?

I've started and stopped today's post twice. I can't figure out what I want to say today. Even now I'm sitting here trying to come up with something to type and I can't.

Today, I was mailed an extra copy of Syd Field's The Screenriter's Workbook if anyone wants it.

Later.

Post for Today

I finally finished my blog spring cleaning. It was such a chore. Blogger needs to make it easier to delete and edit old posts.

Anyway, I didn't bring this up before because I didn't want to say anything until we knew one way or the other, but up until yesterday we were on the cusp of moving again. We had even found another house. It all had to do with our electric bill and the promise my landlord made back in January that he'd replace our heat pump. After paying over $1600 in electric bills since we moved in, we were at the end of our rope in being understanding about him not replacing the heat pump. So, I wrote him a letter and told him to either replace it or let us out of our lease. We'll be getting a new heat pump by the end of next week. Thank you, thank you. He's also having a repair person come out to replace our leaky shower. FINALLY!!!! We really didn't want to pack up and move again especially since the new house would have been in Havelock and I hate Havelock.

C and I broke down last night and turned on the air conditioning. We just couldn't stand it anymore. We made it until almost June which I think is pretty darn good. As I type, blessed cool air is blowing on me. Ahhhhh!!!

I gotta jet. Homework to do. Laters.

This, That, and the Other

I decided on a new template and added the header in myself. I likes. It's nice to change things up every once in a while.

The first day of class was really un-dramatic for me. I've been working on my school work since the 22nd so I feel like class actually started a week ago.

OH!! We finally got our state tax return in the mail today from Ohio. We filed mid-February. Neato, huh?

We hit the beach on Sunday. Boy! Was it ever crowded. Wall to wall people. The water was great though and we had a good time. I got burnt to a crisp despite wearing sunblock though. I was surprised because we weren't even there as long as we usually are. We had to park in the grassy area since all the parking lots and street parking was taken. Us and A LOT of other people. On the way out, we couldn't leave because some idiot morons had parked in the exit. We had to wait for other cars in the aisle next to us to leave just so we could get to the road. That was an interesting experience. People were honking their horns like that was going to make the empty cars move aside. Dummies.

Ok. So I have absolutely nothing interesting to say today. I'm tired from not being able to sleep and it's hot. Deal with it.

Memorial Day

Today is the unofficial start of summer. It sure feels like summer. C's been trying to get me to let him turn on the ac but I've been remaining firm on leaving it off. It's hot, yes, but the humidity hasn't hit yet so we can deal with it.

M is off on this fine day with Barnacle Bob's daughter jet skiing. They've become good friends and I really like her mom. S is in her room playing. We are having a very lazy day. The kids go back to school tomorrow and it's the first day of the summer semester for C and me so I think we deserve a day of pure lounging.

I hope everyone had a day of fun, bbq's, and nice weather.

Spring Cleaning

I've been doing a little blog spring cleaning the last couple of days. I deleted over a 100 posts and I'm not finished yet. So, if you get the really, entirely weird urge to look back over my posts for the past few years, don't be surprised if they seem a little jumbled or if entire months are missing. I have my reasons for this clean up. I almost decided to delete this blog and start over from scratch but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Looking back over my posts was interesting. We've had so many ups and downs but I guess everybody's life is like that. There were also tons of spelling mistakes and times where I've repeated myself. I suppose I thought a certain topic important enough that it deserved repeating, lol.

Anyway, I just thought I'd leave a little explanatory note as to why some posts are no longer there.

Being Five Comic Strip

I thought this was funny in light of Jennifer S.'s post on her blog and my subsequent comment. Also, I give full credit to the author of Being Five. This is his work, not mine. Please visit the link in "Friends of the Kingdom" or by clicking on the title of this post. Thank you.

