Hello Me. It's Me Again

PostSecret has a secret this week that I totally get. I was so surprised to see it that I just had to say something.

P.S.
No, it's not my secret. If it was and I said so here, it wouldn't be much of a secret. Geez.

Yuck!

I just had to get a tick off of Bailey. It figures the one time she's ever had a tick and C's at work on duty. We use that Frontline flea and tick stuff too. She wasn't due for a dose until the first but I went ahead and gave it to her a day early. Wildlife sucks sometimes.

Other than that, I'm having an extremely quiet Saturday. You can read that to say, "I'm bored out of my freaking, ever-loving, mind!!!" So far, I've watched 3 movies and an episode of Six Degrees I recorded last night. To be mildly productive, I also vacuumed for the second time in as many days, took the trash out, and I started on my latest English paper that is due tomorrow, lol. I plan on giving the Georgetown v. OSU basketball game some of my time later on this evening and the Florida v. UCLA game after that. And then I'm going to watch a movie that we rented at Blockbuster last night. I can't for the life of me remember the title, but I know that I've been wanting to see it, lol.

Good times.

One Last Thing

I have a Dyson vacuum cleaner. It cost an arm and a leg but it was worth every penny. For about the last month, however, I've been having a problem getting it to work correctly. Thankfully, it's still under warranty and today C and I dropped it off in J'ville for a tune up. Get this: Dyson owners get a free loaner while their machine is in the shop. Too cool, right? So I now have a yellow Dyson for the week while my purple Animal Dyson is being fixed. I was wondering what I was going to do without my vacuum cleaner for a week and now I don't have to worry about it. For once, I'm impressed with a company's customer service.

Spring

I love spring. Spring means baseball, picnics, flowers blooming, trees budding, and that the beach is right around the corner. Since moving to N.C. I've found that Spring means something else as well: Pollen. Pollen freaking EVERYwhere. C said that when he's driving home from Havelock he can see a yellow haze sitting over New Bern, lol. In California it was ash, in Vermont it was salt, and here it's pollen. I really have no clue which is worse.

Remember my English paper on Edgar Allen Poe's The Cask of Amontillado? Well, I got an A so yippee for me. It's 20% of my grade so I was really sweating my grade.

C has duty this weekend. It's such a strange thing to consider because he hasn't stood duty in about 4 years. His is going to especially suck because it's a payday weekend so he's going to have Marines getting into stupid trouble, lol. So, I'm going to have movies and Mojitos if anyone's interested in stopping by. My door's open. ;)

Cont.

I called and talked to Patti. I had a very normal-type conversation with her. No accusations, no bitching, and no yelling. I just brought up my various issues like they were every day conversation. I figured that was the best way to go. I did call her out on the discrepancy in a billing issue that I have and insisted that she send me invoices and more detailed receipts than the one she already sent. Going from what I already have, she charged me twice for the same thing. Anyway, it's a mess and I went to bed last night with a headache for the first time since we moved here. Why can't people just do the job that they are paid to do competently?

Not Looking Forward to My Day (This is a Long One)

I had a very enlightening conversation with Jen, my renter, last night. And why do I have so many Jennifer's in my life, lol? She called me last night and we talked for over an hour. It's really too bad that she lives so far away because I really think we'd be friends if we were neighbors. That's all beside my point here though. I found out that my rental management company isn't exactly doing their job.

The story:

I interviewed a couple different rental management companies back in VT. This one seemed to be the best for the right amount of money. We pay them 6% of the rent a month in exchange for their handling collection of the rent, any issues that come up with the house, and a once a month drive by of the property to make sure the renters aren't tearing the place up. We also paid them a one time "lease up" fee that was equal to one month's rent. This fee should have covered their writing the lease, interviewing potential renters, running background, employment, and reference checks, and ads in the paper. Now, here's my problem...

1.) In the beginning, I gave them a copy of a lease that C and I had drawn up that included specific paragraphs that we wanted them to include in their lease but wasn't supposed to be used as the actual lease. Turns out, they used it anyway despite me specifically telling them not to because it also included language that I didn't want included in the lease. Plus, I had marked it up and highlighted a bunch of stuff which should have made it obvious that I didn't want it used as the actual lease. They also only had Jen sign a 6 month lease and it should have been a 12 month lease.

