair, she's so lucky" Don't get me wrong I am tickled pink that I "beat" the system but the system beat my by getting my $120 and four hours on a Saturday! Now if I do get stopped again I can't go to traffic school to excuse the ticket cause I've already been. I asked my friend Joe, who's an ex-NYPD cop, what are the chances they throw my ticket out for the error in my name? He said probably wouldn't happen. He said if this was the 80's then yes but now days they don't care if they made a mistake. Apparently he was wrong. Had I just bothered to ask the police department directly I probably could've avoided traffic school and court. But knowing my luck they would've had me take my ticket in so they could issue a corrected one so ,really, there would've been no winning for me. Still I had to try. So I wrote my traffic school instructor an email:

I was in your class this past Saturday. I had court today for my proof of insurance violation and the judge ended up throwing out the ticket because the officer wrote my ticket out to Romanian Krackuh instead of Cracker. So if I do happen to get another ticket in the next two years my free pass has now gone out the window, right? I guess if I had known that this was a possibility I wouldn't have taken the course. Had I not taken the course and then shown up to court and he didn't throw it out then the judge would have made me pay the ticket and I would now have points on my license. I even stayed after I got my certificate to ask you about my name on my ticket but then figured you turn in the citation number and not the name. Any input?

A few days later he wrote back:

Yes, you are right. We just send in the citation number. Unfortunately this is the dilemma that everyone is faced with, when they receive a traffic citation. Either go to court in the hope of winning your case or just go to driving school and not asses (he spelled asses not assess, ...hahahah.....sorry) any moving violation points. Alot of times it is better to just go to school. The fee you pay for school is cheaper than paying for a traffic violation. In your case, if the judge would have found you to be at fault. You would have spent at least 200 to 400 dollars in fines. Plus the points added to your record. Sorry for the late response. If you have any more questions feel free to write back.

What does he care? He already got his $120. So anyway it just figures. I mean it really does. This sort of thing always happens to me. I know I should be happy but really it's just another reminder of how much the universe likes to kick you when you're down.

tough day

2008-08-09T18:26:00.002-07:00

Had to take Shadow in today to have her put down. Very hard day for me. I knew it was coming and I know I did the right thing but it's still very hard. She's had a difficult week. She really hasn't eaten in a few weeks and was just fur and bones. She weighed 50lbs most of her life and this morning she was down to 37lbs. Doesn't sound like a big difference but I am assured it was a big decrease for her breed. She hasn't been able to stand very well this last week. Her hips probably couldn't support her weight because she had no muscle left at all. When she walked one leg would give out and she'd just collapse. She was trying to eat some food a few nights ago and she knocked her bowl off it's stand and so Chad helped hold her food up to her mouth while I held her up to eat. I knew we were close now. This morning she wasn't standing at all. I picked her up and held her in my lap for a while. She didn't put up any sort of fight like she normally would when I tried to snuggle with her. At lunch time I walked in the kitchen to find her slumped over in the doggy door with one paw out the door. She couldn't even get herself outside. I started crying and called the doctor. I had to carry her to the car and again inside to the vet's office. I put up her up on the table and sat and waited. I was crying and she came over and licked my tears off my face. She was afraid but didn't struggle. It didn't take long at all. They said up to a minute but I think it was something like 8 seconds before she died. I hope I did the right thing but putting my animal to death. It seems like it shouldn't be up to me to make that decision. The dr. didn't try to talk me out of it at all. I stayed with her body for 20 minutes and kept hoping she would perk up and give me one more lick on the face. I had her for 13 years. She was my mother's dog. I have a frame in my head of her running up to my mom and them walking off together. It's a bit too much to take today. I miss my Shadow.

I could make a fortune

2008-07-05T23:22:00.004-07:00

driving home tonight I got my first speeding ticket ever. I've been driving since I was 14 (I had a European liberal mom, so?) and I've only ever gotten one ticket before. I blatantly ran a stupid stop sign and although I had run this same sign for a year previously I got stopped one day when I wasn't careful. But speeding has always been my thing. I am like a hawk on the road and spot the popo a mile away. So, much to my surprise, I didn't see him until it was too late tonight. When I did spot him I checked my speedometer and was doing 80mph (posted 65mph and yes he did ask me if I knew that and I considered lying but I don't think it would have done any good) so I very gently took my foot off the gas and coasted down to 70 but it was already too late. He followed me for a mile and then finally pulled me over. I didn't get a warning, mostly because since he had to ticket me for not having a current proof of insurance he got to slam me twice. Oh well, I guess it was bound to happen eventually the way I drive but man I was on a role there for a while! Now, more than anything, I'm annoyed that I have to go to driving school. I'm honestly just thinking I'm going to pay the ticket and not deal with all the rest of that nonsense. Although I do have to go to court to show my proof of insurance so maybe I'll take my chances and fight the ticket. I think I heard once that if the cop who wrote the ticket doesn't show you win by default but I have no idea if that 's true or not. What's even more annoying was that he told me that if it had been 3a.m. and there wasn't anyone else out here he wouldn't have bothered stopping me. Whatever dude. My idea was to set up a service that goes to driving school on your behalf. Yes, it would be more expensive to hire someone but think of the 8 hours you'd be saving. I'd hire someone so that I don't have to go sit in a room with bunch of disgruntled jackasses. Wouldn't you?

Jamaica pics...finally!

2008-07-03T09:50:00.007-07:00

It was irie

2008-06-22T19:07:00.002-07:00

Irie (pronounced i-reee) Jamaican word for everyting is alright, a-okay and such...

It was. Until I got home. First the fact that Jamaica is magical and has caputured my heart needs to be known. The island is a lush tropical forest covering miles (or kilometers if you're jamaican or non-american) of mountains that are surrounded by clear blue beaches. The town of Ocho Rios was quaint and dirty and full of life and odd characters. Sure there was garbage on the streets and in the outside food markets and dudes trying to sell us pot and cocaine and all sorts of touristy souvenirs (two of which we bought by the way) but there is something to be said about a happy people who live in a third world country that has the 3rd highest murder rate in the entire world. They keep smiling. They take things slower and, hey, if it can be put off until tomorrow then put it off and have a good time now. My kind of people. We didn't have a lot of money for our trip (and had even less every time we left our resort; damn good sales people) so we chose two activities and the rest of the time we had to entertain ourselves. We zip lines through the canopy of the rain forest on top of a mountain. 9 drops, 1 completely vertical and totally fun. Basically we get harnessed to two lines suspended way up along the top of the forest and we let them push us from one platform to another. Some were only 30 feet up and I think the last one was over 100 feet high and 600 feet across to the end. I screamed twice at the joy of gravities pounding on me. Chad said he wasn't scared but I have a photo that proves otherwise. I highly recommend that to anyone not too afraid of heights. The other activity we did was climbing Dunn's River Falls. We start at sea level, holding hands with 40 other tourists and we all help one another get up these rocks in the middle of this absolutely gorgeous waterfall, probably a total of 75 yards (not meters cause i don't convert worth a damn.) We spent a ton of time on our beach which our hotel room overlooked 14 stories up. The water was perfect, no waves and 100% clear. Some tiny fish swam by us but nothing too fascinating. The cruise ships docked in our lagoon and at first I thought it would annoy me but they were only there 3 of 7 days we were and in the end it was kinda interesting to watch the different boats and passengers file off. And before i knew it, one night, I was watching the boat and I turned around to see if I could see Chad up in our balcony for maybe 3 minutes and when I turned around the ship had already taken off and I couldn't even see it in the horizon. It didn't even make a sound. Eerie, not Irie. The pools were plentiful and perfect and so were the restaurants and buffeteria. We ate more jerk chicken and grilled cheese sandwiches than anything else and the red stripe beer never stopped flowing. One night we went in to town to the jerke center (which is so funny cause I too work at a jerk center) and got some authentic bbq (or jerke as the they call it.) Loved it. They were very Irie. The trip there and back was long and difficult and filled with delays and ridiculousness. although first class for an hour and a half at the airlines expense was pretty sweet. We got home. I got sunburned and diarhea but it was totally worth it. I haven't slept right since the day we left, that I could do without. I loaded all my pics on myspace and then when I turned around to post them here my computer took it's last breathe and died. So I have no pics to show you yet but I'm working on it. They are all trapped on my harddrive. not Irie. Then I went back to work and both my employees seem to think it was time for them to take time off too so I basically worked alone for 3 days. Sure they had good excuses but something to me doesn't add up and even my boss made a comment about it that doesn't sit well with me. Every time I leave I feel like everyone turns on me. Obviously I can't say too much but I am curious to see what's going to go down at work tomorrow.

et tu, t.v.?

2008-06-03T19:32:00.005-07:00

I looked around today and I am just so unhappy with television lately that I thought I'd share my disgust with you lovely people. My Tivo has so little to do. My scheduled recordings don't go past the 14th. That's highly unusual. What is the deal with striking writers for 3 months and then they come back only to give us mediocre 4 to 5 episodes and then take the summer off? Why should they get the summer off? Didn't they just get 3 months off? I say it's time to do some over time before we get so fed up with television that we actually go out and find more meaningful ways of entertaining ourselves like volunteer work, exercising, binge drinking or reading (hahahahaha sorry just had to throw that in there to see if you were paying attention. see, it's funny cause I don't like to read. oh, never mind.) My point is that studios have a lot to make up for with us faithful watchers. Sure, TV is free (yeah, that's why I pay Cox $200/month) but the both the studios and the advertisers need us to watch TV otherwise we won't go out and know which crap of theirs to buy. Thus hurting our already saggy economy and henceforth sending us straight into an ugly recession the likes of which ye have never seen.....arrrr! Thank blog that Showtime is bringing back Weeds for the summer but in all honesty I haven't seen a new episode since August 2007 so they have a bit of nerve keeping fans waiting that long between seasons every year. Those tricky bastards are taking a big risk cause people my age today are so brain dead that they're not going to remember to tune in again in 10 months to see what happened. Am I right? I am.
In other news and grumblings, where the hell is my stimulus check? I don't know. I was supposed to get it by May 16 but so far nothing. Chad hasn't gotten his either. Most of my friends have gotten theirs and Chad and I filed and cashed our tax returns in February so why we don't each have $600 now is beyond me. My friend Corina paid her taxes on April 15 and she still got her money a week before I was "scheduled" to get mine. Why am I destined to be held down? By TV, and by G.W.? I know it's not cause we make too much money. That's certainly not the issue. Last I checked my karma was doing just fine so what is the freaking deal?

Back from Orlando

2008-06-01T13:39:00.005-07:00

Bought a dress for the occassion

Kim, Misty, Amy, Ruth and I, waiting in line for Big Thunder Mtn.

We had just went down Splash Mtn. We were in the front. The water really stung my eyes.

We had to earn all the different pins for our lanyards. Our theme was "connections" and all the pins represent puzzle pieces of our corporate values. I earned the round pin for getting up early (3a.m. AZ time) and doing water aerobics. Only 16 of us did it out of 1000+. Others did a 3K or 5K.

Amy, Pooh Bear, Me, Ruth and Misty

My boss and me and Mickey and Minnie

We had to dress up for the awards dinner. This is in the lobby

Around the hotel grounds I found this beautiful Magnolia.

Cinderella's Castle, Magic Kingdom

Just got back from Orlando last night. The company sends all managers and higher ranking employees to Florida every other year. I had a really good time this go around. I got to room with Amy, my old textbook manager at Estrella. She now manages one the Devry stores here in Phoenix. We did lots of work stuff but got to play a lot as well. One night we went to the Magic Kingdom (which I call Disney World but apparently that's wrong because the entire property is Disney World and the Disneyland duplicate is called the Magic Kingdom.) 5 Managers and our boss went and we had a super fun time in 5 hours. We rode every mountain in front of us, some a couple of times over. The park wasn't very crowded and the lines weren't very long and it is a scary look in how crappy our economy is to see Disneyworld only half full. Next week we're off to Jamaica and I am counting the days, less than 9 now.

In other news, I got my money back from that psycho in Florida. Seems a surprise visit with a bat was the way to go. No, actually, Paypal ruled in my favor and she agreed to give me a refund once I sent her back her peice of crap. Justice prevails and I hope kharma bites her on the ass for trying to get out of doing the right thing and instead have the post office pick up the bill for it.

I got home and Shadow has some gigantic growth on the top of her tail, at the end of her back. Don't know how she got it. It's about the size of a golf ball underneathe her skin. Chad took her in to the vet and they cut it open and squeezed some stuff out but apparently that's all they did cause when I got home last night she was bleeding on my carpet. The lamp shade Chad bought for her to keep her from licking at it was doing the trick cause she has a tongue longer than the shade so she got at it and reopended the scab. We had to rig it last night and staple some construction paper on the perimeter of the shade to extend it. Now she's even blinder than before and running in to everything. She can't get out the doggie door or eat or drink with it on so I took it off while I'm awake. I've had a very close eye on her since I returned. I've been trying to get a scab to regrow but the gash is so deep that it's gonna take more than a few days of neosporin and bandaging to heal it. She's not gushing at all it's just kinda dripping out of her. I bandaged it up but it's in such a bad angle with her butt and her legs that the bandage has to be reset every few hours or when she manages to get at it when I take my eyes off of her. Poor thing. She's in good spirits though so at least I know it's not hurting her.

Super bad news is that Tivo didn't record LOST and I don't know why since it has never missed recording an episode since I set the season pass so I am more than a little upset. I'm gonna have to buckle down and watch it on my computer monitor. 2 hour season finale is worth sitting at my desk I guess.

petty petty bitch

2008-03-31T19:30:00.003-07:00

The phone with the gate, what is should look like, except attached and not broken. below is the piece that fell out of the phone.

I warn you this is a long one. I am gonna try and keep it short but I am so angry right now that I fear you all will have to hear it. Last week I won a Blackberry cell phone on Ebay. I paid $160 plus shipping. A new phone retails around $300. I got the phone and as soon as I opened the back the little metal piece ( I call it a gate) that holds the SIM card in place fell out. The gate is necessary to line up the SIM to the phone. Chad messed with it for hours. I emailed the seller:

Hello. I got the phone today and when I opened up the back panel and removed the battery the metal bracket that holds the SIM card in place was unattached and fell out. I tried to put my SIM card in to see if the battery would lock it in to place but it does not.

bitch replied:

Hi, We had the sim card removed professionally at a T-Mobile store just to make sure everything was done perfectly. I'm sorry to hear what happened to you. Sim card locks in Blackberry's are very sensitive and we never handle them ourselves, we always go to a T-Mobile dealer. I would suppose your best bet would be to go to a T-Mobile facility and ask them to install your sim card and battery. It should be in full working order as that is how we sent it.

so I replied (and this is from memory cause this email got deleted by accident.)