So and So's Theory

There's this guy that developed a theory that people who know that they are being observed behave differently. It's in my business book and I'm too lazy to go into the other room to look it up. I'll give you a name later. Anyway, in my creative writing class we are encouraged to write in a journal every day. It's not supposed to be a "dear diary" type of thing but a place to explore writing, ideas, etc. As a result, I put "journal" on my list of things to buy for this semester. Then I got to thinking, "Hey. I've kept somewhat of a journal online since 2003 so I could just continue this one, right?" Then I read about that theory and realized that I couldn't count this as a journal because I am conscience of what I write because I know this is public. Even though I try not to, I worry about offending people, hurting feelings, and being entertaining on occasion. Try being the operative word here. So, I bought a journal yesterday. I'm supposed to commit to writing in it seven days a week for at least an hour a day. I think it's a good thing. Eventually, I want to compare what I write here to what I write in my journal and see how different or similar they are in the level of honesty I display. It'll sort of be an experiment. I predict that some of what I write in each will overlap occasionally. I'm not confident enough in my writing yet to share it publicly. That's why I've never posted any of my papers here despite the fact that I've never gotten below an "A" on any of them. (Toot, toot) Sometimes I think that my professors don't read them thoroughly, lol. Which reminds me!! I can't believe I forgot to mention this. At the end of the semester, I have to submit something that I wrote to a publisher for consideration for my creative writing class!! Every time I think about it I get butterflies in my stomach. Rejection is a nightmarish thing and I would be telling a bald faced lie if I said that I didn't care. It's never been my goal to be a writer but being told that you suck is never a fun thing.

Anyway, C's waiting for me to help him with the yard so off I go.

Is it a Prince?

This is the toad that I was referring to in my Summer Madness post. Isn't it cute? It's just a little tiny thing. When M was letting him go, he peed on her though, lmao. She didn't think it was too funny. We see these guys in our yard all the time.

Movie-ness

I saw this article this morning and found it funny because this could have been an interview with me: Star Wars Article

It's not that I think they are bad movies, they just never interested me. Over the years, I've made several attempts to get through them beginning to end, but I inevitably get bored and go do other things. I suppose this makes me un-American, but there ya go. Oh. And I've never seen Citizen Kane either. I couldn't even tell you what that one is about or who is in it. I have, however, seen Weekend at Bernie's. Get it, heheh?

I guess I'm a deprived movie watcher. I tend to pick out movies for their entertainment value not to find hidden meanings and/or for political motives. Al Gore will never get my $20 to buy his DVD.

Patience

I have none. I'm sure this isn't a secret at this point. What's my point? I have two very big pieces of news that I'm dying to share but don't want to jinx anything until everything is set in stone. I hate waiting. But now that I've shared this much, I don't have to wait alone. BWAHAHAHA!!!!!

Summer Madness

I went outside last night to check out this toad that M caught. I was out there for less than five minutes. In that time, I was attacked three times by mosquitoes. And, one or more got into the house and I was bit 2 more times and once during the night. I'm allergic to the little suckers too. I have some pretty huge bite sites on my leg and they hurt when I walk. It sucks. On the upside, the fireflies are out too. I love fireflies. Fireflies mean summer, fun times, bbq's 4th of July, vacation, all that good stuff. I'm just going to have to get used to wearing bug spray constantly.

On another summer subject, we went to Lowes last night to get some wasp spray (yes, bugs abound down here) and they had all their hurricane supply stuff out. June 1st is the start of the season so I suppose we're going to have to get ready. The only supplies we have are two flashlights and no replacement batteries, lol. Oh, and we have some MRE's too. Yuck.

This is one of those situations where you take the good with the bad. Summer in the south means humidity, bugs, and hurricanes but it also means endless days at the beach, backyard bbq's, summer camp, and playing in the neighborhood with all your friends and the fireflies for company. I can't wait.

Things I Don't Get--The Lighter Side

The following are things that I don't get. This isn't a serious list for things such as war, child abuse, etc. Anyway...

-I don't get why people install white counter tops and white porcelain sinks in a kitchen. They are impossible to keep clean. Bleach has become my new best friend.

-I don't get why you'd want carpet in a dining room. Our house in VT had carpet in the dining room. We ripped it up and installed hardwood flooring. You can clean spilled spaghetti off of hardwood whereas it just stains carpeting. Our house here in N.C. has nearly white carpeting in the dining room. We hardly eat in there. I have messy girls.

-I don't get people who only listen to one type of music. It's okay to have a favorite genre, but you severely limit yourself if you only listen to rock or country or whatever.

-I don't get, and never will, people who don't like to read for leisure. Sometimes a good book is the only thing that keeps me sane.

-I don't get why so many people think boxers are vicious dogs. I've never encountered one who even came close to being mean.

-I don't get people that are afraid of technology.

I'm sure there are more things that I need to add to this list, but I'm stumped at the moment so this is what you get for today.

Don't Tell Me...