2.) When we moved out, we were given very little notice as to when the MC was going to let us move which didn't allow for a lot of prep time. As the movers cleared each room, I went around behind them cleaning. Considering the time I was able to give it, I got the house really clean including scrubbing out all the cabinets, cleaning all the bathrooms, and vacuuming and mopping all the rooms. When Patti, the management lady, took over the house to prepare for Jen to move in, she called and said that the house was "pretty dirty", something she brought up in several different conversations, which really offended me. A.) We're not dirty people. And B.) I know how to clean a house when moving out. It's not like I haven't done a dozen times before. This has been bothering me since January so I asked Jen about it last night and she said that other than the normal stuff you do when moving in, she thought the house was pretty clean. She also said, "They even had the carpets cleaned for us." Which brings me to my next point.

3.) Before Jen moved in, Patti called and asked me if we would be willing to pay to have the carpets professionally cleaned because Jen had requested we do so. We agreed even though it hadn't been that long since the carpets had been shampooed. And Jen also said that every time she vacuums, white powdery stuff comes out of the carpet. Since this never happened to me, this tells me the cleaners didn't clean the carpets right.

4.) I posted about how I had to have roofers out to the house to see if the snow needed to be cleaned off. Well, it didn't and I e-mailed Patti about it and also told her to give Jen the roofer's number in case of an emergency since he only lives 5 minutes away and said that Jen could call him 24/7 if need be. Found out last night that Jen didn't even know the roofer had been out at all. This was back on March 7.

5.) Back during the roof deal, I found out that Jen had only paid $2016 upon moving in which should have been $2850 to include first month's rent, deposit, and a non-refundable pet fee. They were supposed to have cleared that up this month (March) and gotten the rest of the money to me on April 1st. Jen told me last night that nobody called her about it. With it being so late in the game and the fact that it was Patti's responsibility, I don't even feel right making Jen pay the rest of the money. I know if I was in her position, I wouldn't want to pay it.

6.) Also, Jen said that she's called them about a couple different things and they never got back to her about any of it. And when then loaned her a roof rake for the snow, they only gave the 5 foot woman 2 hours to use it and when she wasn't able to clean the entire roof off in the amount of time while standing up to her waist in snow, Patti bitched about the little bit of snow she cleaned off. Geez!

I'm pissed. Since Jen's moved in, I've felt like Patti's been nickle and diming us for every little thing which is why I handled the roof deal myself, and with the carpet thing, turns out I was right. All the repairs and stuff like that, Patti keeps in-house because they keep a handyman on staff and I think it was her son's "business" that cleaned the carpets which, in turn, is supposed to save us money. Since Jen's moved in, Patti's taken over $800 of the rent for various "fees" for the house. I have receipts for all of it so it looks legit, but now I'm not so sure. Everyone warned us about renting out our house but it was for the renters tearing the house up or not paying their rent or whatever. My renters are wonderful and we've already opened negotiations for them to buy the house. They aren't the problem. We were supposed to be able to trust the management company for pete's freaking sake!!! So now I have to call Patti and figure out wtf is going on and I'm not sure how to approach it. If I bitch her out too much, the level of service might drop off even more and then what am I supposed to do? If I let her get away with it, then the house isn't being taken care of properly and we're wasting our money. It's not like I'm in a position to find another company and besides that, we signed a 12 month contract (hence why it would have made sense for Jen to sign a 12 month lease). I don't know what to do here. Good thing I have a couple hours to figure it out. Whatever.

To be continued...

Too Much TV

I think it's safe to say that I watch too much television. I have several shows that are on my "can't miss" list. Now that this season is starting to wind down, I'm feeling a panic come on, lol. I caught up on two weeks worth of Prison Break and next week's preview was for the season finale. I'm so sad! I love that show and it's fun looking at Wentworth Miller although he should change his first name, lol. But there is a silver lining since so many networks have their summer shows like The Closer for instance. I don't think I remember there being such a thing as a kid.

Also, I think someone stole my newspaper. Unless the kids hid it from me this morning or the delivery person forgot us, I didn't get a paper today. I like to broaden my horizons by reading the newspaper everyday.

And now that the telemarketing calls have finally stopped, we've started getting calls from bill collectors for a Bill Weist or something like that. They're persistent enough that they even leave voice mails. I completely, totally, and wholeheartedly hate having a land line. We never get off the wall calls on either of our cell phones. Only 8 more months before we can get new plans. I can hold out without killing someone.