I find it hard to beleive that you took the time to drive it to Tmobile to have them remove the SIM because you couldn't even be bothered to delete any of your phone number, pictures or to-do lists. I can not get the phone to work.

then she replied:

Hello, I want to keep this conversation as civil as possible, if you allow. I am an independent agent who works for a large firm that demos their products at Sam's Clubs and Costco Warehouse Clubs (translation: she's the old lady who hands out free samples.) I have the upmost confidence that the clubs T-Mobile representative did everything he had to do to get the sim card out correctly, if not, he would have told me so. I also, have no reason to lie to you as I'm a very busy person and would not waste my time or yours. My suggestion to you to go a T-Mobile rep is only because I'm not a phone expert. Although we both know we can't live without them these days. I'm sincerely sorry if I missed erasing all of my pics and contacts on the phone. They are easily erasable. However, I never once understood from your previous message to ask to work something out. I thought you wanted my input on the sim card issue. I gave you the background and its 100% True. Why won't you try to get some help locally first before jumping to negative conclusions? I will work with you, I promise.

so then I replied:

I am not trying to be uncivil and apologize if it seemed that way. It's extremely frustrating to spend a large amount of money and then not have it work properly straight out of the box. The only thing holding that metal piece was the battery. Otherwise it was like a maraca. I called Tmobile to see if my insurance would cover it and he said it would, only problem is if I can't register one phone call on the phone then there is no insurance because they will see that I was not the last person who owned that phone and then the warranty is void. I will take it down to a store tomorrow but have little hopes that they are capable of fixing it. I do not think you are doing anything dishonest but I am not either and the difference now is you have the $160 and I don't. All I have is a phone that is basically useless. I will let you know what happens tomorrow, hopefully I have only good to report.

pretty standard right? I was angry but was trying to keep it civil. she's a little uppity. you'll see that very soon. if you're still reading then you love me. I promise this gets juicy. so Chad had rigged it to work. We placed one call and thought we were in teh clear. He used electical tape to secure the SIM down. (please note I suggested using electrical tape hours before he had and he told me not to but I digress.) The next day I thought the phone was on network but I missed several calls. The card slipped and I couldn't get it secure again. I spent 20 minutes on the phone with support and she finally told me that it was hopeless and it would cost $110 to replace it thru the insurance company. fuck that. I could buy a new phone for all that money. So I emailed her:

I took phone to Tmobile and they said it was not fixable. At this point I think I just want a refund. I will fedex the phone to you tomorrow and when you receive it I ask you give me a full refund (less the shipping cost.)

and bitch replied:

Hello, We're also sorry that it came to this, however the phone was in 100% in working order when it left us. We guaranteed the phone until it left our hands at the post office. Since we don't know what really happened after it left us and how you or the T-Mobile person handled the phone, we cannot guarantee it wasn't tampered with after it left us. It is also possible that the package was dropped or thrown around during shipment and the phone got damaged. We paid $2.45 for insurance to cover any damage when shipped to you. We used Paypal services through Ebay, to print your label. You are covered by insurance, for the full price of the phone $165.00. Unfortunately, at this point, you will need to take this up with the USPS. Here?s a link on Ebay?s website that might help you get started. We will not refund your monies. This transaction is completed.

So, on Kristian's advice I filed a claim with Paypal directly. He said not to file with ebay because they seem to be more seller friendly then buyer friendly and that he's always gotten his refunds with paypal when he was ripped off. I filed a very simple, only the facts kind of dispute. That was Friday. The weekend was quiet and then all of a sudden the shit storm started today. Here's what I got first:

You are a very difficult person to deal with. We were trying to work with you and you filed a dispute, didnt wait for a reply from us, and the same day escalated it to a claim with Paypal. We sold you an item in perfect working order. You don't believe us, but its the truth. You bid on an item with a No refund policy. You added shipping insurance to make sure it got to you safely. Then, you go 'bezerk'. (who went bezerk? me? really? me?)Your claim that the box was not damaged during shipment, is your opinion, not a fact. You were not there during transit, to see how they treated the box. Why didn't you just ask us to file the claim with USPS if you didn't believe the claim was justified? Since we know for 100% certainty that the phone was in working order when it left us at the post office, you give us no alternative than to believe that you unwillingness to communicate further with us is because you tampered with the phone and broke it, while trying to install the SIM card and now you want the phone to keep for free or want your money back. An honest buyer would have continued to communicate. We've left you negative feedback due to the fact, that now, you've filed a claim with paypal, we no longer can use our seller account until this is resolved. Paypal has held funds from other buyers in our account due to your claim. We always resolved all issues with buyers in a fair and equitable manner. We won't know just yet what paypal will decide, however, if you're required to return the item, you better make sure to return the item in the same box it was shipped in, along with all of the accessories w/USPS delivery confirmation. At this point, this is a matter of principle and after 341 favorable transactions, we finally met one person on EBAY that would do us harm. We are honest people, very happy with life. This matter or anything you say or do will not crush us, we will continue to see things in a positive light. However, negative feedback was very justified in this case. Bye.

I did not reply. Kristian told me that this would probably happen and to let her spew her evil and not to add to it. that way paypal would see the crazy was only coming from one side. trust me, as enraged as I am I could have sent her to the corner crying in the fetal position but I didnt. So she opens a dispute with Ebay stating I did not pay. they email me and I tell them that I did infact pay and I have a receipt to prove it. I also told them that I opened a dispute with Paypal and perhaps that is why the seller is now stating I didn't pay. So now bitch Mcbitch bitch writes to ebay:

Buyer sent payment, then, made claim with paypal. The payment has been credited from our paypal account due to this claim -therefore, we want Ebay to know that you're dealing with a buyer that is trying to get the item for free, as we have not received the item from her. She is very uncooperative and was reluctant to deal with us further before making her claim. Buyer is a total scammer an knows what she's doing - do what you need to do... we'll accept it. We just wanted you to know. Thank!

can you beleive this garbage? did she not clearly state she would not give me a refund and that the transaction was complete? so then I didn't respond again and she emails this:

We will not close this dispute until buyer returns the item. We are not only out the $181.60 but we don't have the item. Buyer is not stating a fact. The item was in 100% perfect condition when it left us at the post office, buyer tampered with the phone, when installing the sim card and now wants her money back. The buyers payment of $181.60 has not cleared my account, as paypal has credited that very same amount from my seller account.

seriously I'm tired now. but ebay is asking for a response so I email:

phone arrived with internal damage. buyer first blamed USPS. Now she is claiming I tampered with the phone. There was absolutely no tampering of any sort on my part. I communicated problem to seller. We tried to come to common resolution but in the end a refund was the only way. She refused a refund and said the transaction was complete so I filed a claim with paypal. Buyer has left harassing email after claim was filed and negative feedback as retaliation. I offered to return the item when I requested a full refund. I will happily send back phone at my expense just as soon as I see refund from paypal.

and here comes psycho:

We do not agree with the buyers statements, they are false. Item was in excellent condition, no loose pieces in phone when packaged and taken to post office. Buyer is accusatory, negative and very aggressive in communications. Buyer never asked for refund, she stated she would return it for a refund. (I thought she just said I never asked for a refund.) We never got a chance to respond in time (why would they respond after telling me the transaction was complete?), before she filed claim to paypal. We do not agree with buyer. Why should we believe buyer? We don't have the item, nor the $181.60. Our funds did not clear.

god, why the hell are we still argueing? for the love of jebus. This will be my last email:

I'm tired of bickering. I have emails to support all my communication with buyer. Claim has not finalized through Paypal. I will send out phone, as promised, if refund is granted from Paypal. I ask seller to please stop already. I paid and seller acknowledges payment. I ask Ebay to please close this non-payment dispute.

She's already posted more poison. I am so exhausted. I seriously think she's crazy. Plus she's lying and calling me a liar in the process. In my feedback she called me a #1 scammer. That's the pot calling the kettle crazy!!!!

the trouble with Roswell folks

2008-03-28T22:02:00.004-07:00

This will make sense in a minute
I promise, just read the blog

Had an interesting encounter today. It's been a while since the crazies have been enrolled. Did you ever watch In Living Color on Fox back in the late 80's to early 90's? There was this character that Kenan Ivory Wayans played called Anton. He was a homeless guy who carried around a jar of his own pee and was always drunk. Very funny. Well, I have my own version of Anton, at least in appearance, to deal with. He's middle aged, walks with a limp and always wears a doo rag on his head. One of his googly eyes looks over to the left. At the beginning of the semester he came in with his financial aid voucher (a piece of paper that lets the financial aid kids charge against their grants/scholarships etc.) He spent like $400 in one day. He came back and spent some more the next day. Finally, financial aid figured out he over spent and was demanding he pay them back $140 in over charges. He came in several times and asked me to help him. I would print out all his receipts for him and show him, several times over, what he charged, what day he charged and that he signed for all of his charges. Then I'd send him back to financial aid. Then they'd send him back. I couldn't figure out why this kept happening. Finally, one afternoon he asked for all the receipts again because he was sure he paid in cash, not financial aid. So I showed him that was not the case. He was confused. Disoriented. Then he accused me of being smart and knowing how to get around these sort of things to make it look like he spent financial aid's money and not cash. Basically, he accused me of stealing from him. I told him flat out that I didn't appreciate the implication and that he'd better back it up and rethink what he just said. He apologized and left. Well that was in January. He's been in several times since then just to buy candy and soda. But today he decided to let me in to his little strange world. Here's how it went down.

Anton:"I need to ask you a question, but I'll wait until everyone else leaves."

Cracker: "okay" ...........everyone leaves the store and it's just him and me now.

Anton: "Do you ever have problems with Roswell people?"

Cracker: "Uh, you mean like people from Roswell, New Mexico?"

Anton: "No, like area 51 Roswell, up there" and he gestured off in to the direction of what I assume was Nevada.

Cracker: "No. ....................why do you ask?"

Anton: "well, cause they're up to no good. they cause problems. they say I need to buy this software (not holding any software) and I just don't see why. they make things difficult and things have just been different since that whole Roswell thing happend. No one will talk about it. Except me. I know what's going on."

Cracker: " and you find that the common link between these folk is that they're all from Roswell?"

Anton: "Yeah."

Cracker" "Okay, well, I'll keep my eyes open for them and report back to you."

My friend, Joe, who works in next door in security, came by and I told him my story and he wasn't the least bit shocked. He told me that he'd come in to their office moments before he came to me and had complained that strange things were going on and he wanted to report them but couldn't specify what those strange things were (other than him, of course.)

tiny updates

2008-03-02T00:32:00.002-07:00

my life is taking some boring turns lately but Chad always reminds me that I haven't blogged. I love that he is my biggest fan. Even though he's sits in the same room as me, just perpendicular with his computer and all he needs to do is turn around and talk to me he still wants to read my blog. I'm a lucky girl, indeed.
Anywho. went and saw Juno tonight. loved it. so funny and witty and, of course, I cried. I recommend renting it since it may not be in theatres much longer I've heard.
My issues with a certain somebody have calmed and for now are okay. But it's really just a matter of time. Even though we are both making every effort to get along, leopards don't change their spots.
I pulled weeds this morning after my neighbor woke me from a dead sleep to give me my mail that he got by accident. Chad's credit card number was stolen last week. Even though I know it has nothing to do with our mail delivery it's still a crap shute with all the preapproved offers credit card companies send you these days. you'd better go thru all of them to make sure no one is messing with your good name. it's a scary world we live in. But, my abs feel tight from all that bending over and hoeing! oh, yeah, that's what she said.
Chad and I are thinking of taking our vacation to Bali this year. It's kinda scary but so interesting at the same time. We'll see. My vote is for Venice since it will be sunk in 40 years. MPR told me so. Chad is not impressed with watery cities. i'm sure we'll find a common ground.
Shadow is doing okay. all her doggie levels of stuff they tested at the vets office are better or stable. Her breathe, however, is a totally different story. her mouth expels pure death. it's awful. I don't want her near me. I can smell her from 2 ft away. The doctor can't do anything about it without sedating her and in her state he won't sedate her. I've brushed her teeth but that didn't even make a dent. next I'm gonna try altoids. but she's just gonna swallow those. I tried the doggie dental treats but this is far beyond the realm of that "help." Anyone know how to nip this?
so a bunch of random thoughts have caught you up. that's 2 minutes you can never get back.

Shadows and dust

2008-01-27T16:50:00.000-07:00

Chloe celebrated 1 year at the beginning of this month.

Shadow boo

I get to hold the IV bag while Chad rubs her tummy. It takes about

10 minutes for the procedure, so we have to make sure she stays put.

Shadow celebrates her 14th (98 in dog years) bday next month. She's lived a good long life, free of disease and ailments. We should all be so lucky. On Tuesday I took her in for her shots and yearly exam and when the doctor called me back himself I knew that I was in for it. Her kidneys are starting to fail. It explains her foul mood lately and her drinking. Normally she only drinks from the toilet, as it seems to be the freshest, or at least most recycled, water in the house. She's never liked drinking from her bowl. She has this bad habit of running me down in the hallway each morning to beat me to the bedroom to get to Chad, who's still sleeping, first. She's been doing this for years. She also blocks Chloe from entering the room which, in turn, makes Chloe scared and alone in the living room leaving her to chew on anything her mouth desires. Last week Shadow was a bit too vocal on this ongoing panic and I decided to confront her in the bedroom. I walked up to her and told Chloe to walk in behind me. Shadow lunged at her and when I went to stop her she nipped at me and caught my hand with her teeth. That's not like her at all. They sent her home with 2 IV bags that Chad has been injecting her with every other day. They ran some tests and luckily her condition came back as not terribly serious and we can hold off on further treatment for now. I'm glad I took her in when I did. I kept putting it off for months but my new years resolution of less procrastination has probably saved her from an agonzinz and slow death. Her mood has improved but I'll be keeping a close eye on her.
Other than that it's been very quiet around here. Today it's raining non-stop. I was supposed to help Kristian move but that had to be rescheduled to last night so we could beat the rain. I didn't get home until 3:30 this morning and we still didn't finish. I've just been hanging out today blogging and printing pictures etc. Don't really feel like doing anything else.

the ashes issue

2008-01-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year!

Kristian took me out to his friend Ali's house and we went on a

scavenger hunt for boos and money. It was a lot of fun.

Ali, Kris and I

I love champagne!

Happy New Year! Haven't had a lot to say lately. Xmas was very low key. Chad got me a huge shelving unit from Ikea and we spent the whole day putting them together and rearranging our house. Since the old lady will no longer be coming out for visits we turned her room in to our new office. We turned out old office in to a temporary storage room and after we have a yard sale we'll turn that in to a guest room. New Years was fun. Chad had to work so I went to a party with my friend Kristian. He dressed me up in all his diamond jewelry and said if he couldn't look glamorous that I should. I went back to work on Wednesday and it's a total ghost town on campus. It's scary cause school starts in 9 days and if students haven't come in yet then when the hell do they plan on coming in? I came home tonight and am pretty tired. Even though there isn't a ton of stuff going on in store with customers, I hired 10 new temps and they all come to me when they don't know the answer to something so I am constantly running to put our fires or just find tasks to get them busy so I can justify having them there. I know it will pick up next week, it'd better otherwise rush week is truly going to suck ass, more so than normal.
So tonight I was watching a Grey's Anatomy re-run and the main character Meredith had to get rid of her mothers ashes. It occured to me that I have yet to deal with my mother's ashes. In April of this year she will be gone for 10 years. I'm torn. I keep her ashes in the box they gave me right after she was cremated. I never bought an urn because I knew I would spread them soon but soon turned in to months and then in to years. I keep her on my night stand. I know I have to release her from that tiny box but I just have no idea where or how or anything. The whole reason she wanted to be cremated was because she thought it was morbid to be buried for eternity under a stone marker. How morbid is it that I've held her hostage in that box for 10 years. I've even made stupid tasteless jokes like "my mother would roll over in her box." I don't know what to do. Not at all. The only thing I can remember her ever telling me on the matter was that she wanted to come along on all my vacations and get spread a bit every at cool place I went. Well I've already dropped that ball several times. The old lady thinks I should spread her up at the White Tank Mountains cause she loved the out doors so much and she loved the mountains but I just know if I agree with that. She didn't have a favorite place, that I know of anyway, and yes she loved the outdoors but the White Tank Mountains are so....blah. Then I heard that I could have her ashes made in to a diamond. That sounds kinda cool but they only 8ounces so that still leaves quite a bit of ashes I have to spread. I can't even afford to make one diamond but I figure this is a good reason to spend a ton of money if it means I get to keep a small part of her with me. Then I get sad cause I need advice and she would be the only person to give such advice. I need help. I need inspiration.