That kids aren't rotten. Remember that "snot" that I mentioned that bullies everyone in my neighborhood? Well, it turns out that she (10 year old 5th grader) and her brother (8 year old second grader) and their friend (10 year old 5th grader) have been breaking into the school for at least four Saturdays in a row and stealing stuff out of the school. I'm not so long out of high school that I couldn't look at this girl (the ring leader) and see trouble coming. I was surprised that it happened so soon. I figured she'd start getting into serious trouble in the next year or two at middle school. She likes to think that she's gangster even though she lives in one of the whitest neighborhoods outside of Vermont. I've never encountered a kid that I really wanted to get my own kids away from, but here it is. I've been worrying over how to handle this situation for a couple months now. Seeing as how she got herself suspended from school and grounded, she took care of the problem for me...At least for now. Which brings me to...

Should parents pick their kids' friends and if so, when should you start? I know that if my parents had tried to pick my friends, that I would have rebelled. Instead, they trusted me to figure out right from wrong and I was, comparatively, a good teenager for the most part. (There I go again, tooting my own horn, lol.)

Additionally, when are kids "lost"? Meaning, when is it too late to turn around a troubled kid? Does this girl still have a chance to do well in school, have decent friendships, and not be a general terror to the public? It worries me.

Shaking in My Boots

I just finished registering for my fall courses and I am in for one heck of a ride. You might remember me mentioning in another post that I was stepping up to a full course load in the fall, right? Well, things like cleaning the house, eating decent meals, and the like are going to be a thing of the past. I'm taking Management and Organization Theory, College Algebra, English Grammar, Diction, and Usage, and Technical Writing. The Tech Writing class is an upper level writing intensive class which is going to kick my butt. College Algebra only has me slightly worried. I've taken 2 other Algebra classes and did ok in them. The English Grammar, etc. class is fulfilling a writing requirement and it's a pre req for another class that I want to take in the spring. I'm not too worried about that one. And the management class is an upper level too that has me a little worried just because I'm not too sure how hard it's going to be. All the classes put together are going to be sooo much work. In the writing class alone, I'll be writing a total of 6,000 words or 25 pages. I can freely admit, taking this many classes is a bit intimidating. My very first semester, I took 5 classes at once due to a scheduling snafu and I had my nose in a book from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed and they were just lower level intro type classes. But, if I want to graduate on time, this is the sacrifice that I (and the rest of my household, lol) have to make.

Happy Dance!

I just got my final grade back for me English class and I got a big fat AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! I kicked ass in that class. I'm very happy that the first class I took for my major I did so well in. It's a good sign I hope.

Now, I'm going to treat myself to a celebratory breakfast of Raisin Bran, lol.

New Phone Numbers

We finally straightened out our telephone situation. We're cancelling the land lines and going back to using our cell phones. We updated our phone numbers today so that we have local N.C. numbers. I sent out an e-mail with the new numbers this evening. If you didn't get one, it was merely an oversight or your e-mail bounced (3 people's did). If you need/want our new numbers and didn't get an e-mail, get me a message and let me know. We also got M an early birthday present and she now has her own phone too. Yay, M!!!! Oh. And we're still with Verizon Wireless and we now have the unlimited messaging deal, so feel free to send a text or instant message. Woot woot!

That's it.

Wait, wait. No, it's not. I can't believe I almost forgot to tell ya'll the most interesting part. We were at the Circuit City conducting our business, right. Well, we were there yesterday too but "the system was down" and they couldn't switch our numbers. So, we come back today and the same girl is there to help us out. While she's on the phone doing the number switchy thingy, this very rude girl comes up and asks for an SD card. My girl tells her that she only has miniSD cards and that she'll have to go check at the cameras. So, Rude Girl gets all pissy and goes to the customer service desk to complain that my girl didn't walk her over to the camera section because she was "standing around and talking". Hello! She was helping a customer. So about 10 minutes later, Rude Girl comes back with Rude Boyfriend and he asks if my girl has a USB cable for his phone. She looks it up in her inventory and informs him that her kiosk does not carry that cable. So, he looks at the Circuit City brand stuff, finds his cable, opens the box, and walks out the store with it!! WTF!!! They have them all over their security cameras because they were dumb enough to go up to the service desk to complain so I really hope they get caught. Morons.

Ok. So that's it. That's my excitement for the day. Till next time...

Sunday Edition

I've been such a nerd this weekend. I got my new business textbook in the mail on Friday and I've been reading it the past couple days. I figure getting a head start couldn't hurt and I'm actually learning quite a bit. It's not nearly as boring as I thought it would be. I'm still waiting on my other books to get here. I have 8 for my three summer classes. 9 if you count the supplemental work book that came with my business book.