Burn, Baby Burn

I hate it when people burn trash or yard clippings in their backyards. Hate. It. I love having my windows open in the spring and summer and people that burn in their yards take away from my enjoyment of that experience. I either have to endure the smoke and/or smell or shut my windows. Ever since 2003, I have a very low tolerance for the smell of smoke and every time I smell it, I run to my windows to check the sky to make sure the world isn't on fire again. I also feel that I have to keep an eye on their fires to make sure they don't get out of control. Our house in VT had a wood burning fireplace and we used it maybe 4 or 5 times the whole time we lived there. I'm probably being completely irrational but I can't help it.

The Big Comfy Couch

We had a full to bursting weekend. I'm going to open today's post with the funniest part: Friday night.

Friday night, C and I were watching tv in bed. We got to talking about how in the twelve years we've been together, he's never spent a night of it on the sofa in the dog house. He pointed out that the one night he did try to sleep on the couch was because he had a cold and his coughing was keeping me up. After only 10 or 15 minutes, I felt bad and went out and made him come back to bed. So, I started picking on him and he said that if I didn't stop, he was hitting the couch. Of course, I didn't stop so he got up and went out onto the couch after trying to take my pillows with him. After he left, I promptly situated myself smack dab in the middle of the bed so that when he gave up and came back, he'd see that I had no intention of fetching him off the couch that night. Then, we both fell asleep, lmao. He comes back to bed at 6 am bitching that he can't believe that I left him out on the couch all night. Yes. He blames me for his immaturity. And it turns out that all the deliberating we did on buying our sofa was for the good because he slept like a rock until he woke up Saturday morning. Men.

So, for the rest of the weekend...Saturday, we spent the afternoon in J'ville shopping. We bought the neatest set of dishes that I absolutely LOVE and a drink shaker thingy for making Mojitos. Well, you can make other drinks in it too, but we had Mojitos in mind when we picked it up.

We took the girls for a walk around the neighborhood when we got home. There are so many houses for sale right now. We started picking up the "take ones" from houses as we were walking to get an idea of what the houses are going for around here. What I don't get is that this one house that's at the apex of a hairpin curve in the road so that I'm sure they probably have had a few cars end up in their front yard has a tax value of about $90,000 but they're asking $150,000 for it. And it's small. I would not pay that much for that house in a million years. What the heck? Back in VT, we paid $15,000 less than the tax value of our house not $60,000 more. Anyway, I went totally off the subject there. Now we're on the lookout for a house. We can't move right now cuz we're in a lease, but I'm ready to not live in somebody else's house all the while paying an astronomical amount of money for the electric to live there. It's annoying. Sunday we spent most of the day driving around all different kinds of neighborhoods looking at houses and we also took the girls for another walk/bike ride around our neighborhood.

All in all, it was a great family-type weekend.

What I Did

First and foremost: A very Happy Birthday to my friend Jennifer S. Long distance ((((HUGS!!!!)))) And if you see this before I talk to you, I plan on calling in a bit. I tried calling earlier but you were still at work.

Also, Happy Birthday to C's sister. You already called today, so I'll talk to you sometime this week I'm sure.

Ok. Anyway, I didn't do much today and that's why I'm posting so late. I watched HBO's Elizabeth I this morning into the afternoon cuz it was FOUR hours long. It was great though. Worth every single minute. It was a brilliant movie. I think I'm gonna buy the DVD from HBO's store cuz I have seen it in stores anywhere. Fun factoid: Did you know, that after Elizabeth I died, it was discovered that she owned over 2,000 dresses? That's enough dresses to be able to wear a different one each day of the year for approx. 5.4 years!!! I have like, three dresses in my closet and I probably don't fit into a-one of them.

Did I sit on my ass all day? Well, no I didn't thank you very much. I took a walk and did some house cleaning. Aren't ya jealous? On my walk, the way that I go, there are no side streets that aren't cul-de-sacs. So, I pass this chick walking her baby; we pass walking toward each other. A little while later, I pass her again and we are still walking toward each other. How is that possible when there are no streets that she could have cut over on? It would be rough going pushing a stroller with a newborn through people's yards which is the only thing she could've done. Weird.

My freaking ears are sore from listening to my iPod so much. I wonder if it's like sore muscles and my ears will eventually adjust. Hmmm. I decided to check out some new podcasts today. I noticed that the same people that subscribe to The Dawn and Drew Show and Keith and the Girl also subscribe to this show called Soccergirl, Incorporated so I figured I might like it too. I listened to a bit of the last two shows and didn't like it one bit. It was about Smurf sex. A.)Hasn't that been covered by other people before? and B.) It's dumb. I deleted it. So much for that.