Texas 2007

2007-12-07T21:41:00.001-07:00

Dang 'ol dang and the things I learned on my winter vacation

2007-12-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Been to Texas recently, yup I sure did. Learned some stuff while I was there. Please follow along in my easy to follow slide show above. First things first. Acorns taste awful. We drove in to San Angelo late on Wednesday and had xmas with Chad's mom, Liz, and brother Manzy. We played bingo for silly gag gifts and then we moved on to the good stuff. Manzy got a guitar and he put on a little show for us. If you've never heard the song "nymphomaniac" I suggest you go download it now. The next morning we awoke to low temperatures and a cemetary across the street in Liz's front yard. or was it back yard. I still don't know which way was front. They have pecan trees all over the place just throwing nuts at you. Also many acorns. Chad gave me some tasty pecans and then handed me an acorn and said "here, try this." I did, cause why would my loving boyfriend steer me wrong? It was bitter and unpleasant and I spit all of it out in the front/back yard. But I did learn how to shell pecans, that was lesson two. I didn't master it but I could do it if I had to. Although there was one nut that wouldn't crack no matter how hard I hit it with my shoe. Liz took us around and I did some shopping and we had some nice meals together. By Saturday we were out to Ballinger, which is Chad's home town. Chad and his men went hunting at the butt crack of dawn and I stayed behind. I had a curiosity about it but in the end decided that if I coudln't watch that poor bull get killed in Mexico that watching a deer get shot in the neck wouldn't be any easier. Chad's step-mom, Rita, was babysitting her grandson that morning. Now the night before I got the tutorial on how to approach, or should I say not approach Landon. I followed the steps and before you know it he's sitting on my lap watching cartoons. I watched a lot of TV on Saturday. Finally the men returned and Chad got a doh (I know that's not how you spell it but I couldn't find it in the dictionary) or female deer. I went out and apologized to it before they laid in to it with their knives. We had xmas at their house that night. The next day they all went hunting again and maybe Chad actaully shot that poor defenseless deer Sunday, either way it was shot and dead and dripping by the end of the day. They usually let the deer bleed out (yummy) for a few days and then chop it up for meat but because it was 80 degrees out they did want to risk foul meat. It took hours. Rita and I watched Grey's Anatomy and took naps and they were still cutting when we were done. I finally decided to get my hands dirty. Only felt fair if I was gonna eat it I might as well get some underneath my finger nails for a few hours. That turned out, oddly, to be a lot of fun. I learned that that one dear would last for a whole year frozen. crazy. We made summer sausage and then packed the other 15 or so pounds in plastic baggies. Later on, right at sun down Chad and Manzy took me out to let me shoot Manzy's gun. I did much better my first time I went to Texas 7 years ago. Then just for shits and giggles Chad had me shoot the rifle. Holy cow that was cool and so scary at the same time. Their cat kept getting in the way. All I hit with that gun was the top of a very big hill behind all the targets. Much later after the folks went to bed, the 3 of us stayed up and talked and Chad and i went outside so we could sing 'the stars at night are big and bright [clap clap clap clap] deep in the heart of Texas.' He went inside for a second and I ventured out into the darkness by myself. It was so dark I couldn't see anything at all except the few distant lights and the giant cross on the hill like 3 miles away. All of a sudden I heard a noise. Sounded like a snorting followed by a grunt and a scuffle. I let out a small scream and I booked it back to the house and I said to Chad "holy shit something just snorted at me!" He and Manzy got their laugh at me. It was only a deer. Well I could have figured that out except that they scare so easy that it didn't make sense to me that it would let me know it was standing there. I assumed it was either a bobcat or coyote. We went back out and I kept hearing it and finally when we turned around we could see the deer on the horizon taking off across the front yard. It made me laugh. We did some star gazing and it turns out that Chad couldn't point out the big dipper if his life depended on it. I still love him though. Final thing I learned is that aught means zero. 30aught9 translates to 3009. Not sure why you wouldn't say 3aughtaught9 but hey I don't ask these silly questions when I'm out numbered. I had a great time, as I usually do with Chad and his family. Thanks guys for showing me a great week.

Chloe!

2007-11-17T23:28:00.000-07:00

Myspace Glitter Graphics

Las Vegas Baby!!

2007-11-15T09:26:00.001-07:00

So I was trying to wait until I had all the pics to post my slideshow for Vegas. I'm still missing a few shots but these are all my faves so far. Me and the girls drove to Vegas for my birthday weekend. My friend Courtney is getting married this coming weekend so it was also her bachelorette party as well. We had a blast. We stayed at Mandalay Bay, which can be quite reasonable split 6 ways! We drove in Friday and that was my day to celebrate. We ordered matching shirts for each day. My shirts were pink and mine said "it's my bday, bitches!" and the girls' shirts said "jojo's bday bitches." I'm not one to use the term bitch unless I truly hate someone but I thought it was funny. Whenever we'd get separated I'd yell out "Over here bitches!" and they'd all come running. At first I didn't like calling anyone a bitch but they told me I had to be more forceful and by the end of the weekend I had it down. We went clubbing (which isn't my thing at all but I ended up having a lot of fun.) I got tons of happy birthdays from strangers and everywhere we went people took notice, mostly cause of our bright pink shirts but also cause were annoying as hell being loud and just enjoying ourselves. But the cool thing was that in Vegas anything goes so no one seemed to be annoyed with us. Most people interacted with us. The funnest part for me was when I got serenaded in front of the Belagio. This little black man, that smelled like a dirty ashtray, played "you look beautiful tonight" by Eric Clapton on his harmonica. Then he and a bunch of guys that were standing around him and all the girls sang "Happy Birthday" to me. I asked him to play "Layla" but he didn't know that one. Then the fountains started up and they were dancing to Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas" and we all danced and sang along. It was so much fun. Those were my favorite pics but I haven't gotten those yet. The next day we wore out Courtney shirts. Her shirt said "I'm tying the knot, buy me a shot" and our shirt's said "Bride's posse." We did some more clubbing. Lots and lots of clubbing. We danced a lot and spent small fortunes on drinks (well I didn't cause I only had $100 to my name for the whole weekend and I couldn't justify spending $8 on one beer. We spent most of the night at Caesar's Palace. We saw Cleopatra in the bathroom. We made wedding veils out of toilet paper as part of our scavenger hunt duties. By Sunday we were all pretty wore out and happy to head home. We basically woke up and voted unanimously to just go home. We decided we should do it every year. It was one of the best birthday's I've ever had. Thanks to my girls for making it so special.

I covet steam....and why Buddha would be dissapointed, would that he was able to feel disapointment

2007-10-22T19:24:00.001-07:00

I panicked...as usual. I am a panicker by nature. I think I am justified. To quote Chuck Nice:

" an orphan and Romanian? that sucks!"

My pipes are fine. So it appears. My toilet over flowed because Chad didn't cut down the tube that tells the water flow to stop so it was seeping out the front of the tank under the handle. Then on Saturday we ran some scientific tests to see why the washer had dumped it's load. By scientific I mean I tilted the washer back while Chad stuck his head under it and asked 'do you see anything?' He didn't and we poured some water in to it and finally it started flowing out the bottom. We don't see a hole and I think the machine is too old to try and salvage. Besides I have been waiting for it to die so I could get a fancy new one. And I did. Although I spent close to an hour looking at the same 8 machines at Home Depot. I'm sure the girl thought I was the most indecisive customer she's seen in a long time but she played it cool and at the end of the day she snagged the sale. I have been seeing the commercials for the beautiful cherry red washer and dryer with the steam function. The washer alone is $1200 ($1100 if you get white instead.) I want to steam my clothes....oh yeah I do. Chad said he would never use that function. I know I would but to pay a good $400 more for that function seemed a bit excessive, even for me. But I couldn't help ogling the machine right there in the show room. I leaned on it and imagined what it would be like to refresh my clothes without having to run a full cycle. In the end reality sunk in and I got the model under it without the steam but with all the other bells and whistles. It arrives on Wednesday. Not soon enough considering our old machine broke down Tuesday and I'm almost out of work clothes. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wear jeans. Too bad ;p. But that time I spent agonizing about spending a small fortune on a machine was silly. I don't know where my love of inanimate objects comes from. I always thought the Buddhists had their shit together and that maybe I'd join but I just love stuff way too much. I don't want to live to work. I need those silly things to make me feel like my 40 hours a week are worth it. Not just so I can give my money to everyone who supplies me with light, water and housing. Is it wrong to love stuff? yes, probably. But it's a flaw I'm willing to live with.

Water, Water Everywhere!

2007-10-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

hey guys,if anyone out there knows anything about plumbing I could sure use some advice. here's the short version. last night my washing maching lost all it's water in the middle of a load through the front bottom of the machine. all pipes and flooring is dry behind the washer. at the same time I find water under my sink. all pipes are dry. the wall is dry and when I ran the disposal it was also dry with no signs of a leak under the sink. All drains are draining.today I come home and my bathroom is flooded. there is an obvious leak coming from the bottom of the toilet tank but there is no crack or hole so I don't understand where the water is coming from since all screws and surrouding areas are bone dry. the wall is dry by the main pipe and all the water is coming from this steady drop of water from bottom of the tank, none from the base of the toilet or the wall. I stopped the water on the toilet and that stopped the leak even though the tank is still full of water. the kitchen is adjacent to the laundry room and the bathroom is behind the laundry room but does not share any wall with joining pipes. The toilet does however share a wall with my fridge which dispenses water and ice, no leaks so far from that wall. i called a plumber and they said it didn't sound urgent and maybe they could get out here Friday if I was lucky. Shoudl I panic? I mean more so than I already am that at any moment my house will be like the Titanic!

Puerto Penasco Slide Show!

2007-10-09T17:59:00.001-07:00

We just got home from Rocky Point. It was awesome. We rented a condo at a resort from a friend of a friend's mom at Las Palomas. The weather was perfect. The water was perfect. The company was perfect. We laid out by the pool a lot. spent a few hours on the lazy river. Ate lots of local goodies. We snorkled. Just a damn good time is what it was. None of us wanted to come back and we were all trying to figure out how we could purchase our own condo so that we could do this every month. The only damper was one of the arcadia door windows broke. We don't know how. It just started cracking for no good reason. Nothing hit it (at least nothing that we could see) and now we may be responsible for it which is crap because we had absolutely nothing to do with it other than just renting it the wrong weekend. We'll see. Can't wait to go back.

A few things

2007-10-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

First and most importantly, Chloe has neurological problems. A few weeks ago I noticed she was shaking. Just gently like she was keeping up to a good dance beat. When I cupped her little head in my hands she stopped and when I let go she'd start shaking again. She had to use furniture to brace herself up. It worried me but it stopped soon after. Then it happend again Monday while Chad was with her. He took her in and so far (after $330 in tests...that was my 'reduced' rate) nothing can be found. The only thing that hasn't come back negative was valley fever and we should hear those results today. So now they are suggesting we take her to a specialist and I am not sure my wallet can handle that. I feel cruel if I don't help her but all in all she is a very well behaved, very smart puppy dog and to run expensive tests on her when there may not be anything fundamentally wrong with her or that would affect her quality of life seems silly too. I think it has something to do with her being stuck in the birth canal for 4 hours behind a dead sibling. My weight watchers leader, Gretchen, suggested I take her to the chiropractor she referred me to for my "whiplash" last Ocotober. She may actually be right but I can't imagine me taking my dog to a chiropractor. I mean that's just crazy. Right?
Next was something I'm over now. In a nut shell I have a faculty member who hates the bookstore with a passion. I've blogged about him before but his wife also is a treat and hates us with a passion too. She came to our annual bad-mouth-the-bookstore-with-a-smile meeting where people come to have a grown up discussion and inevitably it turns in to a temper tantrum where I have to sit there and be diplomatic to these freaks who think that my biggest concern (I call it my biggest problem) is their specific classes. They care not of anyone else who wanted to discuss pertanent issues. No they wanted to complain about a book we ran out of for 24 hours on the first week of classes. We are 7 weeks in to term and it's just now being brought to me (like I didn't know) and she chooses to do it in the most rude and obnoxious way. She never does anything proactively to help us, just likes to complain in an open forum. She doesn't return phone calls when we ask for information that would bypass this situation from happening every semester. No, wait to air your dirty laundry which by my account wasn't so dirty but she tried to make it look like we didn't have her stuff for 1 week (which is eons in math terms) and when I insisted she was wrong (very politely I might add) she told me I was wrong cause her students told her. I then wanted to tell her they were lying cause they know if they blame us they can prolong having to spend $64.00 on a piece of cardboard with a 20 digit number inside. And if she would just take the time to check (like all her cohorts do) she'd know. So what makes me mad is that I do have to smile and take it because my corporation frowns on us calling faculty egotistical jerks....not sure why. She's mean and so is her miserable husband. That's all I had to say about that.
Lastly, I was talking to Judy (my co-worker) last night at WW and she knew one of the new members. She was a daughter of an old friend. Well the member's brother has brain damage from playing russian roulette. I was so shocked. People actually play that? I thought it was just something they just did in the movies. So it didn't kill him but he does have to live in a special home for kids with head injuries. Crazy. Just thought I'd share that for a taste of something different. I started looking at all the other members, most of whom are over 70. Just imagine what kinda crazy stories they could tell.

note to self

2007-10-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

I'm tired right now and can't keep my eyes open for much longer so I am leaving myself a note so I can come back tomorrow and vent.
1. russian roulette
2. bitches trying to take me down
3. damn it I had a third and I forgot it....maybe it'll come to me in my sleep. I think it had to do with something that happend today....grrrr. OH! I know. Chloe's brain. TTFN.

.....Really?

