Rent, Renting, and Renters

October is turning out to be a rough month and it hasn't even started yet.

I mailed our October rent check to San Diego about 8 or 9 days ago. Our landlords (heheh) left us their forwarding address so that I could do so. However, they didn't get the house they were told they were getting (base housing can be like that) so they have a different address. I didn't find this out until today so I mailed a nice-sized check to perfect strangers. Yes. I put a stop payment on it this morning and paid $29 to do so. Now, there is no way that they are getting rent on time this month.

That's not even the worst thing about October and rent. Our renters e-mailed me and asked if it was okay if they pay their rent on 10/10. Well, no it's not but what can I do? If I say no and they pay me, the check will undoubtedly bounce. It will also whittle away at what little bit of neutrality we have between us since last year's rent check bouncing fiasco. Which leads us to the fact that she started pulling this crap the same time last year which is making me wonder if I'm going to have another round of bounced checks on my hand again this year. The really sad thing is that the Mister and I have already started to sock away some money just in case she does. Yeah, yeah. It's easy enough to say that I should make her move out but the thing is, legally, I can't do that. She has to fail to pay her rent four times in a 12 month period before I can even start eviction proceedings and then, as I've been told by a lawyer, Vermont judges aren't inclined to evict people, especially those with kids, in the winter. She has my ass (sorry) in a sling and she knows it. That's why she bounced three months worth of checks last year and then started paying her rent on time. Furthermore, if we evict her, who the hell is supposed to pay the mortgage? We can't afford to pay a rent and a mortgage and live at the same time. Also, if we were to sell right now with the market the way that it is, we'd probably take at least a $40,000 loss. I don't know about you people, but that's nothing to sneeze at in my book. This is why we didn't boot her and put the house on the market this past spring like I had originally planned to do.

I hate rent, renting, and renters. All of it sucks. All of it. Do I get to blame this on the sad state of our economy?

Told Ya I’d be Back

I knew there was stuff from my weekend that I was forgetting about. I think I have mentioned in the past that I’m not much of a morning person. My brain doesn’t start to function until about 9 or so. Anyway…

Friday we drove to Morehead City to go to the Best Buy. Our old DVD player won’t work with the new TV for some reason. I thought that it just needed cleaned so we bought cleaner stuff and hooked it up to the bedroom TV (it was easier to test it on that TV rather than the living room TV). It worked just fine so I thought, “Cool! It just needed cleaned.” Well, when we connected it to the living room TV, the TV kept saying that it couldn’t detect it and when it did, the picture was distorted and garbled. Our thinking is that the component jacks on the TV are messed up somehow. A real PIA (that’s Pain In the Ass) considering the TV is brand new. The other sucky thing is that the DVD player is old enough that it doesn’t have an HDMI jack on it. So, we bought a new DVD player and hooked it to the new TV with an HDMI cable and it works great. We put the old DVD player in our bedroom and hooked it up with component cables and it works great too! I didn’t realize how cheap DVD players are these days and we bought one that’s a five disc changer too. Fun times. I know you’re not supposed to have a TV in the bedroom but you know what? I’m excited about having a DVD player in my bedroom, heheh.

While we were in Morehead City, I talked the Mister into driving to the beach. Atlantic Beach is only a few minutes down the road. It was a very nice night. There was a wedding on the beach too when we got there. That would be my dream wedding should I ever have one only I would want to go to the cliffs on La Jolla beach in San Diego. Here’s a pic of the sunset. I took it with my phone so it’s backlit and a little dark but you can tell what it is.

Sorta.

Today, I had an appointment with an accountant. You may remember back when we first moved here and H&R Block totally screwed up our taxes. Well, with my job, which turns out I’m a sole proprietorship, I decided not to take any chances and I consulted a real accountant. I’m really glad that I did too because he told me a story of a client that had an accidental business like me and ended up owing $10,000 in taxes without realizing it. Totally not a possibility in my case, but it could be someday. It is also handy to know all of the stuff that I get to write off at the end of the year as business expenses. We’re going to go to him in 2009 and have him do all of our taxes too. The older we get, the more complicated our taxes get. It’s crazy.

I think that’s it for real this time. I gotsta get to work.