Still Lovin' It

I'm having too much fun with my new iPod. I downloaded the pilot episode of Raines (Man is Jeff Goldblum looking old) because it was free, lol, and watched it on my iPod last night. The video quality is pretty good and the show was ok.

My thanks goes out to Jacki for turning me on to Diggnation. While I am geekier for having watched their podcast, it was freaking funny. I watched the 3/17 episode and the ending where they were "accidentally" prank calling that girl was so funny.

Anyway, did I mention how my neighbors thought it would be nifty to take a jackhammer to their patio Tuesday afternoon and then begin the building of their deck at 6 something yesterday morning?? Yeah. Hammering before the sun was even up. That's what I like to wake up to in the morning.

And did I also mention how it's supposed to be in the 70's and 80's for at least the next 7 days?? Woot, woot!! Pleasant weather is much better for me than nasty weather. I'm one of those people that gets that S.A.D. condition in the winters. Maybe I should buy one of those light deals.

Wouldn't you figure that being able to talk on the phone for hours at a time like you did when you were a teenager would be something that you eventually grow out of? Well, not me. I managed to have a 2 hour long phone conversation with my very good friend today. I didn't even realize we had been on the phone that long until we hung up and I saw the call timer, lol.

One last iPod thing. Well, it's not just iPod, it's a music thing but I just downloaded the album...ANYway, if you haven't listened to Lily Allen you're missing out. If you're interested, check out her song Smile first. Pay attention the lyrics; she's mean and funny. She's British so it can be tricky. She's awesome though. I like the whole album and that's not something I say very often.

I'm off.

Amendment

I can't believe in my last post that I totally forgot about my last, and most notorious, experience with key wives. SHEESH!!! I think I went temporarily insane to have forgotten that. So, aside from the call tonight, I've had two prior experiences with key wives and the second time was a million times worse than the first and the first time I was trying to get C home on a Red Cross call cuz we were told his mom was dying. So you figure it out how bad the second encounter would've been.

To be fair, this woman sounded perfectly sane. There. Both sides of the coin.

That's enuff of that.

I Have the BEST Husband

EVER!! He surprised me tonight with a new iPod. It's a full sized one that plays videos. I was so excited. I had a Nano already but all it does is play audio files. Now I can play my Podcasts that are in video. Woohoo! Now C has my Nano since all he wanted it for was music anyway. He also gave me the sweetest card with it. Talk about turning my heart to mush.

Also, while I was typing this post I received a phone call from my key wife, hehehe. I don't particularly like key wives so I declined her offer of becoming one. Besides that, they wouldn't want me anyway. I like to speak my mind too often and they frown on that. Oh. If you don't know what a key wife is, they're Marine Corps wives that...well, I can't really say that I know what their official function is since the only one that ever contacted me before today was worthless. Sheesh. Almost five years later and I'm still bitter, lmao. I do know from personal experience that they stir up more drama than they do help. But whatever.

So, I'm off to play with my new toy which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!

Vernal Equinox

Yes. Today is the first day of Spring. Despite the fact that we spent part of the winter here in N.C., winter seemed especially long this time around. It's a gloomy, doomy day here today. Oh well. Excellent weather will here tomorrow.

I registered for my summer classes. I'm taking Creative Writing, Intro to Business Management (it's for my minor, ugh) and a Mythology class. I can't wait to start the writing and mythology class and I'm curious about the business management class. This class is sort of experimental. I'm not sure if I want it to be my minor or not. But, I have quite a few electives to kill, so I figured, why not.

Oh. And the blog thing I was talking about yesterday, turns out it was my computer. I ran two different spyware programs, my virus scanner, and I deleted all of my browser history and it took care of the problem. Vicious computer people suck. Well, most people suck but today, I'm singling out people who like to mess with other people's computers. You suck.

Blog Issues

I don't know about everyone else, but my blog page keeps redirecting me to another page after a few seconds. I'm trying to figure out if this is a bug with my blog or if I have some sort of spyware or virus on my computer. I'd appreciate a comment if this is happening to anyone else.