2007-09-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

I have excellent credit. It's no accident. I work hard for my hard credit. I have a few credit cards that give me "points" or "rewards" for my spending. They try to scam you in to using your credit to buy everyday things like food and gas so you can get bigger "rewards." I am not so gullible. What I am gullible about is that my hard earned points will actually give me something cool for keeping my credit in tact and giving these companies my responsible and consistent business over the past few years. Most particularly my MasterCard which I have had for almost 8 years now. Over the last 8 years I have charged up and paid off over $16,000 on one card. I know this because I have earned 16,000+ points and today I decided to "cash in" those points. I haven't touched them thinking that by now I surely must have built up to something pretty cool and/or useful. Oh how quickly I learned how wrong I am. I got on to the site and started checking items that I could "purchase" with my points. Nothing too fancy or crazy. All the good stuff was in the 30,000+ points range. Some notables were a 5 mega pixel digital camera (okay, not too shabby, mine's only got 4.5 mega pixels. back when I bought mine 5 mega pixels was top of the line. you couldn't get more than 5, but I digress) a designer purse and an ipod shuffle. Well none of that seemed appealing so I started looking at the travel options. First I check Hawaii (that's my next trip ambition) but all those tickets were worth 50,000 points. You can't get a plane ticket to motherfucking Detroit for less than 30,000 points. Really? Detroit? Who the hell goes to Detroit who doesn't have to go to visit family? So then I check some hotels in Vegas. I love Vegas and surely I have earned a free night at Mandalay Bay or somewhere cool. Oh how wrong I was again. Basically what it all comes down to is if you want to get cool free shit you'd better already have spent $50,000. Well if I could afford to spend $50,000 on anything I think I'd have already flown to Hawaii and stayed at Mandalay and wouldn't think going there for free was any big deal. But what do I know, I can't even afford to fly to Detroit, the arm pit of America. What can you get? Well I'm glad you asked. Apparently my $16,000 earns me that 5 mega pixel camera but Chad can walk in to Best Buy right now and purchase a 7.2 mega pixel camera for $109 (and he did and I'm going to tomorrow.) Really? I could have bought 145 cameras for $16,000! I could have flown to Hawaii 32 times by now and I could have stayed at Mandalay Bay 44 times. Stupid MasterCard motherfuckers. Don't even get me started on Discover.

sick sad world

2007-08-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

I think I've had my fill of retail. Like officially this time. But whatever job I go to won't be any less filled with complete and utter retards. Most of the kids that wonder in aimlessly don't give a damn about college. Their parents or parole officer makes them attend and by the 4th week or so the parking lot is always back to half empty. Today this mom calls me up and she says

"well, you know how boys are a bit needy and stupid? if you could just get these books ready for my son so he doesn't get confused when he gets there, that would great."

and I said

"ma'am, how do you expect your son to not be stupid if you keep doing things like this for him?" and she laughs

"oh, I know, but if you could that would help a lot." so I didn't. he came in and I asked him for his schedule and he didn't have it. I told him

"your mom said you were bringing it."

he said he knew but he forgot it. c'mon. I literally just talked to her 30 minutes prior to him entering the store. why is he in college? if he can't even be bothered to find his own books or even bring his own schedule then maybe he should go ahead and just get that job at Starbucks cause I need him to get me my mocha fraps once a week. Why bother paying the district $1500 for your idiot slacker kid who doesn't even want to be there? Half these kids have no idea what classes they're taking. They expect us to hold their hands and do everything for them. I'm tired of it. America is getting stupid. Really really stupid. Did you know that 1/5 of American's can't point out the United States on a world map? That's outrageous! see video below for more ridiculousness! or just go it directly http://youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

peace at last

2007-08-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

I bought Chloe a halloween costume today, with Chad's blessing. She's gonna be the cutest strawberry in town! Rush is now mostly behind me. Tomorrow will probably be a bit busy but for the most part it's done. I had some really great temps and the whole week went pretty smoothly with a few small snags, but those are always to be expected. I held up a lot longer than normal. I lost my will to go on midday Friday. I had so much stress built up in my back that me and the girls went for massages. I had a full hour of deep tissue and when it was done I told her where it was painful (my fatty part just below my thumbs) and my masseuse said that I was having problems in my kidneys. We went for lunch and then to a purse party and I bought yet another Coach wallet. I am not sure where my obsession with Coach bags started but luckily there are enough inexpensive knock-offs out there to support a girls habit. It was a nice day not thinking about work and not worring about making others happy. Today Chad and I went over to the new Best Buy that just opened up by our house and it was customer service overload. Chad got angry cause he hates service and with 3 employess to every customer it was inevitable that we'd get asked "can I help you guys find something?" over 20 times....I'm not exaggerating. By the end Chad was cutting them off before they could finish their sentences and I turned in to the smiley happy girlfriend saying "no thanks" over his "NO!" Once again I forgot all the great blog ideas I had this week, whether it was about stupid students or unreasonable customers or just about how old I am getting and can't handle working 60 hours in one week. Yes, 60 hours doesn't isn't the end of the world but it's non-stop 13 hours a day of running, rushing, unloading, putting out fire after fire after fire cause when you're in charge everyone leaves the fires for you to extinguish all while you smile and give the excellant customer service that my company insists we cram down everyone's throats. Luckily it's only 2 weeks out of every year. Monday I didn't get to eat lunch until 3:30. I got there at 7:00a.m. and didn't leave until 8:00p.m. We cleared $98K that day. I know boo-hoo. But I'm exhausted, so give me a break. Fine, no more talk about work, I like it better that way. On a sad note, 2 of our hermit crabs died this week. Not sure why but last time we lost 2 small pets in one week we had a mouse in the house. I don't think we have mice cause I haven't seen any signes of them but I can't figure out why these "perfect" pets would both crawl out of their shells and croak. We've had Gaston for almost 2 years. The biggest crab, Bowser, is still kicking but we're watching him closely. wE wanted to pick out some new crabs today but once again there were way too many employees at Petsmart having a pow wow in front of the crab tank and Chad didn't want to deal with it. He's my shy little cranky old man.

ignorance is bliss....

2007-08-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

except for those of us unfortunate not to be that. I've had a lot on my mind this week and tons of good blog ideas but now have forgotten them all but I'll try to see if I can't remember them. School starts in just over a week and naturally the store is crazy busy and there's more work to do than can be done. Which reminds me of one of the things I wanted to moan about. Lazy slacker-ass people. I don't usually have problems with bad employees but this semester I found 2 jems that don't bother showing up on time or sometimes at all and then don't bother to call to let you know that they're not coming. Then you get some bull shit sob story that I only half believe but find hard to swallow when they are so slackerish while on the clock. One girl who has called out 6 times now in 5 weeks delegates the projects that we give her to the other temps who started after her. This last time she sends me a text message (that's how she normally calls in or she emails) and I didn't have my phone with me so I didn't think to have Chad check it until it was way too late. I had told her that she needed to call me directly at the store and speak to me rather than assume I read a text message when I rarely hear my phone go off. The other temp was a no-call, no-show for the second week in a row. Then when I called him to see if he was okay he gave me an excuse which was probably mostly valid but then when I reproached him for not filling me in he got silent and offended and then I asked him if he was coming in the rest of the week at all and he said probably not and once again I asked him if he was planning on telling me and he just didn't say anything. Please understand that I wasn't rude or harsh or raise my voice or anything. Considering how ticked off I was I managed to be very cordial and really I didn't have to be. Both these temps are over 30. How embarrassing to be a grown adult and such a total douche. I'd be mortified if I ever had to miss a day and then just not bother to call my boss. This all brings me to the same question I ask myself all the time. Am I so hard to talk to? I don't understand. One of my returning temps told me how much she liked me and how easy I am to talk to and how embarrassed she was for the other temp who couldn't bother to show up regularly. I told her how much I appreciated her saying that but it still makes me think that maybe I am scary too some people so it's easier to just not call. I've prided myself on being a reasonable and understanding boss (and on making up words like prided!) I don't freak out or judge or criticise. Oh well, 2 more weeks and I clean house and start fresh.

Sometimes you find angels when you least expect them

2007-07-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

I'm aethist. you knew that right? I am and I appreciate not being hassled about it. But this week I have discovered I have 2 guardian angels. Both my minions are on vacation this week leaving me to mind the store 12 hours each day this week. I can't leave the premises and under no circumstance can I not show up. I have 2 temps and 1 super-part-time cashier. Well one of the temps is a total flake and has called in twice this week (that make 4 times total in her 3 weeks of employment.) Then my part time cashier fell and busted her ass at her other job and is out of commission for at the very least the rest of this week. So I'm panicked. Why? well cause I just had 110 boxes arrive from one carrier and another 42 from another carrier. I have to run the register, do all my managerial mundane daily duties and also do Corina's job etc. I don't know if I'm coming or going. my "breaks" have basically consisted of my shoving what ever food I could get in to my mouth as fast I could before someone else needs me. BUT one of my temps, Eric, totally stepped up to the plate and has gone above and beyond what his temp duties call for. Not to mention he's got a new born at home. He has stayed late, come in early and said yes with a smile to all of my crazy whims that I've had to throw on him just to keep my head above water. He and I knocked out all the boxes in less than 24 hours. Fabulous. Today he told me how much he had learned about doing his job more efficiently just by watching me the day before. Holy shit. Then as if that wasn't good enough, Amy (you remember Amy, my text manager that moved away and then moved back again) comes to my rescue each night this week buying and delivering me dinner and helping out at my store for the last 3 hours of the day all three days so far. She came from her store after working 8 hours and worked with me cause she knew how panicked and stressed I was. I can't even believe the generosity that Eric and Amy have shown me this week. Plus Jackie brought me lunch on Tuesday and Ramin is bringing me lunch tomorrow. Everyone stepped up when I needed them. There's so much wrong with this world but they managed to make me believe in the goodness of man, if only for a while until some shit head ruins it again. I'm gonna go to sleep now so I can wake up and do it all again. weeeee.

All is quiet on the western front

2007-07-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

Everyone is out of town. I mean just about everybody. It is very quiet and really boring all by myself. I find myself staring off in to nothing with a blank look on my face and I realize hours have gone by and I haven't spoken to anyone or done anything. It's like a ghost town. Karin keeps me company, mostly on the phone and were it not for her I may have already gone mad. The other night I was so bored I started organized my things and I ran across the last journal I kept from when I was 18. I had kept many journals starting from age 10 or so until 18. My mom found it once and read it and I was so upset that she invaded my private thoughts that I stopped writing. She thought I was doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing and I wasn't but she didn't know that until after she had read it and by that point I was so pissed that I just didn't want anyone going in to my brain uninvited ever again. I've been blogging for 3 years now and this has been my journal sort of but no real personal stuff, other than my painful pee. I laughed out loud a bunch of times at my 18 years old self. I've changed so much and I haven't changed that much. I still bitch and moan about random stuff and in the same sarcastic manner as I ever did. It was also funny to see what mundane "problems" I had and what I wasted my time worrying about. I'm sure when I'm 38 I'll re-read my blog entries and laugh at myself again. I enjoyed my stroll down memory lane. But then it got me thinking about other stuff and pondering philosophical stuff like 'why are we here' and 'what's it all about' and so on. I heard this lady on the radio the other day talk about this 2 week vow of silence she took and how crazy hard it was at first and by the end she had learned to calm her mind and clear it of the unnecessary debris that was cluttering it. I need to do this. But I have a full time job that won't allow me to not speak. In August everyone and I mean everybody will be back and chaos and drama will ensue again. I don't know if I should enjoy my quiet time or relish in all the fun that will come back with all the vacationed folks I'm missing so much. see...always more questions and silly problems.

An open letter to APS and the City of Peoria

2007-07-04T21:43:00.000-07:00

I'm a good person. I pay my taxes and obey all traffic laws. I don't drive drunk or sell drugs or spray paint public property. I'm an average girl just trying to keep my head above water during these grueling summer months. So it really chaps my hide when I get my electric bill for June and it's $238. I've NEVER had a bill that high before. Especially not for June. What the hell is it gonna look like in August? Apparently we used just over 2000Kwh in May. I think that is a big load of horse shit! We're two people living in a 1200 square foot home, for crying out loud. We are so careful. You don't even know. We don't ever turn our thermostat below 78 and we don't run anything that doesn't need to be run until after 9:00p.m. or until the weekend when it's "cheaper." So I call APS and I very nicely ask "how could this possibly be? we are extremely careful." She gave me all retard questions and I answered them all right and then I said the meter must be wrong. She said "no...they're not wrong....they're never wrong." Apparently I missed the notice of the 16% rate hike. I probably just tuned it out with it being like the 3rd rate hike in under 2 years. Now, I work in retail and I know what it's like to have angry customers take their frustrations out on innocent workers, hell half my blogs are about those assholes. But this will not stand:

Dear APS,

How do you bastards sleep at night? I mean really? You think it's okay to jack your prices up every time we aren't looking just because you can't stay in the black? that's really not my problem. how about you take the financial hit for a change instead of passing it on to us working stiffs who do our damdest to use electricity wisely! Do you even have a soul left? how about you renogiate your deal with the devil to at least make it cooler outside so we stand some sort of chance against you, you evil nuclear montsters!!!!! To quote a great teacher "You go to hell. You go to hell and you die!"

Sincerely,
Romanian Cracker

Furthermore, I get a day off with my sweety and it's 117 outside (at 1:00 today it was 111 in the shade on our back padio) so we laid low and had a nice nap on the couch, a lovely dinner and then decided to go watch fireworks at the Peoria Sports Complex. So I get online and see that they begin at 9:15. Great. That gives us plenty of time to drive out and find an empty space to sit. I love fireworks. They make me so happy. At 8:40 we leave and what do I see as I'm pulling out of my neighborhood? You guessed it. Peoria jumped the gun and was already blowing fireworks at 8:45. What the hell? My store hours are posted and I don't get to close even a minute early from what we promise we'll stay open. So where the hell does Peoria get off blowing their wads early? I don't care if all those families got to go and get their rug rats to bed. I pay my city taxes. Jesus Christ if you say you're not fireworking until 9:15 then don't freaking start fireworking until 9:15!!!

Dear City of Peoria,

Who died and gave you permission to put your show on 30 minutes early? I mean if I hadn't looked over in your damned direction I would've missed the whole thing. Do you enjoy making us look like fools pulling off the road and pulling out lawn chairs in the middle of the freaking desert like little jackasses in front of all our neighbors? You must because there you went and did it, you limey basatards. My mother didn't sell everything and pack us up to move to this country for me not to be able to enjoy my rights as an American citizen, you pricks. I get one freaking holiday with fireworks and I gotta watch them from an empty field next to my house and squint my eyes to see your pathetic excuse for fireworks from 6 miles away. You're lucky I didn't get bit by a motherfing scorpion cause god damn it would've been soooo on.

Sincerely,
Romanian Cracker
P.S. That was the lamest finale I ever saw! Your momma!

So I hope you had a great 4th of July....we did. God bless America.

Here's to tooting your own horn!

2007-06-26T21:13:00.001-07:00

Well say hello to Weight Watchers newest lifetime member. I have reached my final goal and anything more than that is icing on my skinny cake! I am proud. It has taken almost a year to get here and those last 5lbs were a bitch to get off but considering I haven't written anything down in 5 months (in case you are unfamiliar with WW, you track your daily point values on paper, that's how you stay on track) I'd say I did okay. I have to thank Chad for all his tremendous support and fabulous cooking. He's had to make a few adjustments for my needs and he hasn't complained once. Well, I take that back, the first night I started he made hamburgers and I showed him what my portion had to look like. We had to measure it out and I remember he said "I'm not gonna like all this measuring" but he never brought it up again. He's also put up with my constant self love. I remind him how hot I am now and he always agrees with me...that's why he's the best ever! I love him. Okay enough mushy stuff. To celebrate me and the girls all took sexy photos at one of Jackie's friends house who's an aspiring photographer. She made us look beautiful and we had so much fun just being girls. It reminded me of some cheesy scary slasher flick of how girls are running around topless or nude and then the killer comes. I always thought to myself "girls don't just sit around naked like that" but yeah, I guess we do!