C's been at his motorcycle class all weekend. It lasted until 9 Friday night, 5 last night, and it'll probably be 5 again tonight. He said he's having fun though. When he gets home tonight, we're going to get M an early birthday present. More on that later.

And I'm OFF!

Since It Was Brought Up...

This graph shows the visits from specific cities in Ohio and their percentages. This representation is from May 1 to May 18. JJ, as you can see, you are third but only by a very narrow margin as Bellefontaine and Columbus are tied. Sorry. Maybe you can pull it out by the end of the month. And, this doesn't mean to start indiscriminately visiting my blog. You'll skew my stats. ;)

Is This Thing On??

I feel like the Internet has come to a stand still. I got online about 10 minutes ago to check my E-mail, headlines, etc., and other than a couple messages, nothing has changed. All the same news headlines as yesterday, none of the blogs that I read have updated in about two days, no Myspace bulletins, no Tube updates, blah. It's eerie. I can almost hear the echo of silence in the cyber world. What is up???

As Promised

I just thought I'd share these graphs and show ya'll where you're from and where the majority of my hits come from. I could show you individual cities from each country and state but that'd take wayyy too much time and effort. Here ya go.

Can You See the Steam Coming Out of My Ears?

I freaking HATE the state of Vermont those money grubbing frauds. And H&R Block sucks butt too.

When we first filed our state taxes, according to H&R Block we were getting back about $4000 altogether. Today, when they fixed all their freaking mistakes, we're getting back just over $200. Talk about a kick in the crotch. The state of Vermont, which, btw, has one of the highest tax rates in the country, has seen fit this year not to give their homeowner rebate if you didn't own and occupy your home after April 16, 2007. Yes. You don't get the rebate on your 2006 tax return if you don't live there in 2007. Make sense? Stupid buttmunch mothercrudders. What about the other 8 freaking months we lived there in that time frame????

Additionally, it's not like I feel this way because I'm not from there and have no love for the state, which I don't. My current neighbors next door are from Vermont. They moved down here because of A) The weather. And B) The cost of living. They're one example of many that I could give you. In the three years that we lived there, two cities tried to leave the state and become part of New Hampshire because of property tax rates. They weren't even border cities either which is weird.

We haven't lived there for four months and we're still getting screwed up the butt by that state. Needless to say, I have an appointment with an accountant next week to seek help.

I promise to try and find something positive to post about in my next post.

A Few Things I Want to Share*UPDATED

#1. I have a 9 coupons for free Snuggle Exhilarations liquid fabric softener. We got them when we bought our washer and dryer earlier this year. C and I don't like the smell of the stuff so we aren't going to use them. If anyone would like these coupons let me know. You'll have to be willing to give me your mailing address so that I can send them to you. First come, first serve. I would hate for them to go to waste.

#2. I discovered www.tubesnow.com yesterday while listening to my Podcast of Diggnation. It's this really cool free download that lets you share files between users automatically. Like photos, documents, etc. All you do is copy and paste what you want to share and people connected to your tube can see it instantly. I thought it would be a nifty way to keep in touch long distance. If anyone wants in on my tube, again, let me know. Also, right now, you get 2 gig storage which is a lot. I guess they're getting ready for a new release and once they do that, you're not going to get that much storage so if you're going to sign up, do so fast.

#3. In addition to my Meebo instant messenger on my page, I now have my own Meebo chat room that you can access on the right. This chat room is different from traditional chat rooms in that we can share websites and anyone in the room can see the same thing at the same time. For instance, if you have a funny YouTube video you want to share, you simply enter the url into the chat and everyone gets to watch it together. Feel free to pop in anytime.

And I think that's it for now. I hope to hear back from some of you on this stuff.

Updates:

I tried out the Tubes with my dad and it's totally neato! They are definitely going down to 1gb of storage before too much longer so make sure and sign up while you can still get 2 gb and let's share!

Tired of Me Yet?

I just had to say, I hate kids. Sounds awful, I know, but they're big pains in the butt. As I type and I'm looking out my front window, I have one kid going through my mailbox, another making a mess in the front yard, 2 more making a mess in the neighbor's yard across the street, and one last one being a royal snot to everyone else.

Also, I got this from a friend's blog and wanted to share it cuz it's funny.

"Loyalty" is a man thing....

Friendship Between Women: A woman didn't come home one night. The next day she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend's house. The man called his wife's 10 best friends. None of them knew about it.