My Productive Weekend

I actually got stuff done this weekend. I was amazed at myself.

I finally got the garage cleaned out. It was still full of our boxes from moving. I know. How lazy that it took us a month to go through the stuff. It also got me to thinking that if we could live without all those things for a month, do we really need them at all? The answer if probably no but we still unpacked the boxes anyway. My car is now parked in the garage! I wish I had taken before and after pictures because it really was an amazing amount of work and I did it mostly by myself. The house has suffered as a result of cleaning out the garage though. The crud had to go somewhere, lol.

My school work is also suffering. I find myself remarkably unenthusiastic about taking classes this semester. Both of my classes are on subjects that I was really looking forward to studying, but I have to force myself to do my reading and assignments each week leaving most of it until the last minute. I’m pretty sure that my job has a lot to do with it. When I started college, it was so that I could get a good job. I hadn’t worked since I was pregnant with the oldest child and I didn’t think that I had any marketable skills. Plus, I wanted the satisfaction of knowing I had my BA. That last part is still true. However, it turns out that I do have marketable skills, I’m good at what I do, and it’s an actual long term career and not just a job. This makes it very hard to want to continue with school. It would be really easy to take a very extended break. Don’t worry though. I have no plans on doing so. I’m smart enough to know that I can demand more money with a BA and it’s also something to fall back on should my current business fall through or if I get bored with it. I need some MOTIVATION though!!

I know there was more about my weekend that I wanted to talk about, but I’m really tired and drawing a blank. I may be back later on today, heheh.

Things Seen

Through the lens of my new phone…

I took the above picture in the Target parking lot. It was Wednesday night during the wind but before the rain.

The above picture I took yesterday afternoon during the rain, in the carpool lane at the oldest child’s school. Why? See the silver SUV behind the gap in the cars? You may have to click on the picture to make it bigger. Anyway, that car pulled out of line from behind me to drive up there and block the bus exit so that it could be that much closer to the front of the line. About five car lengths. Wth difference did it make is what I would like to know. The carpool lane always has a bit of drama in it every day. It’s amazing how “adult” parents can behave sometimes. Horns blowing, people getting out of their cars to tell people to move along. I’m not kidding either. When I get there, I hunker down with my latest read and try to pretend I’m somewhere else. Life’s too short to get your panties in a twist in the carpool lane.

Anywho, that’s all I have so far aside from the house pic I posted yesterday. The non-tropical storm we had is moving along. No more high winds but we’re still getting tons of rain. My town has the highest rainfall amount in the area so far and they said we could end up topping out at 5 inches when it’s all said and done. All this means to me is that I don’t have to water my grass, heheh.

Gotta run and brave the morning carpool lane. We’ll see how it goes this morning.

Sheesh

Here I am for a third time today but I just had to say this.

This is the type of toilet paper holder we have in both bathrooms:

 

It’s the kind where you just slip the roll on and off the bar. No holder to pop on and off. Very easy. The ultimate display of laziness is when you see an empty roll on the holder and a new roll sitting on the toilet tank. COME ON!!! It takes TWO seconds to switch them out. It takes longer to turn around and grab the roll off the back of the toilet. MAN! I live with some lazy people, I’m telling ya.

Wild

It’s been a wild couple of days with the weather around here. Wednesday, the county dismissed schools early because of the wind. I thought it was kind of silly and it totally messed with my work day but what can ya do. Then this morning, they had a two hour delay because of the weather. It’s totally ridiculous if you ask me. They dismissed school early yesterday because of some wind and today the wind is worse and we also have flooding and heavy rain but they only delayed school for two hours. It doesn’t make any sense to me although I greatly enjoyed being able to sleep in two hours this morning. I’m telling ya though, if they dismiss early again today I might scream. Check out this picture I took this morning of one of my neighbors’ houses:

That’s more damage than anyone in my neighborhood got when Hannah rolled through and this isn’t even a tropical system.

Well, there ya go. Two posts in one day to make up for my lack of updates this week. And btw, that picture was taken with my new cell phone, heheh. I got a new LG Voyager and I LOVE it. It’s very neato and has many cool features. I think it’s LG’s answer to the iPhone but I’m not sure. It does have a touch screen with menus you scroll with your finger. It also has mobile TV but I don’t have that activated. I might do that if I travel somewhere though. Anyway just had to blog about my latest gadget fix.