Fishin on Father's Day

2007-06-19T21:32:00.001-07:00

quick update

2007-06-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I'm a bad blogger. Truth is I've been extra busy lately and that has made me extra lazy when it comes to keeping you posted on things. I really don't have that much to say now. In a nutshell, I started selling Gold Canyon Candles so if you love candles, I'm your lady! My pee infection a few weeks ago was caused by E. coli. I've been working a lot and been spending a lot of time at Jackie's or Amy's house so I haven't been in front of computer a lot lately. I put in a link for an awesome game called guess the Google. try it, you may become addicted to it like me. Basically you get 20 pictures and you have to guess what they all have in common. They are all Google searches. It's timed so just start typing your guess until you get it right. Scroll down and hit the black "launch project" button.

http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/

Perhaps I need to be medicated

2007-05-25T22:36:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest struggles I've had in my life is that I hide my true feelings from people for fear of scrutiny or hurting people's feelings. Basically I dont' want people not to like. I put on a happy face until no one is watching and then I vent, usually alone in my car. I've discussed this before. I'd like to think I'm making an effort to tell people how I really feel and say what's really on my mind instead of agreeing or sugar coating things but I know that will be a tough habit to break. But some dude once said a journey of 1000 miles begins with one step or something to that effect. Anywho, I think I've suppressed my moods for so long that now they are boiling over. First my crazy mood swing from hell with the Corina thing last week. that was scary enough how I ran with my feelings. It felt good. But then yesterday I threw the biggest tantrum in my office. Chad's cell phone stopped working and so I called in a new one and we have 7 days to get the busted one back to the cell phone people before they charge us for the new phone. They even sent Chad a threatening text with a charge of $400. So we got his new phone last Friday. By Tuesday the old phone was still sitting there. I took it with me to work to give it to my good-for-nothing UPS driver. I wasn't there when he came and Corina didn't read the label and kept it thinking it was something that hadn't been opened for the previous day. I yelled out "why didn't the driver take my package?!?!" and she told me it was her fault. No biggie so I took it to the UPS store but had already missed their daily pickup so instead of just leaving it I took it with me to give to my good-for-nothing UPS driver on Thursday. Well we can't seem to hold on to a decent driver as our stop is on a trainging route. So the driver that delivered on Thursday didn't bother to come down to the bookstore, he just left all our stuff at the loading dock and didn't bother to check if anything was going out. So I get back from lunch and I am satisfied that my box is no longer in the building. Then Jim, our dock dude, strolls in with my box, "yeah, this didn't make in out today..." and before he could finish I threw my arms up in the air "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! why not, what was that jackasses excuse? why can't this damn box just go to where it needs to go? jesus christ what does it take?" and poor Jim was shocked. I've know him for the entire time I've worked on my campus and he's never seen my act like that. He tried to take the blame and even offered to drive it down to the UPS store himself at that moment but I told him that it wasn't his fault or his responsibility and that I would handle it. He probably thought I was having a psychotic episode.... and I guess..... I was. Corina saw the whole thing and she told me that Jim sorta jumped back and looked frightened. I didn't notice with all the red I was seeing. I was sort of embarrassed but then I stopped and realized my reaction was natural and in my eyes justified so now I'm conflicted as to whether I over-reacted or if my natural feelings are best even if they do scare grown men? I'm not sure. Either way I finally got it to the UPS store in time later that day...in case you were wondering.

4 days later....

2007-05-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

*if you haven't read the entry before this one then you should read it first as this entry won't make sense without that one.

my nurse leaves me a voicemail yesterday. here's what she said.

"yeah, the medication we prescribed on Monday needs to be changed. It's not going to have any effect on your infection. we've called in a new one for you."

yeah great, thanks.

and it burns burns burns

2007-05-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a tough week. Last week was crazy with buyback in full swing. Plus I worked 3 weight watchers meetings and also went back to work on Friday night to open the store during graduation. I had a starbucks before I went in and ended up packing up like 100 books in an hour, ringing customers and being more productive on that one cup of delicious sugary coffee than I had that whole day. Then, Sunday while relaxing, I get that ever familiar feeling in my hoo. Yes it hurt to pee. I've been here before. When it burns it means I have a U.T.I.(urinary tract infection.) I've had them since I was 20 and I average about 2 a year now. It came on very suddenly and without warning. I was in uncomfortable pain in about 2 hours. I ran to Walgreens and bought some over the counter stuff that's supposed to help with the pain until you can see a doctor. By Monday morning it was full blown terribleness. I called in to work (which I don't do very often) and just showed up at my doctors office. I know from past experiences that if I call that I'll only get the run around until they finally make me come in and pee in a cup anyway so I thought I'd cut out all the non-sense and just show up. I peed and went home. That was at 8:00. By 3:00 I still hadn't heard anything. I called and got a bit of a run around and then my doctor walked in and told the nurse I was talking to that yes I indeed had an infection (I don't have a medical license or degree but I could've told her that myself had she just asked!) so they called in the same prescription they always do. I don't know why I always have to give them a pee sample. I mean I think I know what it is when I have the exact same thing happen to me over and over. By Tuesday morning I still wasn't feeling great but I decided to go to work anyway. It got a bit better by lunch but by dinner time I was back to awful pain and non-stop trips to the bathroom. The bad thing was that I was working my weekly meeting and had to get up about every 5 minutes to pee. plus my back was hurting and I had a fever. I got up a total of 9 times in 1 hour and finally couldn't take it anymore. I was peeing out chunks of blood. I apologize for the graphic detail but you have to know the details if you wan to fully understand my pain. If you can't take all this pee talk go on to the next paragraph. Anyway, I leave my meeting early (after weighing in and finally reaching my goal weight, woohoo for me, pat on the back and a skinny high-five to myself) and rush to urgent care. I gave another sample and it was the ugliest, blurry brown color that has ever come out of me. The doctor on duty told me that she couldn't even tell that I had taken any antibiotics and that this was one hell of an infection. She said that the meds my doctor put me on were so dated that most people and bacteria build up a tolerance to them. She put me on something newer and stronger. I got home and crashed. I didn't start to feel normal again until Thursday afternoon. I am still peeing a lot but at least it doesn't hurt. Both doctors sent my samples to the lab for cultures but neither have called me back with results.
So if that wasn't bad enough my boss calls me Tuesday and tells me he wants to ask Corina to move over to a store in need of a manager. Company policy states that anyone in a salaried management position must work a consecutive 18 months before being considered for a promotion. So yeah, a bit confused, Corina is understandably excited and honored to be asked. I on the other hand am so disgusted with my boss for what I feel is pure sabotage of my happiness and overall well being of my store. I went nuts. I was livid. I told Corina that of course she had to consider it because it came with a huge pay increase and was closer to her home. I don't begrudge her any happiness but for the time I was only concerned with my unfortunate bad luck in keeping a steady number 2 person employed for longer than 6 months. I took it completely personally. How could he just swoop in and offer her a position that she wasn't technically allowed to apply for? What the hell was I supposed to do now? I get to train another employee for a job that is not learned over night. I get to introduce another new employee to my faculty and I expect them to take her seriously, the 3rd in 1 year. Yeah right, they barely take her seriously even though she is more than worthy. She's so great but some of them still insist on talking to me directly cause to them she's number 3 in 1 year. What the hell. I haven't been that angry in a long time. Some of it was probably from my discomfort. I feel bad that I acted the way I did but they were my true feelings and I didn't feel like hiding them like I always hide my feelings for fear of judgement. I know she felt really bad and torn. I told her that she wasn't even going to think about not applying. I told her that i was so sorry for the way I was acting and it had absolutely nothing to do with her. The next day I was pretty cranky. I had my ugly face on. I chose to seclude myself in my office so that I wouldn't have anymore outbursts. By the middle of the day I started to feel better. Amy came back to work part time and she made me smile as always. Then out of the blue she tells me that if Corina did leave she would consider stepping back in to her old job. I was so shocked cause I thought she was done for good with textbooks. Or maybe she just loves me. I like to think that's what it is. But then Corina called me later that night and told me that she decided not to apply. She said she wasn't quite ready to be a manager yet. I was of course very happy but also felt bad. I told her that I hoped my negative attitude didn't have anything to do with it cause it really wasn't directed at her in any way. She said that if anything, that would have made her want to leave but that she understood how it must have made me feel. So the week ended okay and then Hank died. I found his lifeless body at the bottom of his tank. He drowned, I think. He hasn't been eating or swimming. We are unsure why he didn't survive and we were both pretty sad last night but we are going to try again but first do a little bit of research on red-eared sliders.

Alto!

2007-05-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

Arrived home safely from Mexico today. I posted a slide show at the bottom. We had a great time. It was too short but we made the most of it. We got in mid-day Thursday. Our resort was gorgeous and right on the beach. We took a sunset cruise and drank lots of free beer. We got to "stear" the boat. Friday we did a lot of lounging. By the pool, by the beach...anywhere with sun coverage. The beach was pretty nice. The annoying part was the constant sellers approaching you every 5 minutes. They all have the same crap and they ask more than once. When we went to town the mothers had their small children doing the vending. We're talking 5 year olds trying to sell everything from chiclets to silver jewerly. In the early morning we went out to the tide pools. The beach is only about 50 feet from the hotel. When the tide goes out in the morning it's much closer to 100-125 feet away from the resort. The coral reef uncovers a world of living sea life. Lincoln is the master tide-pooler. He and Chad turned over tons of rocks. They found Octopus, tons and tons of crabs, shrimp and fish. We brought home a ton of shells. I hope they don't stink up the house. This morning before we left Chad found a giant bone. It looked like a femur. Then by 10:00a.m. the tide comes in again and you can't walk where you were you just hung out an hour ago cause it's to deep. We also took the banana boat. I spent half the ride with my eyes shut cause the wind was blowing hard and the sea water was blowing and it stung bad. We went to town and Chad found a great little seaside restaurant that served the best shrimp cocktails ever. Cheap beers and great food. Jackie and I bought Coach purses. Not sure if they are real. They are great replicas as far as quality. They wouldn't haggle below $80. But when I bought my purse in NY I got them down to $20 so who knows. I wore sun screen so I wouldn't get burned but I also didn't get any color so it was kind of a jip but I guess I'm avoiding early aging but I'll be pale and blah in the process! We also shot off fireworks. I never had before so Chad made me light one and it was satisfying to blow something up and have it look pretty. We really did have a great mini break. We are looking forward to going again in October. I think Chad wants to buy a time-share! I heard the Mayan resort is pretty cool.

Puerto Penasco Vacation

2007-05-05T20:24:00.001-07:00

Tasty chicken and boring art

2007-05-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

Had a full and productive weekend. Chad and I went to see the Rembrandt exhibit at the Phx. Art Museum and I can confidently say that I can do without Dutch art. It was crowded and most of the paintings were self portraits and I hate self portraits. Then for an extra $2 we saw the custom car exhibit. That too was boring and the cars were dusty and I think that a museum should be able to keep the place dust free considering how little is inside that huge space. But it was nice way to spend an afternoon with my loverboy. We came home and Chad made what could have been the best chicken I have ever had in my entire life. It was that good. Beer can chicken. He stuffed a carcass on to a beer can and smoked it for 1 hour. The most delicious and tasty bird I have ever had the pleasure of eating. I made pasta salad and we just ate to our hearts content. Chad gave me cooking lessons and now I can make pesto from scratch, pretty fancy. On Saturday we went to Trader Joe's and I saw this poor guy get treated so rudely by this chick in the parking lot. We were walking back to our car and the guy crosses in front of us and asks the chick if she lived around here. Before he could say another word she starts blurting out "NO! whatever it is you have or want or whatever your selling I don't want it, I'm not interested, leave me alone!" and he was so confused. Had she taken the time to notice that he had a minivan full of children and a woman who was probably his wife. He was stunned and said "I just wanted to know if there was a CompUSA around here." I was so appalled by that rude bitch and I told him that there was one across the street while we walked between them. He thanked me and I was happy to help. I mean I hate sales people as much as anyone but she didn't even give him a chance. I felt so bad for him. It made me remember that rude crotchety man that had called me a dumbass earlier in the week. A nice guy asking for directions and she totally treats him like some criminal. Then Sunday night Chad got on this kick to make fresh beef jerky by this crazy method he saw on the food network. He had me to so excited that I rushed to Costco to buy the meat and what should have been a $20 visit quickly turned in to $170 visit. Man I can't be left alone in that place. So yeah, pretty interesting weekend. To us at least.

Amy came home last week and she agreed to come work for us part time and I'm so glad. I promised not to drag her back in to the company. We go to Mexico on Thursday. I am freaked out a bit cause Kristian told me to watch out for the cops who stop you for no reason and take you to jail and won't let you out until you pay them. Yeah, needed that. I won't obsess too much. yeah right.

The meanest little man in the world

2007-04-27T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today I had the unforunate luck of speaking with the rudest old man. I need a substitute to work my Thursday night meeting and I called this lady that had trained me and worked with me at the beginning. She told me to call her anytime and she would sub if she could. So today I called her for the first time. Here's how it went down:

Gargamel: Hello?
Me: Hi, is Pat there?
Gargamel: Who?
Me: Pat?
Gargamel: (Silence..........)Hello?
Me: Is Pat there?
Gargamel: (Silence......)
Me: Can you hear me?
Gargamel: (Silence.......) Who are you calling for?......Dumbass
and then he hung up on me.

I was flabergasted. So I called back.
Gargamel: Hello?
Me: Hi, is Pat there?
Gargamel: No.
Me: Well may I leave her a message please?
Gargamel: Okay
Me: My name is romaniancracker and I work with her for Weight Watchers. I was in need of a sub and if she could just...
Gargamel: What night?
Me: Thursday.
Gargamel: NO she can't do it, she works all day.
Me: Okay...... thanks...oh and thanks for calling me a dumbass! click.

why did he answer for her? who the hell was this guy? and what crawled up his butt and died? I don't understand. I am so freaking nice to everyone I meet. I treat all strangers as though they are an old friend and sometimes I just get shit on. It's not fair. Corina was going thru something similar today. She didn't talk to some jerk of an old man but she was feeling shit on cause she's so nice. I told her we would start a club. Then our friend Dave came in from IT dept and he was having a similar day as well. I told him to join our club and he could be treasurer. Then we all high-fived.

Welcome home Hank

2007-04-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

I realize it's fuzzy but he's tiny and my cell is like half a mega pixel at best.