Friendship Between Men: A man didn't come home one night. The next day he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend's house. The woman called her husband's 10 best friends. Eight of them confirmed that he had slept over and two claimed that he was still there. This only proves that men can't be trusted!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Oh.

With all this bitchiness and negativity, I totally forgot to mention a couple grades that I've gotten back. In English, I got a 97 on my last paper. I wrote it on Oedipus. I was surprised because I didn't think that it was my best work but my professor had many good things to say about it. And, I passed my computer class, the one I was worried about. I'm glad to have that one over with and behind me. I'm still waiting on my final grade in English, but I'm pretty sure I passed.

The Train Keeps on Rolling

I was trying to have a good day. After spending most of the last two days pissed off, I was trying to have a freaking good day. Not happening.

I just got off the phone with the VT Dept of Taxation and found out that not only did H&R Block totally f%$k up our tax return we owe the state of VT $700 + penalties. He also screwed up our Ohio tax return too but we're just getting back about $1200 less than we originally thought. At least we don't owe them any money. I plan on calling the H&R Block guy and giving him an earful while getting my money back. THEN, I'm taking our taxes to someone with half a brain and filing an amendment so that we don't actually have to pay that $700 to VT.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: KNOW YOUR FREAKING JOB OR GO HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jumbled

I have so many things that I want to post about but am not sure if I want to post about them that I don't know where I want to start or if I want to start at all. Confused? Try being in my head today.

So, Mother's Day. It didn't exactly go as planned. We ended up going to the beach which was a good thing/bad thing. It was good because we took the dogs and Bailey had a great time out in the ocean. Also, it was in the 70's at the coast and sunny. It was bad because it was so windy that we were getting stung by blowing sand and didn't stay very long. We had sand in every nook and cranny by the time we left. And Hannah was dumb and ate a couple mouthfuls of sand.

As you all probably figured out by now, we made our yearly Mother's Day calls to our mothers: C's mom, my mom, and my step-mom. Only one of those calls went well and you'll all have to guess which one. It's too complicated and f-d up to go into on here.

Is it any wonder why I'm slowly whittling away at the holidays I still celebrate? And is it any wonder why C and I don't miss living in Ohio? It shouldn't take a genius to figure it out. I guess that's what makes me such a bad person as I was told that I was yesterday. Freaking lovely.

Proper Phone Etiquette Revisited

On this, the day when many phone calls are made, I thought it prudent to re-post this blog entry with a few modifications. Yeah. This is directed at certain somebodies. Read, "My Last Post" and see why I'll post whatever I feel like.

1.) If you call someone and they answer, "Hello?" don't answer back with "Hello" and then wait for another response. Ummm. You called!! Say who you are and what you want, not "Hello".
2.) If you call someone after 11pm you're scaring that person unless you know they routinely receive calls at all hours of the day and night. Calls after 11 usually mean someone is dead, dying, or sick in the hospital and you need to request emergency leave.
3.) Don't always call to bitch about your problems. Every once in a while, shake things up with something positive.
4.) Unless you need a DD, don't call people drunk. Well, unless you're 21 years old and it's still considered funny. 25+ you're just being dumb. I don't enjoy having to interpret what you're saying over the phone while you're inconsiderately eating up my cell minutes. And I don't care if you call after 9 or on the weekends. I don't freaking like it!!
5.) If you're a business, bill collector, or telephone solicitor, don't bother using one of those automated deals that tells a person to hold on the phone while they wait for a real person. 99.9% of people (this is my own estimate) will immediately hang up.
6.) Call waiting is freaking annoying and borderline rude. Yeah, I sometimes use it but only when it's unavoidable and I hurry up as fast as I can. Again, I'm sitting on the other end while my cell minutes float away. Usually I just tell the original person I'll call them back. Which leads us to:
7.) If you say you're going to call someone back, DO SO!! And calling 1 day, 2 days, or a week later doesn't count. You're just rude and self-absorbed. Yeah, we've all done it but some people do it habitually.
8.) If you choose to keep your number blocked, don't get pissy when your call is ignored. I don't answer "unavailable" or "blocked" calls.
Additions made today:
9.) Don't answer the phone when I'm calling you high on drugs. It pisses me off royally and I pass all kinds of judgments on you. If you're going to be a person in their 40's or 50's who thinks that it's "cool" to still get high, I don't want to know about it. I think it's ignorant and irresponsible. Be a freaking adult for freak's sake.
10.) Don't beat a dead horse when I'm trying to reach out. That makes it hard to want to make that connection ever again.