Thursday Meme

That’s right! I haven’t done this in weeks but today’s topic lured me back.

Courtesy of Booking Through Thursday…

What was the most unusual (for you) book you ever read? Either because the book itself was completely from out in left field somewhere, or was a genre you never read, or was the only book available on a long flight… whatever? What (not counting school textbooks, though literature read for classes counts) was furthest outside your usual comfort zone/familiar territory?

And, did you like it? Did it stretch your boundaries? Did you shut it with a shudder the instant you were done? Did it make you think? Have nightmares? Kick off a new obsession?

It has been ten months since I’ve started Readers Anonymous. In those ten months, we have only read two books that I would have picked out myself (one of which I ended up only liking it a little). The other eight books were all out of my normal comfort zone. So, what was the most unusual? I would say A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Not because the story was odd but because I have NEVER read anything like this before. It was a nonfiction travel book I guess you’d call it. Very funny and it is probably my favorite of the ten books we have read so far. I would definitely read more books by Bryson and I would recommend his books to others, but I’m not sure if I’d pick up a book of this type by another author. It’s just not something I read on my own. I don’t even wander down that section at the Barnes and Noble.

Good News

It looks like I’ll be taking on that second client. I was beginning to worry since I hadn’t heard from the woman who is hiring me in a week and we had been playing phone tag. I worried for nothing though. I really can't believe my luck with this whole thing. Never in a million years did I see myself as...well, whatever it is that I am, lmao. I think the easiest title would be consultant. I'm really excited to be working for this firm because they have had BIG name clients and something like this could end up being long term or lead to something even bigger eventually. Wow! My hours are going to double so if I thought I was busy before, I better get a hold of my pants and hang on for the ride. Woot! This extra work is going to make my vacation interesting too, lol. Since I'm not taking time off and I have school work too, I'll probably just end having better scenery to look at while I work. Oh well. I'm definitely not complaining. With Christmas right around the corner, the extra money will come in very handy. Woot!

Can you hear the excitement in my typing?? Yay!

Here's the web address for the new client if anyone wants to see what they're about: http://www.conceptpr.net/

Not So Bad

So, the baby shower wasn’t too painful. We only had to play one game and even that wasn’t horrible. It was baby bingo. The food was good and I got to meet some people that I actually liked. The only negative thing about it was that it lasted for forever. The guest of honor had to stop and talk over every single gift and it wasn’t even always about the gift, she just likes to talk. I didn’t even stay for cake because my butt was dragging. I’M SO OLD!!! I was home by 10 and totally ready for bed on a Saturday night, lol.

Sadly, that was the highlight of my weekend. We lounged around all day today and the Mister and I got caught up on our homework. We’re wild and crazy.

Oh, and if you’re interested, they made several arrests connected to the murder and kidnapping I posted about last week. Coincidentally, the suspects are all teenagers. Teenagers. If' I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, what the hell is wrong with kids these days???

Updated News Article Link.

Oh Boy!! TGIF!

 

I have mixed feelings about my weekend. On the one hand, I’m looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday. Ahhh! I get excited just thinking about it. On the other hand, I have to go to a baby shower tomorrow night. No offense, but I hate baby showers. I hate bridal showers too. And weddings for that matter. Graduation parties too. And school fund raisers. Basically, if you’re sniffing around for money or a gift, just let me write you a dang check or have something delivered. I hate structured parties with retarded (and yes, they are retarded no matter how nifty, creative, and cool you think you are) games. I hated my own showers and parties and I was the one on the receiving end!! If I could figure out a tactful and nice way of getting out of going, I would. In a heartbeat. Ugh.