I was parked right next to the Glendale Arena. It was probably 500 yards away.

can't even see past the lamp

Been a pretty dull couple of weeks. Haven't had too much to report. Sorry I go thru blogging slumps sometimes. This week Chloe learned how to jump on to the coffee table and take things. It's deliteful, especially when she knocks over a drink Chad left on the table first thing this morning for me to clean up while I'm still cleaning the sleep from my eyes. She took off with my checkbook weeks ago and I have yet to find it. I guess I should call and report my credit cards missing. She's not a bad dog. She's just so hyper even though Chad walks her daily. They're not even short walks. We're talking like at least an hour or more. This too shall pass...I just gotta be patient. Shadow went thru it as well. She used to chew on my shoes and any piece of paper she could fit in her mouth. To add to my punishment I bought a turtle off this guy on the side of the road for $20 We named him Hank. He's teeny tiny and will only grow to about the size of my palm. We've always wanted a turtle to roam around our back yard but Hank is a water turtle so he's living it up in this awesome tank we furnished for him. Chad wants to hold him and pet him and squeeze him.

I forgot to post these pics of this wicked crazy bad storm we had a week ago. I took them on my cell.

2007-04-20T23:18:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Vegas, as always. Chad and I went and saw Mysteré at Treasure Island and that was pretty sweet. Jen and I had a spa day and I put a bikini on for the first time in a year and not to toot my own horn but I was not embarrassed to walk around the pool, for the first time in like 6 years. The Belagio (my favorite spot) had a beautiful spring display (see pics below) made entirely out of plants and flowers and they also had an atrium with butterflies (I think atrium is correct.) The entire hotel smelled of spring flowers, it was so nice. We saw the new Wynn hotel and I didn't see what all the fuss was about. Not better than the Belagio in my eyes. After Mysteré we found the Carnegie Deli (like the one in NY and had dinner) then ended up walking back to our hotel cause we're cheap. It would have cost us $10 to drive less than a mile. I had no cash on me and refused to give in to the ATM bastards that wanted to charge a $4 service fee. Chad was running low on funds so we decided to walk as far as my feet would take us and somehow ended up going the entire way back. I walked in heels. I don't walk in heels, at least not gracefully or comfortably. Treasure Island is right in the middle of the strip and we stayed at Excalibur. The wind was also blowing like a motha and I had so much sand in my eyes and teeth you'd think I was an ostrich. It was Jennifer's bday on Tuesday. We tried to make it fun for her but I am an old lady and have no stamina for late nights or loud clubs. I hope I didn't ruin your day Jen. We all gambled a bit. I put in $40 and lost all of it as usual. I tried roulette for the first time. I tried the LOST numbers 3 times in a row and they dind't work and I was sad. All in all a good trip though. I love Vegas, can't wait to go back.

Las Vegas slide show (still in progress)

2007-04-19T21:53:00.001-07:00

your parents don't love you

2007-04-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

I won't have children. I just don't want any. Chad doesn't want any either so we're meant for eachother. I am realistic in this. But my dogs are my children. They're my less hassle, live less time children. I've had Shadow since she was a year old. My mom got her cause she felt sorry for her cause her owners were about to send her to the pound cause they couldn't keep her anymore. She's really my mom's dog that I inherited. She's 13 (91 in dog years.) I love her. She's obedient and super low maintance. She's been a wonderful companion over the years. I got Chloe cause I know Shadow only has a few years left and eventually I would be all alone again. Don't get me wrong, Chad is still alive and kicking and we still love eachother and all that nonsense. But he works a lot, and mostly at night. I have a lot of free time on my hands. So Chloe is basically Shadow's replacement. Tonight, while I waited for her to pee in the back yard she did something so cute. I picked her up and loved her for awhile. Shadow came over for her attention and as much as I love her I think that we both give Chloe way more attention cause she's the cute baby. I have to force myself to give Shadow attention sometimes cause I don't want her to feel left out or less loved. She is not less loved but she certainly isn't the favorite anymore. We've been together so long that we are comfortable just being owner and dog. I love her a lot but her novelty wore off when Chloe moved in. It's only natural that the new member of the family will get more love and attention.
I am an only child. I feel sorry about that sometimes, but mostly fortunate that I didn't have to share my mom's love with anyone else. I am a scorpio.
Tonight it got me thinking about everyone I know who has a sibling (which is pretty much everyone I know other than Lincoln.) All my friends tell me that their brother and/or sister is their parent's favorite, especially when they're the oldest. Tonight, while loving on my baby puppy I realized that yeah, all my friends are probably right. I set up a bit of a pole to see what you all think.

I need a bahamvention...but this will hold me for a week

2007-04-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

Detroit skyline with a snow storm blowing in from behind.
It really is a shit hole. That's Canada on the left.
This morning before I left at the front door. It was 29°

Me hanging out with my buddy Eminem in his old neck of the woods. I didn't bring a winter coat so I had to wear the old ladies coat. Aren't I stylish?
Emimen seems to think so.

Flew in from Detroit today and boy are my arms tired. long flight. very uneventful week. did minimal sight seeing and very little else. I slept in, ate a lot of good home cooking and watched a lot of TV. Aunt Lucy doesn't own a car and I considered renting a car but it snowed for much of my trip and I wasn't going to learn to drive in the snow in the in a new city full of one-way streets. plus I'm cheap so it all worked out. Amy came to see me on Wednesday which was a treat cause it was unexpected and good to see an old friend. It was a short visit cause it was on a whim while she and Ryan picked up their new car like 30 miles from Aunt Lucy's house, so it was a happy coincidence. Aunt Lucy is very under technologized so I haven't had any access to internet. Please do enjoy my photos. This will hold me until Vegas next week. Woo!!! I can't wait.

Rain dance

2007-03-23T19:37:00.000-07:00

Got my car back today. It's so beautiful and shiny, like the first day I drove her off the lot. It rained most of the day and on my way home. When I got home I was going to wipe her off with a chamois and I didn't even need to. All the rain had beaded off and she was dry. They also took out the dent on the hood. She's hot. If I was a single male car I'd totally bone her. Anyway it finally feels like spring instead of summer. This morning when I was driving to work the rain clouds were so low to the ground and I could see them coming as I drove in to them and I'd get rained on and then come out the other end and then go thru another cloud. It was weird. Yesterday when it started to rain we all went outside and just hung out under the awning. everyone came out from registration too. You can always tell the natives cause they come out when it rains. It was amusing to me to see how many people were standing around "oohhing". The jets were out practicing for Luke Days and it was just such a beautiful afternoon. Today, while parked at a stop light I saw 2 construction guys pumping out rain from their ditch in the right turn lane. That is, one guy siting on a bucket, ankel deep in water with a second bucket scooped up rain water and handed it to this other guy who would walk it over to some nearby gravel to dump it out. It was very amusing to me. So clearly it's been a pretty boring week.

2007-03-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

Chloe Bear.

Chad is so smitten with Chloe. Today he actually
said "she is so cute." can you imagine that?
if I hadn't heard it I wouldn't have believed it.

it's all about the down low

2007-03-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

Had a pretty cool week and then it all came to a quik end but I remain optimistic. first, it is spring break so the ladies from work and I decided to make a sequel to our movie from last year's spring break. we had a lot of fun. I can send a link if you are interested in viewing.
then I got our shrink number for the fiscal year. for those who don't remember what shrink is, I will briefly explain. basically, it's the total inventory purchased x the total sales - the actual physical inventory. that number should = zero. anything over or under zero is shrink. the company expects us to lose around 1% of our total sales/year. we do about $1.6 million a year and so an average loss expected out of our store is about $10,000. Well I've had some problems in the past, my biggest one from a particular employee who stole a lot of money several years back. but I digress. so my number this year came out .09% which was not only the best shrink that I've squeezed out in my 7 years at this store but it was also the best in my region of 27 stores. Our region usually holds the best shrink results in the whole company of 800+ stores. So I am pretty proud.
Mitsubishi agreed to paint my car for free under their "good will" policy. that is since I'm past my warranty but it's still a new enough car and they feel bad so they fix it for free. they're also going to take my small ding out of the hood that some asshole left for me a few years back right after I bought her. so I am in back in my old friend Kia. almost the same model but a 4 cylinder and a bit older that the brand new one I had after my collision.
Weight watchers is still going successfully. I am now the same size I was in high school. I never thought I'd see the day. yesterday this woman that works on campus told me how wonderful I looked and how she only dreamed of doing what I have done and how perfect she thought I was. I assured her I was nowhere even close to perfect but I loved to hear it. No one has ever called me perfect. I went to the doctor this week for the semi annual check of my blood pressure and it's finally down below normal. Dr. Bhowra was so impressed with my weight loss. he shook my hand and told me how lovely I look. the nurse had weighed me wrong by 10 pounds more and he scolded her and told her how important this was and that her mistake wasn't fair to me cause it was taking away from my accomplishment. this is big cause he's always hidden any emotion, I assume under his turban. he is lowering my dosage and hopefully I can stop taking the pills. so I'm having a great week.....then I am checking my bank account and my debit card was hacked and being used in Mexico. yes some jerk who can't get a job of his own has some machine that just dials numbers all day and when he gets a hit he uses it for his purchases at the drug store and gas stations in Mexico City. how nice for me. luckily I caught it just after my bank caught it but he still managed to get $261 from me. my bank replaced it in less than a day but God damn if I don't check my account all the time for this sort of thing and wouldn't you know it finally happend. I think it's pretty inevitable that this will happen to everyone and it will probably happen to me again. be on the look out people.

As God is my witness, I will never shop at Basha's again!

2007-03-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

I have traveled over the hill and it is good. Our Super Target opened 2 days ago and man, let me tell you, it's Super! I drove by on a whim knowing it had to be any day now. I was excited with glee. I shopped and then I shopped some more. It was so clean and untouched and best of all it was empty. The prices aren't quite what I expected but it's the neighborhood so I guess since I live in the neighborhood I'm supposed to be able to afford it. It's still cheaper than Basha's and as much as I like the grocery store, their prices are outta control. But for the last 2 years it's been the closest store around and with a chef in the house, one is always running out for something. So that was my excitment for the day. Only other strange thing is that my meeting tonight had dwindled to a mere 44. That's 20 less than last week. I'm not complaining. It's nice to have a smaller group. Before new years our group was only 14. But new year's resolutions always bring in people and by next December we'll probably be back to 14. Mostly cause that group hasn't been able to keep a stable leader. The current one is no exception. Although she runs a good meeting, she's lacks compassion but fakes it. She's always absent and well people just don't like her. Really, I don't like her and I just assume everyone must agree with me.

No internet make jojo unhappy

2007-03-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

I have not had internet for a week or so and I have actually been working at work so please no hassleing the jojo for the long time between blogs. Not a whole lot going on but I wanted to let yous know I am still alive. I had a bunch of good topics (good to me anyway) to post but now that they've long past I don't know if they're still relevant. You decide
1. The Ugly Side of Weight Watchers
Well I probably told you how I got dupped in to working 2 meetings back to back on a Saturday morning at the butt crack of dawn. I come from a long background of customer service. I can do it in my sleep. These women I worked with on Saturday had no such training. One lady who had been waiting in line to pay got very frustrated and angry that she had to go stand in another line to weigh in. She asked the lady who was helping her why we weren't better organized (I'm not really part of that we, I was just subbing so I take no blame) and (she wasn't mean about it she simply asked) and my fellow worker told her in a very stern voice

"ma'am I am not going to apologize to you for the size of this line. I have no control over how many people come in here."

Later, a different worker to my right proceeded to tell me in her regular voice how annoying the woman who had just left the counter was. Holy shit does she know anything about tact? Everybody heard her. The customers were packed in there nut to butt, about 80 in a tiny littly room. Like weigh in isn't stressful enough now these people have to worry that we're all talking about them out loud for everyone to hear. The worker has been with the company 35 years and works for the corporate office during the week. Nice. I got dupped again for another early morning Saturday meeting this week but I'm subbing for the boss so I guess it wasn't really dupped as it was over all fear of getting on her shit list if I said no.
2. The Ugly Side of Marriage
So I 'm in the grocery store on Friday and it's in the middle of geriatricville. This old married couple is in the frozen food section with me and this is what went down. I named them for my own purposes. Now imagine her voice in the most scratchy mean voice ever.
Cruella: "Why are you going down the fish aisle?....Since when do you like fish "
Herbert: .....
Cruella: "Oh peas, you want peas? oh well look at my husband the shopper. "
Herbert: ......
Cruella: (while holding open the freezer door and Herbert walks back to his cart) "Are you done here? Well you coulda told me I'm just holding the door open", incoherent mumbling.
She was just picked apart everything he did. She was so mean. And she wasn't the least bit embarrased by how she was treating him in public. I just wanted to go and hug him and say DTB* brother.
3. The Ugly Side of Puppy Training
She's still peeing in the house. Less and less frequent but I still am bent over every other day with my handy dandy spot lifter. Chad has trained her to walk on a leash and she draws small crowds wherever she goes. I bought her a dress but it didn't fit her and I had to return it for a bigger dress but they had run out by the time I returned so poo on them. Some other less cute medium sized dog is walking around in my dog's dress.

Finally, Blogger is locking me out cause it thinks I have an invalid account and they're gonna make sure I am not spamming. Silly boys. So who knows how much longer it will be before you're actually reading this.

*Dump that Bitch

Asshat says What?

2007-02-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

Today I went over to talk to one of the secretaries and she had this huge smudge of toner on her forhead. I says to Gina I says "you have some ink or something on your forehead" and she's like "uh, no it's Ash Wednesday" and I said "oh, I'm stupid." so yeah that was my retard moment of the week. But in my 28 years on this earth I've never seen the ash on anyone's forehead. Furthermore I thought I was doing her a favor by not letting her walk around with toner on her head. It wasn't in the shape of the cross either, it looked as though she had way to much ink on her hands and then wiped her head. Jesus, how was I supposed to know?
In other news, JoJo is sick of cleaning up puppy pee. I swear to Jebus if she doesn't just wait until I'm not in sight and just lets it rip. I've been following her like a hawk but I never catch her peeing. What do I do? I've got 2 jobs. I can't be dictating my day around pee. Good news is that Shadow is finally accepting Chloe. She's plays with her now and they nap together. It's so precious I could just shit. Okay, time to go watch LOST. Until next time...

Baby on board

2007-02-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

Chad brought Chloe home yesterday. I was so excited to get home and play with her. It was a very hard first day. Chloe is barely 6 weeks old. Just old enought to come home but still looking for mommies teet. Shadow is unhappy and agitated and has snapped at her about half a dozen times now. I couldn't wait for Chad to come home from work cause I was overwhelmed. I didn't relax until he came home. I don't like the whole getting-into-everything bit and I know it will pass and it's all new to her but I get agitated easily plus I'm having to keep a close eye on Shadow to correct her the instant she nips and Chloe. We put her in a box while we went to bed and she cried for pretty much the entire night. And not just any crying. Moaning and wailing as though she was being slaughtered alive. it was hard to take. I woke up and took her outside first thing and got her to pee in the grass. I did it 5 times today. Chad and I went to lunch and we left her out instead of putting her in the box. I was bit afraid of how we might find them when we got home but she was exactly where we left her. Then later I saw her go thru the doggie door by herself. That was crazy!! She's so tiny and her legs are probably 1" long so the base of the dog door is right at her eye level. She did it though. I had to coach her back in but she figured it out on her own so I am ecstatic. So now we need to potty train her. I think I did okay by myself today. But I don't know the first thing about anything puppy so this will be an experience. But it will be nice to have both of us here tomorrow. I'm looking forward to getting some sleep tonight. At least I know what to expect and I also have ear plugs!

where'd you go?