Second Life

Has anyone else heard of Second Life? It's pretty basically just a virtual world form of Yahoo messenger or AIM. I had to give it a try just to see what the hype was about. People are pretty into it from what I can tell. They spend actual money in exchange for Second Life currency based on real life exchange rates. You can look on their website and see that over $1.5 million in U.S. currency has been spent there in the last 24 hours. How crazy is that? They also have jobs, build houses, and have online meetings there as well. I have an avatar but I don't have a job, a house, or participate in any gatherings. I actually find it kinda boring. Sony is coming out with their own version for the PS3 called Home. Surprisingly enough, it's going to be a free download for the console. The Sims also tried something similar as well. I tried the free trial out but as much as I love the whole Sims world, I couldn't get into that either. Maybe I'm missing something?

Anyway, if you want to try it out too, it's a free download for the basic version which gives you no Second Life currency, lol. I would recommend that your computer have a pretty good processor and graphics card as their world lags quite a bit. I would like to hear opinions if anyone does decide to give it a whirl.

Musings and Observations

In an honest, truly equal marriage, should there be such a thing as "yours" and "mine"?

I've recently learned that saying a busybody, nosy person has "no life" isn't necessarily true.

Being a quiet person doesn't automatically make you a snob.

Read Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and 130.

Corporal punishment for a dog is not an effective training tool. All you're doing is teaching the dog fear.

The saying, "What doesn't kills us only makes us stronger" should be changed to "What doesn't kill us, didn't kill us" because not everybody learns from their mistakes.

There are some people that I know that should give themselves more credit for their accomplishments instead of giving their parents credit for them.

Mojitos are GOOOOOD!

Saying that what somebody does is their business and that it's not your place to judge doesn't automatically make you a good person when you're ignoring certain issues such as child or spousal abuse just to name two examples.

Children's birthday parties should not be a competition for the parents to exhibit their generosity.

What is with all the Shriners and Free Masons in North Carolina?

And last but certainly not least:

Mojitos are GOOOOOD!!

Saturday

I didn't want my last post for the weekend to be about porn so here I am today. One last thing before I change the subject though. Talk about drama, drama, drama, last night. The phone lines were burning up from California to Vermont to North Carolina and back again. This whole thing has definitely caused a scandal. Okay. Nuff about that.

We did our commissary shopping today. Fun, fun. We were watching this show this morning on the History Channel about distilleries and they showed how to make Mojitos so we picked the stuff up while we were out to make a batch. I've never tried one before and have always wanted to. What better day than St. Patrick's Day, right?

We ran into C's Gunny while we were at the commissary too. I hadn't met him yet and he and his family seemed really nice. Too bad he's retiring in June.

So that's my weekend edition post. I hope everyone has a fun weekend and Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Here's a pinch for those of you who didn't wear your green today.

I Just Gotta Say

This is pure, unadulterated gossip and I just don't care.

We found out today that one of the wives from...wellll, wherever, has an adult website and boy is it SLUTTY!! I only met this individual once about 2 years ago or so and seeing what she's doing on the side and knowing that I had her in my house makes me want to boil myself in some antiseptic and burn everything she touched. I knew that I didn't like her but I just didn't know why until today. Well, that and they beat their kids all the while spouting off about how "religious" they are. But DAYUM!! I'm not even going to post the link on my blog because it's just smut, but rest assured, it's NASTY!

HEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!!

Boys Today

In our neighborhood, the kids that regularly play outside are my girls, ages 10 and 8, another girl age 10 and her brother age 8, and then 5 or 6 other boys all aged 12 or about to turn 12. I sat outside on the porch yesterday while they were all outside because my kids and the other girl were being harassed by the 12 year old boys. While observing their behavior and the blatant ill manners they were displaying in front of an adult, I couldn't help thinking that I was looking at the Future Inmates of America. Are all 12 year old boys monsters? They were calling my 10 year old and her friend very nasty names. I know that pulling hair and stuff like that used to be the way that young boys showed interest in girls, but has that evolved into name calling that would result in an adult being brought up on hate crime charges? And where in the world are these kids' parents?? It's gotten to the point where the neighbor girl gets on the bus at our house because one of those 12 year olds (I'm not sure who is who.) won't let her get on the bus at her own stop.

And furthermore, what the heck is up with boys' hair cuts these days or lack thereof? This long hair, nasty, unruliness is ugly. I hate long hair on boys. Having a Marine for a husband probably doesn't help but they look unkempt with long hair. CUT YOUR FREAKING HAIR!! And learn some respect. Geez. Kids these days... I know everyone says that girls are more trouble than boys but I don't think I'm equipped to raise boys. The universe knew what it was doing when it gave me two girls, lol.