Speaking of school fund raisers, I HATE THEM. I hated them when I was in school too. Both of my kids are supposed to be selling CRAP for the fall fundraisers but neither one of them are. I think they (fundraisers) are disgusting. The incentive for the youngest child to sell is a type of build a bear party. You have to have something like 25 orders to be able to attend. I think that is so mean. And the other smaller “prizes” are cheap plastic CRAP that would get broken in a day. It’s impossible to sell that CRAP when you live in a neighborhood with 50 MILLION other kids selling the same CRAP and your family lives 900 miles away. Like I said before, if they want my money so badly, I would just rather write them a check and save myself the grief of having their CRAP sitting around my house just so that I have to realize when I move again how much useless CRAP I’ve accumulated. Do you know how many kitschy Christmas ornaments and wrapping paper I’ve ordered from these things? OH! And how many orders I’ve paid for out of my own pocket when the kids sold the CRAP long distance to our family and they never sent the checks for their CRAP??? Do you also realize how little of the profits actually go to the school?? If I were to write a $50 check to the school instead of for their fundraising CRAP, they’d get to keep the entire 50 bucks instead of just a small percentage. I’d venture to say that I’m not the only parent that feels this way not that you would ever hear them say that they agree out loud. Noooo! You have to support the school and be a “joiner”. Whatever. I’ve never been and never will be a “joiner”. That’s my term for the people that have to be in on everything. The ones that are on the PTA (or PTO depending on where you live), the HOA, neighborhood watch, they throw huge elaborate parties for their kids trying to outdo the other parties their kids attended, they’re key wives (Marine Corps thing), they go to every Marine Corps Ball and every “family” function, etc. You know who you are. I’ve always wondered about them. What is missing or wrong with their family lives that they have to occupy every available minute with outside activities. I am also brave enough to say out loud that I think that it is this obsessive need to stay so incredibly busy that you don’t have quality alone time with your family that is the root of what is wrong with kids these days. The oldest child told us the other day that the kids in a certain class at her school were so mean and out of control that they made their teacher cry. 6th graders. That’s not to mention the kid that was arrested the very first day of school and the two other kids that were suspended the first day of school. Or the fact that school uniforms are a necessity at the elementary level. I can’t be the only one that sees a pattern here.

BWAHAHAHA!!! This was supposed to be a happy post about the weekend. I have no idea where all that other stuff came from. I suppose it’s been bugging me all week and I have truly been dreading this baby shower. Even so, I’m not even in a pissy mood. Hard to tell, I know, but I was giggling the whole time I was typing the above paragraph (with the exception of the last part). I figure I’m going to piss some people off and that always brightens my mood, heheh. AND! I’m having a good day so far. I updated RA which was long over due and I have my day of work all planned out. The sun is shining and it’s a breezy and beautiful day. I’m gonna grab breakfast now and get to work.

Can You Say…VACATION!!!

I just got done booking our rental house for the OBX Marathon in November! I’m so excited. We’ll be staying the whole week instead of just the weekend like we had originally planned. The house is giganto and if we can’t get anyone to split it with us, we could sleep in a different bed every night, lol. I’ve invited my dad and sister but they don’t know if they’ll be able to make it or not. I really hope so because that would be a nice time. Here is a link if you’d like to see the house:  http://www.outerbanksblue.com/rental/house.html?ID=158&Avail=11%2F08%2F2008&Stay=7 

FUN!! We haven’t taken a vacation as a family ever. The Mister and I went to San Francisco while the girls were in Ohio and the girls go to Ohio by themselves and we go away for the occasional weekend but never an actual vacation together. I don’t count the trips to Ohio for funerals. :/ It’s going to be a real treat for us and the dogs get to come too. I just need to find someone to feed the rat and guinea pig, heheh.

We’re also going to see about doing the wild horse tour while we’re there. http://wildhorsetour.com/ I saw this on an episode of John and Kate Plus Eight, lol. It looked like a really great time though. All their kids had a lot of fun.

Meme’ing Again

Because it’s safe and non-whiny for the most part. I got this from Some Girl who got it from the author, Avitable.

My favorite age: The medieval or renaissance.

My best friend: My husband.

My celebrity crush: I don’t really have one but Paul Walker is fun to look at.

My defining characteristic: My negativity and being a pessimist.

My most evil moment: Putting yogurt-filled condoms (so that they would look used) and butter all over my asshole neighbor’s car in Pensacola. YEAH! They were such assholes that the other neighbors watching me do it just sat by and laughed.