2007-02-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

I was hanging out at Jackie's yesterday for Hunter's birthday. Jackie's dad asked me "hey have you lost more weight since the last time I saw you?" and I said "only 2 or 3 pounds more, not that many." Last time I saw him was Dec. 30. Then Jackie's mom asked me "so you are doing it just a bit at a time right?" and I said "yes, only about 1 or 2 pounds a week." I think she believed me but I'm not sure. They're not the first people to look at me in a concerned light. I've had a lot of good feedback about my weight loss and I still have a few pounds to go but some people are already looking at me as though I might be binging and purging, which couldn't be further from the truth. Some have said "oh, you're even skinnier this week than last, you'd better stop or you'll just disappear." I have a long torso and long legs so I think that any additional weight that comes off will draw even more eye brows to be lifted. I'm 5'10". I've had a few people tell me to cut it out soon cause now I'm too skinny. All the men at work who were friendly before are now dogs. I don't mean to sound conceited but they used to be gentlemen and now they're telling me how hot I am on a weekly basis. I'm still the same girl that they've known for the last 6 years. Every time I see someone they immediately tell me about how skinny I am now and what am I doing to get the weight off so fast. It's been 5 months now. That's not that fast for 30lbs total loss. It seems a girl can't win these days. Not that I'm complaining but I never knew that my weight loss would be causing such a stir. So basically my whole point to was let everyone know that I am not bulimic and that I am still eating food, daily, 4 times daily and drinking beer etc. Please don't worry about me cause although I've made some stupid choices in my life, I'd never do anything to intentionally hurt myself.

today was a good day

2007-02-03T23:38:00.000-07:00

Had a huge blow out party for my side business this weekend at Jackie's house. It was a huge success. Made some money, had some drinks and had some good bonding time. We had 50 girls there and it was crazy. Afterwards Jackie, Lincoln and I sat around and sang kareoke for like an hour...really poorly. Jackie and I were singing in our opera voices but everytime a low part would come up we both went in to Barry White mode. It was fun. I would have drank more but I had to drive my happy ass home so I could get up this morning for Weight Watchers workshop. I carpooled with the lady I work with on Tuesday nights, her name is Judy. She is so funny. I think I've written about her before that last time we had a workshop. She's so generic. I don't mean that to be mean. She's just very basic. the type that only uses salt because pepper it too fancy. Anyway she gave me a bunch of helpful tips about Chloe on house breaking and so on. The reason I say my day was good is because...well let me take one step back. Thursday night meeting has blown up and we've had a very nice woman helping me and Barbie out the last month but she can't anymore and Barbie didn't tell our boss in enough time so our boss, her name is Cheryl, had to help out. I could tell she was cranky about being there. She doesn't live anywhere near that meeting and she was getting a cold so it wasn't great. I was nervous cause this woman hired me, sight unseen, no training and now she was about to see what I could do, or not do. I didn't crack. I handled 50 members payments etc in 15 minutes and then sent them to Cheryl to get weighed in. My line never backed up and I only made a small mistake the whole night. So today our workshop was all about filling buckets. The bucket is our confidence or attitude and about how others fill or empty our buckets. Basically is was supposed to teach us to be nice to others. Fine. I already know how to be nice. I am the poster child for nice, God damn it. So during the 3 hour thing Cheryl mentions how wonderful it was to work with me on Thursday night. That I was so effecient that it made her feel useless. I was so flattered that she singled me out of the big group and gave me such a great compliment. She really filled my bucket today! She is not the type to hand out compliments. She's a no-nonsense kinda lady. Doesn't say things just cause she's in charge. I don't always feel great after some meetings because it's still kinda new to me and I don't always have all the answers or even the right answers but she totally confirmed my worth to the company.

2007-01-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

Kristian and his puppy, lu lu, loo loo? lou lou? I dont know.
Pups getting their antibiotics
The boys named this puppy Mystery since they dont' know why it's white. It's rare.
This is my Chloe being cute and evasive, not at all like her mommy.

It's enough to make you sick

2007-01-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

Kristian and I went to see Dreamgirls this weekend. We had a lovely dinner, went to Jackie's to play with our puppies and then off to the movies at the new West Gate in Glendale. It's fancy and going to be so cool once all the businesses open and it's going at full swing. So we saw our movie at the new theatre. Rates were a bit higher then we remember from last time we saw a movie (which was less than 2 months ago) even though we flashed our ASU student id's. We're cheap and we like to pretend that we still look like we did when we were actually students. For me it's been 7+ years since I went to ASU and I'm not sure how long it's been for Kristian but I think it's close to my time frame. Any way we get the refreshment stand I my jaw just dropped to the newly carpeted still dirty floor. They wanted $10 for a coke and popcorn. It's enough to send a poor college student in to bankruptcy! I know that theatres don't make money on movies rather on the food, but gimme a break, $10? What happend to the good old days when there were 9 planets and popcorn and soda cost $3? For shame new AMC!!
In other news, Kristian is also adopting a puppy from Jackie. We're gonna have play dates and dress our dogs and enter them in doggie pagents so we can be stage moms and live off our doggies winnings and exploit their cute faces for profit....lol.
Chad is extremely sick today. He was moaning and groaning last night and I feel bad cause I think I threatened to send him to the couch at one point. I had no idea what was happening. When I went to bed at 10 he was fine, coughing a bit but still lucid and quiet. I told him to go to urgent care but being the stubborn male he is (and having no health insurance right now) he opted to tough it out. He's my little sick man.

2007-01-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Look at what a jolly dork I am . I am in love with my little girl. I went over to Jackie's for a few minutes to bond with her. Turns out she's sick along with the rest of the pups. They have some respitory virus they caught from mom who caught it at the vets office the last time she was there (which was the day she delivered.) I want her to know me so she's not totally shocked when she comes home. She was so sick and convulsing and her eyes were rolling around in her little precious head from the antibiotics. It was sad but cute all at the same time. I had her wrapped in a paper towel cause she kept making a noise as though she was going to hurl and she peed just a bit in my hand just after I picked her up. She was quiet and sleepy and she lay on my chest for 20 minutes and rested. She's too sweet. I can't wait.

Lazy Sunday

2007-01-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

It was pretty freaking cold out today. Wasn't really planning on doing a lot but we both got a bug in our pants. Spent an hour at the Home Depot. We didn't go with any real purpose other than to pick up some 2x4 for Chad's awning in the back yard. We spent $140. It was so cold outside. We had a nice lunch and came home. We got busy. Here's how it all went down.

I painted the new trim while Chad took down the old trim (Chad doesn't paint.)

Got me one of those fancy carpet spot removers for real cheap.
Now my stain has dimensions.

Then we took a break and had some fun with our nail sticks.

this is how things look now.

it's better than it looked when we started?....!?!?

Who's got 2 thumbs and was handy today? These guys. By the end of the night we were pretty satisfied with ourselves!!

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-01-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

my brain is on strike until Monday

2007-01-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

Loooooonnnnggg week. But it's over now and I can relax this weekend. I told Corina no more questions as my brain has shut off from any thinking above the normal activities to get me thru my day like eating or driving. Went over to Jackie's last night for a few minutes to get a peak at my new puppy. They're so sweet and fat. Jackie told me which one to pick as she has the cutest face and most puggish features. She was right and that's the one I picked. We can bring her home in 4 weeks. I'm a little afraid of how Shadow will take to her though. But I know Chad will keep them in line and train the new baby how to act. If it was just me I wouldn't dream of taking on a new puppy.
In other news, Karin gave birth Thursday morning at 7:00a.m. She was in active labor for 17 hours. Baby Cara weighed 8lbs, 14oz. Baby and momma are doing fine. Karin is going to be such a good mom. She was a total natural. I was sitting with her and thinking "OMG, that's a human that came out of her and now she's responsible for it's health and happiness" then it moved and I got scared. I'm definetly not cut out to be a mom, at least not to a human baby.

"Where's the money, when are you gonna get the money, why aren't you getting the money now and so on"

2007-01-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

I am so drained. Had a long day at 2 jobs. Although regular job was normal for the most part, second job was crazy again with 16 more joining members. We are now up to 51 in 2 weeks. In December our last meeting had 14. We didn't balance by $147 and while I dont' think most of it is my fault, I am partly to blame. My leader doesn't know how to properly check people by AZ standards and she always tells me that "it's so different and backwards from California" so I think that is her excuse cause she never takes the time to learn it. Then she left the file cabinet open with all 4 drawers (which they explicitly told us in training not to do) and of course it fell and it fell on me. I have a nice bruise on my ass, luckily I managed to get out of the way so it didn't land on my back. I get in my car and see that my assman (assistant manager) has been frantically trying to get a hold me. Missing money at job #1 and at #2 make this girl very stressed and tired and bruised. At least I got to watch The Office when I got home. Other than LOST, it's the only show I really look forward to. I got a good chuckle out of it and now I need to fall asleep. Hey, I don't know who left that last comment on my asteroid blog. Who was it?

2007-01-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

I'm no NASA scientist but I'd say this is fairly accurate.

this is the kind of shit I lose sleep over

2007-01-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Saw this article on MSN tonight. After I shit myself and lay in the fetal position sucking my thumb and crying I decided to post it so you can all see how crazy I am not. Everyone likes to laugh at me and my "crazy" and "irrational" fears. But this proves I'm right and now we have a timeline for our demise.
Friday the 13th of April 2029 could be a very unlucky day for planet Earth. At 4:36 am Greenwich Mean Time, a 25-million-ton, 820-ft.-wide asteroid called 99942 Apophis will slice across the orbit of the moon and barrel toward Earth at more than 28,000 mph. The huge pockmarked rock, two-thirds the size of Devils Tower in Wyoming, will pack the energy of 65,000 Hiroshima bombs -- enough to wipe out a small country or kick up an 800-ft. tsunami.
On this day, however, Apophis is not expected to live up to its namesake, the ancient Egyptian god of darkness and destruction. Scientists are 99.7 percent certain it will pass at a distance of 18,800 to 20,800 miles. In astronomical terms, 20,000 miles is a mere stone's throw, shorter than a round-trip flight from New York to Melbourne, Australia, and well inside the orbits of Earth's many geosynchronous communications satellites. For a couple of hours after dusk, people in Europe, Africa and western Asia will see what looks like a medium-bright star creeping westward through the constellation of Cancer, making Apophis the first asteroid in human history to be clearly visible to the naked eye. And then it will be gone, having vanished into the dark vastness of space. We will have dodged a cosmic bullet.
Maybe. Scientists calculate that if Apophis passes at a distance of exactly 18,893 miles, it will go through a "gravitational keyhole." This small region in space -- only about a half mile wide, or twice the diameter of the asteroid itself -- is where Earth's gravity would perturb Apophis in just the wrong way, causing it to enter an orbit seven-sixths as long as Earth's. In other words, the planet will be squarely in the crosshairs for a potentially catastrophic asteroid impact precisely seven years later, on April 13, 2036.
How do you like that? I knew it was a matter of time before something like this happend. We're doomed. Chad, you can stop paying your student loan now (but I'll still need the rent!)

Puppies and Super Target...ewww fancy!

2007-01-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

I go thru these phases where I have nothing interesting to say so I apologize for so few blogs. Nothing interesting is going on for me and now it's 8 days and counting until classes begin and it's madness in the store, normal really. What isn't normal is for my thursday night WW meeeting to be busy. We normally get 14 people total and it's not really enough earnings to even go but I commited so I will go. But, tonight, OMG 19 new members. I made 3 times as much as I normally make on this night. We were inundated with people and I felt right at home with the chaos.
Jackie's dog Malibu is having puppies tonight. Malibu is a pug/cocker spaniel mix and she's too adorable. I've been saying that I might want a pug some day after Shadow dies but definetly not a puppy cause those days suck ass. But Jackie said I could have first pick and then out of nowhere Chad says to me a few days later "you know ever since Jackie mentioned the puppies I've been thinking I want one." !!! what? holy cow are you kidding me? so now if one is super cute we'll probably keep it and I'm hoping they're ugly so I'm not tempted but really, when's the last time you saw an ugly puppy? clearly, this is not going to be good. To start over from scratch is just so draining but a pug would make me happy and Chad has gotten so good at training and handling Shadow that he could easily handle a puppy. What to do?

No other news to report except the other day, as Chad and I were coming home from a Sunday drive, we noticed that the new Super Target was almost ready by our house. I squeeled with delight and Chad almost ran us off the road cause it frightened him. Then for 10 minutes I was talking about how cool it would be to have a super target so close and how I would never have to leave the neighborhood once that whole plaza was done. Yeah, so that's the most exciting thing I could come up with. sorry guys.

2006-12-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

Karin said I look like one of those gymnasts or figure skaters. Not quite the look I was striving for.

merry christmas to all

2006-12-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

Got me a haircut yesterday. This is the shortest my hair has been in 18 years. Once again I didn't get specifically what I asked for as the girl took off so much hair in back that I don't resemble a girl unless you look at me from the front. It's okay though, I still love it and in a month my hair will be at the length I wanted, not the length the "stylist" thought would look better on me, I never asked her opinion anyway. Chad has tomorrow off. That's a huge first (followed only by the first thanksgiving we finally got to spend together in, again, 5 or 6 years. I think he's only had one other xmas day off in our 7 years together. I finally get to stay home and enjoy a xmas rather than going to other people's home for my yearly pity invite. I love the invites but it will be nice to have a holiday at home with the one person I really want to spend it with. I'm also celebrating my huge weight loss. I'm down a total 33 pounds from where I was 5 months ago. so at the end of this year I'm reflecting on all my changes. 12 months ago I was the same person I had been for 27 years. It's been a pretty good year. I'm definetly going thru some changes for the better. I am not sure what my new years resolution will be and I still have 7 days to figure it out but I know my resolution from this year didn't make it. Remember, it was to stay or get fat(ter). I'm looking back on 2006 with a smile and on to 2007 with health and happiness and wish all of you the very same. Especially Adam and Jennifer who are struggling with some health issues right now. You guys are in my thoughts and I know things will get better. To my very cherished friend Jackie and her husband Lincoln and their boys, thanks so much for bringing so much to my life this year. To my best friend Karin and her husband Christian and their soon to be daughter Cara, so much love to you guys and I can't wait to be an aunt (at least thru friendship if not by blood.) To Chad's dad Rex and step-mom Rita, thanks for all the love and making me feel like I belong to your family. It means so much. To my super best buddy Ramin who refuses to read my blog on the terms that he could just pick up the phone and talk to me, and his mom Farzi whom I look upon as my own mother, love you both so very much. To Amy and her husband Ryan, nothing but the best for you both as you enjoy your first xmas and new year together as a married couple. To my friend Kristian who came to my rescue and kept my spirits up thru a hard time this year and makes me laugh everyday even though we don't see eachother more than once a month, thanks for being you. To my newest friend Corina who I instantly bonded with and who's got my back no matter what, you are too awesome. Finally, to my very dear love Chad. I love you so much homey! Did I ever tell you you're my hero? I gotta go before Bette Midler starts playing in the background. All my love to you all. 2007 here we come. Here's a little something from me to all of you. enjoy.