I've had this window open for ten minutes now while I was surfing the net trying to figure out what to say. I'm in a quiet mood today. Not depressed or mad or anything; just quiet. Mostly, I'm just enjoying our weather and don't really want to be sitting inside. I've been getting a lot of use out of our back yard the last few days. With temps in the 80's, it seems like a shame to be wasting it on the couch. Especially since this is the last day of nice weather for a bit.

So, that's it for today. I'm gonna grab the dog and head outside.

Bookcase = Adult???

This was on an episode of a show that used to be on TV. Well, I guess it still is but it's in reruns now. Anyway, the woman on there broke up with her boyfriend because he had an empty bookcase in his apartment and didn't care to fill it up. According to her, if you're an adult your bookcase should be filled. This got me to thinking because I have 3 bookcases and 2 other shelves stuffed to capacity with books. Does this make me any more or less of an adult? Additionally, does the contents of the shelves matter? I have tons of books but I would say that maybe a quarter of them would actually be considered literature and not just leisure reading. So does the fact that my bookshelves contain Harry Potter and Nora Roberts' books make me immature?

Can you accurately judge a person by the cover of their books?

Ghosts

Just when you think the coast is clear, just when you decide to let your guard down, and just when you think things are looking up, shit happens. I'm being dramatic. It's not as big as all that but like I told C: Recruiting duty is like dog crap that you can't get off your shoe. The smell just won't go away.

The "extremely interesting" news we got yesterday was that C is on the outbound roster with orders to another base despite the fact that he's only been here for three weeks. Why? Because bastards with delusions of grandeur tried to mess C over. And mess is not the preferred word here. Is he actually going? No because he just happened to check into his current unit early and so the new orders won't go through. How much did he miss it by? Just over a week. And what would that have meant for us? Well, because it's less than 50 miles away, we wouldn't have been able to get out of our lease and even if we could, we would have had to pay for the move ourselves or else C would have had to commute about an hour one way. So the choices would be: Stay put so that our kids wouldn't have to change schools again and pay out the butt for gas. OR, move at our own expense, change the kids' schools again, and uproot our family for the for the fourth time in as many years. Thankfully, we don't have to make these choices. We missed having had to do so by a hair.

All's well that ends well, right? Sure. I'll just keep telling myself that.

A Failed Attempt

So I see nobody was brave enough to post a guess to the poem. It’s a pregnant lady people. “A riddle in nine syllables” = Nine months of pregnancy. “A melon strolling on two tendrils” Just picture it. Well, that was my attempt at bringing some culture to the picture and I obviously failed.

Anyway, we had an interesting weekend most of which I can’t even talk about so I’ll just hint around, lol.

We fed our gadget whore beast this weekend. That’s all I’m saying about that.

I bought Twilight Princess FINALLY. I preordered the dumb thing 2 years ago but because of the Wii, Nintendo pushed back the release date. And then we moved and so I had to call the EB Games in Vermont to get my money back and they actually sent it to me on a gift card. I was pleasantly surprised that I actually got my money back.

And let’s see…We went to the beach again. It was such a nice day too. It got up to about 70 on Saturday while we were there and it was lovely. Which beach was it? Well, I can’t say.

And after a giganto ordeal with the cable company, we finally have HDTV. I have to say, it’s worth the extra money. There is definitely a noticeable difference between regular tv and HDTV.

This is the last week of one of my classes. Woohoo! It was only a half semester class because it’s only one credit. And then next week, I’m on Spring Break. Woohoo! Again. I’m looking forward to my week off.

And today…Well, well, well. I just got some extremely interesting news from C a few minutes ago. Extremely interesting. It won’t be verified until tomorrow, however, so I’m not going to say what it is until we’re sure one way or the other. I want to say more but I just can’t. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the update. I’ll post as soon as I hear anything.

A Poem

I read this last night in my Lit book and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd post it for something a little more lighthearted than my other post for today.

Metaphors
by
Sylvia Plath

I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.

Do you know the answer to the riddle?