My favorite food: Mexican

My grossest injury: When I fell on my face and ripped the connecting tissue between my upper, inner lip and gums. That was disgusting but luckily it happened so long ago that I don’t remember the pain of it.

My biggest hatred: People forcing their beliefs onto me.

My most illegal activity: Probably the car thing I mentioned above. That’s vandalism, right? Oh. And I also stole a construction barrel with some friends in high school but we returned it the same night, heheh.

My need for justice: Yeah. That my asshole landlord in Vermont gets what’s coming to him. I just wish I could be there to see it.

My most knowledgeable field: Whining. It’s my most knowledgeable field and my most developed skill.

My life's goal: Tooooooo…Be satisfied in my life.

My mother's influence: I learned the fine art of nagging at her knee.

My nerdiest point: Where would I begin? I’m a girl gamer, I’m a gadget whore, and I prefer the company of my computer to real life people.

My oldest memory: It’s too sad to relate in public.

My perfect date: The first day of the year when you can feel that the sun is beginning to warm with summer.

My unanswered question: Is there alien life out there?

My random fact: Baby showers and wedding showers suck. If you want a gift from me, just let me send you something in the mail.

My stupidest decision: I’ve decided to be friends with some really awful people in the past.

My favorite television show: I have MANY favorite shows. Weeds, Californication, Mad Men, Big Love, The Shield, BSG, The Big Bang Theory, and many more.

My style of underwear: Whatever doesn’t floss my butt.

My favorite vegetable: Green Beans.

My weakest trait: I get angry too fast and for insignificant reasons. I’m going to have a heart attack while road raging one day.

My X-men power: I don’t know what their powers are as I have never seen this show. A superhero power I would like to have is the ability to fly though.

My strongest yearning: To be worry free.

My moment of Zen: Lounging at the beach when there’s enough breeze to keep the heat off but not so much that I can’t read my book.

Scary World

Over the weekend a murder and attempted abduction took place in our little town. They actually took place minutes from our old house. It’s very scary to think about it. Link to news article. The murder victim was a Marine and the other victim is a sailor. We live in such a craptastic world.

On that note, I’m going to bed.

Less Than Stellar Beginning

Being Lazy:  The first week of class was a bit hairy which is really sad. I didn’t have anything big due this week but I was still doing everything last minute. Not a good beginning in the least. Do I have a good excuse? Hmm. Umm. Let’s see. Err. Nope, not really. Yeah, I was busy with the kids’ homework, my work, we’re still only about half way unpacked, I had to sweat over my bills a couple times this week, I finally finished RA’s book for August and started September’s, and my mail is still screwed up but all of that didn’t consume all of my time. What did then?? SPORE!! and THE SIMS 2 APARTMENT LIFE!! Quite possibly the worst time ever to buy new games is the first week of the semester, BWAHAHAHA!! So, don’t let my whining sway you to feeling sorry for me. I made my own bed.

Reading:  Weirdly enough, I was reading Rebecca Stott’s Ghostwalk, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Beowulf all last week. Do you know how odd it was to go from one to the other? They are three totally different works. Different times, different characters, different themes. The most shocking thing was that of the three, Beowulf is my favorite. Luckily I got to read it in translation and not in the Old English style, heheh.

The Weekend:  The Mister had to work both Saturday and Sunday as I mentioned last week. We did our best not to let it spoil the entire weekend. When he got home Saturday, we stopped in at our neighborhood block party. I say, “block party” and shake my head. There weren’t that many people there and those that were, were mostly old people. No offense to old people. They had a “band” that played gospel music and I guess it would be called bluegrass? Totally not my cup of tea in the least. The only good thing about it was that we got to meet the other Ohio State fans in the neighborhood. They have an OSU garden gnome in their front yard, heheh.

After putting in an appearance, we went to Jacksonville so that I could buy stuff for the bathrooms at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Yay! I love buying bathroom stuff. I got new towels, shower curtains, and floor mats for both bathrooms. I also got some accessory/deco stuff for the hall/girls’ bathroom. Both look very nice if I do say so myself. We also checked out new DVD players at Best Buy because ours isn’t working properly. I’m not sure if it’s broke or just needs cleaned.