2006-12-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

dick in a box

2006-12-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

this is where all the fun began. that's Ruth and Corina.

2006-12-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

my fellow management cohorts. somehow we ended up hanging out in front of my bosses room.

2006-12-18T21:16:00.001-07:00

that's my boss. he's always bright red. not sure why.

2006-12-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

my old manager Sonja. she's my company guru. I go to her for everything I don't know about.

2006-12-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

some of us lined up for jello shots and I accidentally nudged Gary's (on the left) hand and his jello landed in Corina's boobs. classic.

2006-12-18T21:13:00.001-07:00

check out all my jello cups

2006-12-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

all night we kept daring eachother to go and sit on Kevin's bed for a picture and finally we all ended up in there.

2006-12-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

we were the last one's to leave

2006-12-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

been a crazy busy week. buyback was last week and we were crazy busy. then I had two nights of WW and 2 slumber parties also. then on Saturday my boss had his annual xmas party. Corina and I went and had a blast (as you can see from the pics.) this week promises to be busy as well, mostly from last minute xmas nonsense. I will be a better blogger next week...I have it off.

Tis the season for turkeys

2006-12-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

I got my car back today!!!! Yay!!!! no more Kia rent-a-car!!! Yay!!!! but I think they stole my engine and gave me someone's crappy running engine cause it doesn't drive like how I remember it. Now I know it's been a month since I've driven a stick and a 4 cylinder isn't as fast as a V6 but I'm not stupid. I have to really push that gas pedal to get it going and I swear when I left her she only had 41119 miles on it and now she has 43250 miles on it. How many miles did they have to test drive it to know that the bumper wash smashed in? Plus they forgot to give me back that carpet-covered particle board thing that seperates my back seats from the trunk. But again, at atleast its not a Kia.
When I got home Chad was getting swindled by one of those fast talking push magazine salesmen. He wasn't gonna even get a subscription just a bunch of homeless people would get the magazines. I ask you, what do homeless people need with a subscription to People? He gave that douche $49.00 and I said "oh no you didn't!" and I went up to that jive talking turkey and I says to him, I says "he changed his mind. give me that money back" and he gave the look as though he knew some cracker was gonna beat him silly when they found out that he gave me back the money but I didn't care. He asked if we'd be willing to give a smaller amount and I said "NO" I says "he didn't authorize this with me. I'm his wife and he can't be giving out $49.00 to total strangers, shit." and I walked off. I felt so good about myself. I just went up to him and wasn't about to take any grief. I apologized to Chad for embarrassing him and he said he wasn't emabarrassed just felt silly for falling for his schpiel. I fell for it years ago when I was a young naive school girl but I got my revenge today and I got Chad his money back which made me feel good. Then I got him to buy me dinner so it was a win win all over the place.

2006-12-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

I can't even look at it.

they grow up so fast

2006-12-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

went and saw my car today at the car hospital. they told me Monday that she might be ready today as long as she went in to paint on Monday. well that didn't happen. she was in pieces, different colors, dirty and man handled. she was my clean, virgin car and now she's been used and abused. very upsetting. they said they just got her bumper yesterday and she should definetly go to paint today. we'll see. the dent was still in the front hood so that probably won't get straightened. but I am trying not to complain.

2006-11-26T01:43:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post this. Karin's baby shower last weekend. She's ready to pop in January.

2006-11-26T01:40:00.000-07:00

No matter how still I am, my camera still decided to smudge half my pictures.

What's next?

2006-11-26T00:56:00.000-07:00

Put up xmas lights today on the front of the house. I was wearing shorts and a tank top. Got a bit hot and sun beaten. Didn't feel like xmas. I was doing okay but the highest point of my roof is pretty high, even for a bean pole like myself. My ladder is 12 feet high but I wasn't about to go climbing to the top of it on my concrete driveway. So I had to get inventive. Not usually a problem for me. So I opened the garage and started looking for something with a hook that I could use as an arm extension. What luck! I found Chad's harpoon gun that his friend Dan gave him years ago. When he got it I remember asking "what the hell do you need a harpoon for?" and he said "I don't know, but isn't it cool?" and sure enough I found a reason for it today. It worked too. I got my lights up and they actually look nice. I got a bit dizzy on that ladder in the sun and so I rewarded myself with a Chipotle. When I got home, in my mailbox was a returned check from the hostess of my slumber party from last week. She bounced a $223.00 check that I have already used up. No telling why my bank posted it to my account the instant they opened last Saturday but by Monday I had already paid my car registration with it and tonight it came back to me. Of course I can't get her on the phone. What's worse is I have a party booked with her crazy ass mean sister in 2 weeks. I am tempted not to do it but I don't want to punish the sister for her mistake. I am trying to tell myself that it was just a mistake and that she wouldn't purposely invite me in to her home and then write me a bad check but you just never know these days.
Then the old lady tells me that she is not coming this year. This would be the first time she hasn't come since, I think, 1990. This isn't the first time she said she wasn't coming but this is the first time that I believe her. Her health is deteriorating and I know that she is simply waiting to die, it's just a matter of when. She has "do not resuscitate"orders. She just can't wait to go. So now I know I have to go to her. I can't afford to fly out and I don't want to go for xmas cause Chad actually got a boss who understands that it's important that his employees be home for major holidays and gave him xmas eve and day off. I've been waiting for this for like, I don't know, our whole relationship. Ain't no way I'm missing xmas with him. It would cost me $470.00 to fly to Detroit in December. I don't have $470.00 and now I'm $223.00 in the hole until I get this nonsense resolved and I gotta fork over who knows how much to get my termite problem taken care of before it turns in to be a big circus tent situation. But if I don't fly out I am afraid she will pass and then I will feel even worse. I'm feeling pretty lousy tonight. I will get by. I always do. But I swear if it's not one thing it most certainly is going to be another. I try to put these things in perspective. At least I'm not in Iraq or a ton of other worse things that I dare not even type for fear of jinxing it. (knock on wood)

2006-11-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

Gobbles

2006-11-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

Just want to wish you all a happy thanksgiving. I am very thankful today, mostly because I have Chad at home with me. He doesn't have to rush off and cook for everyone else's families. I've put in my time and I am finally rewarded! We are going to Chad's friend's Jason's mother's house for dinner. Man that was a lot of possessive nouns. Then later I will be decorating the house for xmas. I'm gonna put lights up on the house, first time ever. I figured I bought a tall ladder, might as well use it. Have a great day everyone! love you all.

This will be me later. hands off my turkey fool!

alls quiet on top of the hill

2006-11-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's only Tuesday. man holidays have a way of slowing things down and then once they get here it's go go go and it's over and then next thing you know it's Monday again. Been pretty boring around here. Nothing really to say. Don't want to wish you a happy thanksgiving yet cause then I'll have nothing to say to you on Thursday. geez. Went and saw Happy Feet on Sunday. Chad has been getting Sundays off. It's nice. I lost a half pound tonight. I'm down to below my max weight for my height. Gretchen (my WW leader) told me to go as far as I can go so that if I fall I'll have a cushion. Good idea. Been watching some TV. House is a pretty good show. But nothing compares to LOST (can I get a hell yes from Ballinger) and we gotta wait until February to watch again. But that jungle love scene was pretty sweet between Sawyer and Kate. Oh yeah. .....Corina must have jinxed me. She asked me what I wrote about on here and I told her "oh all the interesting stuff in my life" yeah, well that's par for the course. Ohh, I hear Law and Order SVU starting in the living room so I have to find something to do for 20 minutes until I can go in there and watch without commercials. TiVo has ruined me for regular tv. I stop paying close attention to things cause i know I can just hit replay! Chad asked me the other day what I'd do if the TiVo stopped working. I said I'd get in my car and drive to Fry's Electronics and buy another box, no question. I'd do the same thing if my big screen went out. I mean you gotta have a game plan in place if these emergencies every happen. Oh and I have termites. That was lovely way to start the holiday season. They're outside right now, doesn't look as though they've moved in yet but I guess that's just a matter of time. Terminex wants to charge me $1000 to treat the premises. They say that buys me a 1 year warranty. For $1000 it had better get me a 10 year warranty and a big fat kiss on my ass cause that's outrageous. Anyone know a good exterminator that won't charge $1000?

Aww he's so cute you almost don't want to kill him....almost.

2006-11-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

I think Chad over did it a bit. Bowser is destroying the plants with his gigantic shell. He's a proud papa.

2006-11-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

That's Bowser mounting Gaston. Look how tiny Gaston is now!

2006-11-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

Been in the rental a week ½ now. I got a Kia Optima. Pretty nice, I gotta say. It's a four door, which is new to me. Also seems to be a 6 cylinder. It hauls ass and goes thru gas like Chad goes thru beer! It's also brand spankin new. Only 250 miles on it. I'm gonna jojofy it! It's an automatic which is a nice change. I've been stuck in a lot of traffic lately and it's nice not to have not to shift every time I ease up a centimeter!
When I dropped off my baby the guy asked me if the dent on the front hood was from my accident and I batted my eyes and said "uh....no....but if you wanna go ahead and buff that out for me, that'd be greeaat! he said "okay." SWEEEETTT. We'll see if he does it. Or he may actually charge me, who knows. Pretty boring around here otherwise. Chad and I extended our tiny family to include 2 more hermit crabs. It's too funny cause when I first got my crabs he wouldn't go near them. He said they creeped him out. He wouldn't pick them up or anything. He kept picking up Gaston and everytime Gaston would poke his head out Chad would put him down and say "gross." Now he loves them. I don't know what changed. We got a huge one. He named it Bowser. He's the size of a fist, huge, compared to Gaston and the other new crab, Amelie. Chad went out and bought them a new aquarium and accessories like a pool and live plants and flowers to pimp out the aquarium. He takes pictures and he's even reading up on them on the internet. I love it.

take a penny leave an attitude

2006-11-09T22:03:00.000-07:00

I'm having a bad day. One of those days when a culmination of small things make you feel like you suck at life and everyone is laughing at you. My final straw today was...well first let me explain something. We sell 99¢ chips at the store. With the tax it totals out to $1.01. Well most people get pissy cause they have to dig around for a penny. And some just don't even look and stare at me blankly when I say it $1.01, not $1.00 then they say "I don't have change" and I say well then you'd better give me that other dollar you're holding huh? and they do and they think I'm a bitch. I say if you expect to not pay the full amount for an item then you're an idiot and you shouldn't be coming in to buy anything in the first place. I'm not cheap, nor am I on some power trip. I don't care about the stupid penny. I've let hundreds of kids get by without it but they genuinely looked and didn't have it and that's ok. when these assholes come in and expect that it's ok to not pay the full amount simply cause they don't want to break their dollar bills or run back to their office for more change again cause the price has been and will always be $1.01 and they just expect me to be like ok just leave, it doesn't matter that you do this weekly and still haven't learning and don't feel like you need to take responsibility for yourself and throw your 'you're so mean and cheap' attitude at me. My company expects me to balance a till every day. If I let all the pennies walk out the door as dollar bill then I'd never balance. It's the principal of the matter and I take that seriously. So today 2 staff members come in and we go thru the schpeel and I say "do you have the penny, it's $1.01" and he looks at me blankly and says "no, I gave you guys like 20¢ extra a few weeks ago!" and I say "not to me you didn't and besides how do I know you're not lying?" and he says "I'm not" and I say "fine, but next time I want you to be prepared with the penny." He's been in before. He knows better. So they leave and I go back to my office. 2 minutes later the woman he was with (I don't know who she is or what her name is. I never got a look at her face when she came in the first time) storms back in the store and slams the penny down on the counter, knockin over a gum display in the process. "Here! I want that woman who was here earlier to have her penny!! I've worked here 10 years and I've never been called a liar!!" I heard all this happen and so I shouted out "wait" and I headed towards the front. She takes off. So I follow her out and call for her to stop. She speeds up and never looks back. A passing student tried to get her attention for me and she ignored her too. I wasn't about to chase her down. I was going to tell her how ridiculous she was being and that she took the whole thing and escalated it entirely way much. But she refused to talk to me or look at me. So she made me feel like shit and I in turn have the pleasure of knowing that I made her feel like shit first. But that wasn't my intention. I was joking about the lying comment but she didn't think I was funny, aparently. I considered finding the guy and apologizing to him for not being more guarded in my joke but not to her, she doesn't deserve an apology if she won't even talk to me when I try to defend myself, she just bolted out of there like a child. This is now the 3rd time my mouth has gotten me in trouble, 2nd time this week even. I can't say anything about the first 2 incidents cause people get too butt hurt and threaten to sue while others turn things around to where I'm the bad one even though I was just the messenger. Today's incident has happend before. German man (as I call him. he's got an accent) threw a big hissy fit at me about 2 months ago when I said I needed the penny. He said "oh yeah, wouldn't want the store to go bankrupt!" Now when he comes in he looks to see if I'm there and when he can't avoid me he throws his money at me, literally. So I'm feeling pretty low about myself today. I am an honest and genuine person. I say things and I don't always think first but that's only when I'm not bottling things up and trying not to offend people. I say what's on my mind, usually it's something sarcastic but it's always the truth. So either way I can't win. I know you're probably thinking that we should just have one of those cups with spare change in them but the company is very clear on that being prohibited so I'm the enforcer of the change. Yay me. Thank goodness tomorrow is a holiday and I have the day off.

they all come out on Halloween

2006-11-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

so I stopped at the mail box yesterday on my way home as I always do. one of my neighbors was there and I said hello as I always do when I see a neighbor at the mail boxes. he says to me "oh hey how are you? oh man I feel like such an ass. you know I never got a chance to introduce myself since that night." and I thought yeah cause I have no idea who you are or anything. then I thought it was my new friend Guy with the diarhea house. even though it didn't look like him I figured eh, close enough, maybe I just didn't get as good of a look that day as I thought I had, what with all my trauma from being hit! so i'm about to say hi Guy and he says "you know I was so fucking wasted and I never properly instruded myself, I'm Paul." well get out of town it's Crazy Paul (as Chad and I lovingly refer to him) in the flesh, shaking my hand. For anyone who doesn't know Crazy Paul check my posting from last year, I think around April of 2006. So he starts in again "oh yeah I was so far gone that night you called the cops, say listen are you giving out candy tonight cause I don't know how much to get. last year there were a ton of kids and I ran out of candy so I just started giving them money by the end." clearly our nickname for him is more suitable then we know. I told him I don't give out candy but htat he should just turn off his lights like I do and pretend I'm not home. And that's exactly what I did!

2006-10-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

I swear to God Ramin always has a drink in his hand. Never fails.

2006-10-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

I forgot what was so funny, probably Kristian trying to hide.

2006-10-29T22:34:00.000-07:00

My hair went flat but other than that I really like this picture.

2006-10-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

Now I know you're like "what the hell is this" but it's significant cause I am infact pulling up my smaller sized pants I just bought 3 weeks ago and they already don't fit. I'm just a bit proud here. Thanks Chad, once again you are on top of things.

2006-10-29T22:32:00.000-07:00

I had to show this cause of Jackie's beautiful candy apples she brought me. gorgeous.