I'm Disturbed

I saw a blurb last night about a news story and then I forgot to watch it, lol. Anyway, the headline was about how gangs are having their "members" enlist into the military in order to get weapons and munitions out onto the street and also to infiltrate overseas. Some of you might find this shocking and some of you might have heard this before and, in your cynical ways, figured it was just a matter of time. With the hubby just coming off of recruiting duty, this is something that never even crossed my mind. Of course, you don't see too many gangs in rural VT, lol. In retrospect, however, I can see how easy it would be for gangs to get their members into the military. This touches on the politics of recruiting duty which I am not ready to discuss, but believe me, it's not an impossible possibility. A recent stabbing in nearby Jacksonville, NC that was committed by two Marines suspected of having ties to gangs only reinforces this and the timing of that incident with the news reports is uncanny. In fact, this subject has been in the news all over the country:

News Story 1
News Story 2
News Story 3

And there are plenty more where those came from if you want to Google it.

It makes you wonder what the world is coming to and just who you can trust. I certainly wouldn't want my husband or any other respectable member of the military over in Iraq with some degenerate gang member guarding his back.

Ft. Macon

I was looking through my picture folder this afternoon and ran across these pics and realized that I never posted them like I said that I would. Oops.

The first one is, obviously, a cannon, lol.

The second one is a view of the inside of the fort taken from the inside.

The third is a view of the area surrounding the fort taken from the top, outside level.

The fourth is a view of the inside of the fort taken from the top level.

Just thought I'd share. We had a good time and it was educational for the kids.

Sweating the Small Stuff

I'm sitting here freaking out over my electric bill again. They'll be out to read the meter in the next 4 or 5 days. I checked it out myself today and we've already used 2320 kWh which amounts to about $260 and there's going to be a few more days added onto that. We sit around freezing our butts off a lot of the time since I have the thermostat set on 66 and it doesn't seem to be making a difference. I just have a really hard time believing that our energy bills (electric+heating oil) were more reasonable in VT than it is in NC (for just electric) where the temps have been in the 50's and 60's during the day for the most part. This is craziness. I have run out of ideas on how to conserve. We keep the lights off in rooms where we aren't in them, the water heater is set on the recommended 120 degrees, the thermostat is set on 66 (in VT I kept it on 72), we don't hang the fridge door open or any of the doors and windows for that matter, the duct work on the house was recently inspected, and the heater filters were recently changed too. What the heck else is there????

And on top of that expense, I called a roofer out to the house in VT to look at the snow situation there. He said that since Jan 1, they've gotten 99 inches of snow and that most people have 20 to 30 inches on their roofs. Added to that, it's supposed to rain this weekend which will make the snow denser and heavier. He said that most of the state is going to have to have the snow removed off of their roofs before Sunday. How freaking ridiculous is that?? Do I miss it there? Not on your freaking life!!

I feel a headache coming on.

Lotsa Stuff

Well, I got my paper finished and turned in. I'm really nervous about it since it's 20% of my grade. I'd appreciate good vibes if anyone has any to spare.

C and I tried to get our DVR swapped out for a HD DVR today but the cable company sucks. C took his lunch hour to do this and we show up at the office and they were closed for, wouldn't you guess it? Lunch. And they're closed on the weekends too, the butt munches. Have I ever mentioned how much people suck?

Meanwhile, our old cable company is getting bitchy cuz I haven't sent them back their cable box yet, heheh. Our movers were dummies and packed it even though I told them not to. Did you know those things cost $200? I didn't.

I spoke with our renters for the first time since they moved in today. They've been having an interesting winter, lol. First, they're not from VT so they're not used to the snow. They had to get a roof rake, which I had never even heard of let alone used, to clean the snow off of the roof. And then...They have MICE!! Sheesh! So, she asked for permission to get a cat which I readily agreed to since it'll save us the expense of having to pay for an exterminator. She also said that they are so interested in buying the house that they're already thinking of it as their own. How great is that? I've heard so many horror stories from people that rented out their houses that I just can't believe how lucky we got. Our renters are awesome.

Nocturnal Reflections

I feel like I'm turning into some nighttime animal. I have absolutely no energy in the mornings and would sleep until noon or later if I let myself. For the first few weeks after we moved, I was sleeping like a rock at night. I don't know if it was due to the relief that came with moving or if I was just physically exhausted from moving activities. I didn't get to sleep until 8 am this morning which is real conducive to getting anything done during the day. I have laundry sitting in the family room waiting to be sorted, my paper that's due tomorrow and is still only about half done, as well as half a dozen other chores that just need to be done. I'm so freaking tired I could sleep right now with my head on my desk. Instead, I'm gearing up my iPod for another walk. I'm trying not to give in to my compulsion to sleep during the day. Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who happily pop pills for any reason. I don't even like taking Tylenol.

Well, I'm off. Hopefully the fresh air will revive me.