I should just cancel all my phone lines and be a happier soul. Most everyone has e-mail these days, right?

Happy Mother's Day

My Mother's Day started out really nice. The girls made me breakfast and then they gave me the presents that they made for me at school. They can be such sweethearts sometimes, lol.

We're still trying to figure out what we're doing today. I wanted to go to the beach but the weather's cruddy. It's overcast as all get out and it's only 69 degrees. Now I don't know what I want to do. We'll probably just end up going to the commissary. Fun, fun.

I hope all the mother's out there have a fantastic Mother's Day. Make it a special day for yourselves.

Love and hugs.

Yard Work Blows

I hate yard work. We have so many branches in our yard from this week's storm that it's going to take forever just to get it ready to mow. Yuck, yuck, yuck. ANDDD, we have to hurry because it's going to rain AGAIN shortly.

Funny thing, I made an online reading friend yesterday. Guess her name...JENNIFER!!! What is with that? TOO MANY JENNIFERS!!

Neato

I got this from a bulletin on MySpace. I thought it was nifty.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 225 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Channel Surfing

I have this irritating habit where I channel surf during commercials. It annoys C and sometimes I even annoy myself doing it. But this is what I saw this morning channel surfing while watching the Today Show.

I decided to check out the HBO's and saw that King Kong was on one of them. I've never seen this movie because I can't stand Jack Black but I figured I'd stop and see if it was anything worth watching. The part that I caught was where King Kong was fighting what looked to be T-Rex. First, Kong bit out his tongue and then spit it out. Then he grasped the dino's jaws and forced them apart and then shoved the top jaw back into the head. When he was done, he played a little with the broken head. This was quite possible the most disturbing thing I've ever seen in a movie and I now have no desire to see the rest.

The two guys that were going to attack Ft. Dix are having their bail hearing today. I'll be shocked if the judge sets bail for them.

Some lady at a ECU was found sentenced to a year in jail for taking financial aid from students which she then kept for herself. All in all, she skimmed about $200,000. Nice lady.

Jack Hanna was on one of the morning talk shows with an aardvark, an otter, a sloth, and a tortoise. He's the Director Emeritus at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio which, imo, is the best zoo that there is. Sorry San Diegans.

I also saw my favorite commercial at the moment. It's the one with the salad maker thing and the two women. When the one goes, "Whooo!" at the end, I laugh every time. It's dumb, I know.

Andrea

We had some pretty freaky weather earlier this week. Yeah. The first named storm of the season and it caused more damage before it even became a named storm. This explains why my yard has more branches in it than the trees do. This doesn't bode well for the hurricane season seeing as how it doesn't officially start until June 1st.

Over the weekend, the U.S. Coastguard made 6 helicopter rescues off the shores of N.C. because of idiots trying to sail in what ended up being a subtropical storm. MORONS! And a Marine from Cherry Point died Sunday while trying to rescue two kids that were caught in a rip current at the very beach we go to. This man saved those kids and died in front of his own. His funeral was yesterday. Why can't people use more sense when it comes to the ocean?

Academia

The fall class schedule is out and I've already picked my classes. Boy! Am I in for a rough semester. Over the summer I'm taking Creative Writing, Intro to Business Management, and Myth and Culture. Should be a relatively normal course load. Over the fall I'm taking Critical Approaches to Literature (this class has a total written word count of 6,000 words which equals about 25 pages. Fun, right?), Math (UGH!!), Management and Organization Theory, and American Women Writers since 1900. I'll be lucky to make it out alive, lol.

I'm picking up speed trying to get my degree finished before the fall '09 semester. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's taking me a while but at least I'm doing it which is more than a lot of people can say. I can think of 4 people that I know right this minute that should haul their butts back to school but are too afraid to attempt it. And I'm telling you, if I can do it, so can you. Anyway, if I can keep on track (keep your fingers crossed and knock on wood) I should have my BA by the end of the summer '09. What I'm going to do with it is a whole other ball of wax. I know what I want to do with it but finding a position here in N.C. is going to be a challenge. I have picked a virtually unattainable career goal for my location. I torture myself on a daily basis with an RSS feed that delivers job postings in the publishing industry straight to my browser. The majority of these jobs are located in L.A., New York, and Boston. Good luck to me.

Renter Problems

I swear to whatever is holy that if one person says, "I told you so" I'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth and stomp on you.