Medieval Times

We had, yet another, quiet weekend. Our lives were in such an upheaval there for a while that I totally appreciate peace, quiet, and doing absolutely nothing. My biggest stress was rewriting my study group paper which took me about two hours but wth. Oh, and playing ring master to two ten year old girls who thought that staying up until 2 am is a good thing.

I ordered HDTV for us today. We've had an HD television for quite some time now but they didn't have HD service in Vermont. Once again, we're advancing into modern times, lol.

C sold his Bug over the weekend. He went back and forth over selling it for a couple months but in the end, he decided he was ready to let it go. He figures he'll just buy himself another one, lol.

I'm doing something that I hardly ever do and can't actually remember doing this for a long time. I stopped reading "Life of Pi" in the middle and started reading another book. I always finish books that I start before moving on to a new one. This time is different because we decided to check out the local library over the weekend and I ended up checking out two books by Alison Weir and a third about Elizabeth I and since they're library books, I figured I should read them first. I started out with Alison Weir's "The Princes in the Tower". So far, so good. I think medieval England is so fascinating. This new rash of reading was inspired when I watched "Elizabeth" on Friday. Cate Blanchett was made for that role. It's a 1998 movie so I was probably one of the last people to see it, but if you haven't, go rent it.

Ladidadidadida

I'm bored.

We did something sorta interesting tonight. M is having a sleep over so I figured we'd order pizza for dinner. Guess how? We ordered it off of the Internet. How nifty is that? It's straight out of the movie, "The Net". Ya know? With Sandra Bullock in it. C and I saw that at the theater. Hmm.

Anyway, I'm also working on trying to find an internship program for my degree. With the field of work I'm going into and where I live, I'm probably going to be looking a loooong time. I'm trying to be optimistic about it though. I've applied at 5 different places and plan on making additional phone calls on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed or whatever mojo you go by for me.

Crazy Night

Wow! We had our first taste of North Carolina storms over last night and into this morning. It was craziness. We had tropical storm force winds, thunder and lighting, and several times the rain was literally blowing sideways. Our trees are minus lots of bark, pine cones, and limbs. My trash cans ended up in my neighbor's yard. Luckily they have locking handles on them because they had trash bags inside. And through all that we didn't lose power, cable or phone service once. All of the lines here must be buried. Oh, and it's 72 degrees out and the temps were mild all night long hence the strong storms. Craziness I tell you! The really shocking part is that my kids slept through it all, thankfully. They haven't experienced too many storms in their lifetimes and they tend to frighten easily.

Because of the storms and my cold I got about 2 hours of sleep last night. I'm pretty tired and my voice is gone again. It's such a strange sensation when you first try to talk and nothing comes out, lol. I have two very important phone calls to make today so hopefully my voice will be back before the close of business.

Inventive Solutions

I forgot to mention earlier how I have resolved to deal with telemarketers. It's actually pretty funny.

First, when they call and ask me for, I tell them to hold on while I get "her" and make them wait a little bit. Then I pull up "Here to Stay" by Korn, turn the sound up real loud, hold the phone up to the speaker and hit play. They get treated to very loud, obnoxious Korn, lmao. It's therapeutic for me as well since it's a nice, loud, angry song and nothing pisses me off faster than telemarketers and stupid drivers.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

If your're a telemarketer, consider yourself warned.

Doors, Windows, and Eyes Wide Open

March 1st and I have my windows open to a lovely breeze. Hopefully, the lovely breeze doesn't turn into tornadoes this evening, heheh.

The welcome lady just left. I'm really glad she came so thanks to whoever put my name in for the visit. She brought all kinds of freebies, gift certificates, coupons, and information about New Bern. She also said that we were lucky to find a rental as nice as ours and that our rent is a steal. That's always nice to hear. Oh. And my voice came back about an hour before she got here so good for me.

I picked out my courses for the summer semester. I may not see the light of day for the whole summer. I have to take an upper level writing intensive course so I'm going to have to write 6,000 words/25 pages for just one class. And I'm taking a stupid, idiot, lamebrain math class that I shouldn't have to take but that's just my luck. I'm also taking some other English class that I can't remember right now. Fun for me, right?

C had to do these online preliminary course deals for his job last night. There were five in all and it took him 5 1/2 hours to just do three of them. But these courses will get him into this class that will make him big bucks should he ever decide to change careers. Can't ask for more than that. So anyway, I kept him company as best I could and now the couch is calling me home for a nap.