Our renters have been late with the rent two months in a row now. And considering they've only been living there for four months, this doesn't bode well. This causes C and I to have to jump through hoops in order to pay our mortgage on time which sucks royally. She's had an excuse both months: Last month, her fiance's mother was ill. This month, the mother died. I suppose I can see why they got behind but how much am I supposed to put up with? Since C and I have been on our own, numerous people in our lives have died. We've had to fly from California to Ohio and back and drive from Vermont to Ohio and back to attend funerals. Not once has our rent or mortgage ever been late. IMO, rent/mortgage, car payment, and car insurance get paid on time, no matter what and no excuses. This is how responsible adults behave. Sheesh.

And our Vermont home woes continue...I've had the roofer out to the house twice since we've moved. Once to check on the snow level and again to check on a suspected leak and loose gutters. Now, I have to have him out AGAIN to check on a piece of siding (he does roofing and siding) that was blown loose. GEEZ, SHEESH, and CRIPES!! The sooner we sell that freaking house the better cuz I'm telling ya, I'm sick of this shite.

The Best Weekend.

Friday was such a busy day beginning with my exams which I already posted about earlier. Then we had a parent/teacher conference for S and then we left from the school to take the kids to J'ville. We dropped the kids off with no idea what we wanted to do for our anniversary night out. We had talked about hitting Myrtle Beach and the Hard Rock but decided we didn't want to drive that far in one night. We ended up deciding to go to Wilmington which turned out to be a very fun choice.

I had no idea that Wilmington's downtown area was so big. I had been there before back in '93 to tour the Battleship North Carolina but had never been downtown. There were tons of shops, bars, cafes, and restaurants. You can take horse drawn carriage tours, paddle boat tours, and trolley tours as well. We walked along the river front for a while and then around a few blocks downtown checking out the shops and trying to decide where we wanted to eat. We had the best dinner ever at Little Dipper. It's a fondue restaurant. We had been to Forever Fondue in San Diego so we weren't strangers to the fondue scene. The restaurant had a casual elegant atmosphere with a full bar and a tank full of jellyfish, lol. It was great. We had filet mignon, chicken, lobster tail, and shrimp. Yum, yum, yum. After dinner, we headed back home. Wilmington's about a 2 hour drive from our house. Overall, we had a great night.

Saturday, we headed back to J'ville to pick up the kids. We planned a bbq with our friends there since we hadn't really hung out since we moved here. We took our dogs so that they could play with their dogs. They have two golden retrievers that are the same age as our boxers so they all played together really well. C and I bought these jalapeno burgers from the Harris Teeters to grill out which ended up becoming our dining entertainment. They were so freaking spicy that everyone was getting a kick out of watching C and I try to eat them. M took a bite on a dare as did our friends' daughter. It was pretty funny to watch the two girls eat those spicy burgers. We ended up staying late enough for the two guys to play a round of Madden which C lost. They were loud enough that I'm sure the entire street heard the outcome of the game, lol.

Today, we did absolutely NOTHING! I don't know how people that are on the go, go, go, do it. Friday and Saturday we were home long enough to sleep at night and that was it. I'm exhausted. I'm too old to be on the run so much, lol.

So, that was our weekend. Jam packed full of fun times and good friends. I hope everyone else's weekends were good as well.

Too Sleepy

I was going to update tonight about my last two days (Friday and Saturday) but I'm too tired to think straight. I had to make three attempts just to type in my user name to get this far. I will be back tomorrow (Sunday) sometime to post. I've had an awesome weekend so far and can't wait to share.

I'm Done! Yay!

I took my exams this morning. I am now officially done with the spring semester. Yay! I feel pretty confident about my English exam. It took me 2 hours and I used all the available pages in the booklet to write out my answers. It was a lot of work. I'm not feeling so great about my computer exam though. It was only 5 questions long so that doesn't leave a lot of room for mistakes. Plus, how the heck are five questions that only covered about 3 chapters of the book supposed to be an adequate showing of what I learned in that class? Let me tell ya. It's not.

I had a guest waiting for me when I got home this afternoon. I sat down at my computer for the first time today and guess what was on my desk. An anole. Scared the holy crap out of me. I screamed like a little girl, lmao. I have no idea how it got into the house. It took both me and C to catch it so that we could let it go back outside. They're fast little buggers. That was a first for us. In all the years we lived in San Diego we never once had a lizard get into the house.

Ok. So I'm off for a bit of lunch. I haven't eaten yet today. Laters.

Happy Anniversary

TO ME! Today is my 11th wedding anniversary. Well, it's C's too, heheh.

This day, eleven years ago, May 3, 1996:

We sort of eloped. That would probably be the technical term of it but that's not how we felt about it. Neither one of us wanted the hassle of a big wedding (despite our mothers and the wedding dress already hanging up in the closet) and we just wanted it to be us. Some of the family is still peeved about this 11 years later, lol. We were married at the Marion, Ohio courthouse by the Mayor. I don't remember his name. Then, we went back home to our flea infested apartment (even though we didn't even have any freaking pets) and then took a walk to the neighborhood Dairy Queen. For our wedding feast, we went to Ponderosa, lmao. Hey, we hadn't even turned 19 yet and we were pretty broke. C was working at Honda (or was it American Showa?) at the time and I wasn't working because of M so things were pretty tight. But being together was enough and we worked through the rest. There were a lot of doubts that we'd make it getting married so young but it's obvious "they" were wrong. If recruiting duty couldn't end it, nothing will.

Fast forward to May 3, 2007:

C took leave today and tomorrow so we get to bum around just the two of us. Today will probably consist of running errands. Tomorrow the wonderful and truly selfless Dana will be watching the girls overnight so that we can go out and celebrate. We're not too sure what we want to do yet but just being able to go out alone will be bliss. C just now told me that he stayed up late enough last night so that he could wish me a happy anniversary before going to sleep. Aww! How sweet! And that means he's out of the shower so I'm off!

Willdlife of Various Species

Yesterday's drama resulted in a neighborhood confab where I met several neighbors of the species Dramadis Gossipus. Talk about middle class American angst, lol. Good thing is that I was able to chat with the mom of one of M's friends and we agreed to swap babysitting. Yay! This means that C and I might actually get to go out without the kids more than once a year. What a luxury that will be.

Other species we've recently encountered in our backyard:

This is an Eastern Worm Snake, Carophophis amoenus.

This is a Southern Toad, Bufo terrestris.

And this is Green Anole, Anolis carolinensis, as seen in it's brown state which is how it looked when we saw it in the backyard.


All are non-venomous which is a good thing. We like wildlife so the girls were pretty excited to see these animals in our yard. These animals are quite different from the turkeys, deer, and fox we were used to seeing in our yard in Vermont but neat all the same. Oh, and we saw some jellyfish at the beach last weekend too. The girls actually caught one in their sand bucket which was later released back into the ocean. I don't believe in taking wildlife out of its environment and besides, what the heck would we do with a jellyfish???

On that note...How do you know when you live near the ocean? When you repeatedly find shark teeth at the bottom of the dryer.

Marathon Grooming

I hate YouTube because I do, but this is funny:

What the Heck Just Happened?

I just had an experience. So much for hoping today would suck less than yesterday.

I'm sitting here at my computer filling out one of those endless MySpace surveys when I hear a man's voice. At first I'm wondering, "Where is that coming from?" And then I realize someone is in my backyard so I throw on some clothes (I was still in my pj's) and go out to see what the heck. It's some strange old guy yelling at my kids and two of my neighbor's kids. I already know what it's about since these kids have been having issues with his kid that likes to hang at our house for the bus. I go out and tell this guy not to be disciplining my children in their backyard. I start out in a calm enough voice but then he starts yelling at me saying how these kids are mean to his kid and that they're "disreputable children". Direct quote there. Then I start in telling him that he's yelling at me in my own yard for things that other people's kids are doing and that if he doesn't like it to keep his kid out of my yard. Yeah. Fun times first thing in the damn morning. So much for that Southern hospitality thing. I don't have it in me to be polite to other people yelling at me and my kids in my own freaking yard. In the meantime, S gets on the GOSH FREAKING BUS CRYING BECAUSE THIS JACKASS IS YELLING AT HER FOR SOMETHING SHE DIDN'T EVEN DO VIOLATING HER BEING ABLE TO FEEL SAFE AT HER OWN FREAKING HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!! What is wrong with people?

Ok. So I think I'm a bit angry. I don't think we're going to be friends with this particular neighbor.

***UPDATE***

I got a knock on my door about half an hour ago (8:30'ish) from my neighbor. He came down to apologize and to explain himself. My faith in humanity has been restored and I'm no longer angry at him. Turns out, I have a whole other problem on my hands that I have to figure out how to deal with it. So goes life.