Gas Prices, Again:  OH!! And I totally almost forgot to mention the gas craziness here. After Ike, our gas prices went up to $4.34 from $3.66 overnight. One gas station still had gas at $3.66 and cars were lined up into the street. We went in for gas and they were out of regular and the mid-grade so we had to get premium at $3.90 which was still cheaper than the cheap gas everywhere else. People were blowing their horns and behaving like lunatics while we were there. I saw online this morning a couple different news articles about how people were filing gouging complaints about the prices. It’s just craziness. Is it like that everywhere? I talked to my mom in Ohio who was shocked at our prices.

Okay. I figure that’s enough for one day, lol. I gotta see how my civilization in Spore is doing before it’s time for bed.

Now I’m Just Irritated

After going to the post office yesterday and being assured that my mail would be forwarded (this is after I had already filled out the form myself on 8/26), the Mister and I checked at the old house (if this is illegal to do, we had my former landlord check) and our mail was in the mailbox. This is really beginning to piss me off. My mail was supposed to be forwarded as of 8/29 and as of today, 9/11, it isn’t. If I’ve already gone to the post master, what else am I supposed to do? Most of it is no big deal except for two specific pieces of mail that we were unable to change our address on before it was processed. Oh. And credit card offers. I don’t like the thought of credit card offers in our names not being delivered directly to us. This is how identity theft happens. The rest I have changed myself. It’s ridiculous, is it not???

Another Day of Ups and Downs

We’ve been having weird weeks lately. Maybe it’s just that time of year.

The Mister got some bad news concerning his work and the infamous reenlistment bonus which has the possibility to change all of the plans we had in place. Again, it’s this back and forth nonsense and the lack of control that makes me dislike (what a nice, benign word) military life and which would make it very easy to walk away from despite all we’ve put into it. Also, he has to work this weekend, the entire thing. He hasn’t had to work an entire weekend since Vermont and I don’t like it. Bah.

On a positive note, good things are happening for me with my work. My current client, the Edge Foundation, has been giving me extra projects which is awesome. Not only does it mean some extra cash (which we could totally use right now) but it also tells me that I’ve been doing a good job. After not working for 12 years, it’s encouragement that I needed. Additionally, I could be taking on a second client which I am so very excited about. This is still in the works and not a sure thing, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I wouldn’t even be in the running for this second client if not for the work I’ve been doing for Edge.

And lastly, the youngest child didn’t go to school today because of her foot. She still had significant swelling this morning and couldn’t fit her foot in her shoe. She’s been keeping it iced and elevated today and it’s looking better. Still some redness and swelling but it doesn’t look as nasty. I tried to get her to let me take a picture of her foot for my blog but she refused, lol. The oldest child told me to wait until she was passed out from the Benadryl and take a picture while she was asleep but I figured that would be wrong. Sorry. ;)

Have I been mommy blogging too much lately? Oh well.

Minor Drama

I went to the Post Office today and spoke with the postmaster. He looked up my info and said that the change of address was indeed in the system and that it was our postal carrier’s fault. Starting with today’s mail, our mail should now be forwarded. I’ll believe it when I see it.

In other drama news, the youngest child was bitten by an insect today. She said that it was a fire ant but the bite doesn’t resemble a fire ant bite and the swelling on her foot is the size of a racquet ball. Why do my kids have to have such reactions to bug bites? At least it’s not as bad as it could be with anaphylactic shock and all that but it’s still sad. We iced her foot and gave her Benadryl and then gave her some Ben and Jerry’s, lol. The medicine knocked her on her butt too. It was funny watching her try to stay awake. If the swelling doesn’t go down, I don’t know how she’s supposed to go to school. She won’t be able to put shoes on and they don’t allow sandals.

Oh. In our new neighborhood, the closest grocery store is the Piggly Wiggly. In our old neighborhood, we had a Piggly Wiggly, a Food Lion, and a Harris Teeter close by. Out of the three, the Piggly Wiggly is the scariest so we never went there. In the new neighborhood, we decided to give it a shot to see if it was any better. It isn’t. You can smell the store before you go in and I’m not talking bakery smells or produce smells. I’m talking nasty grease smells and something else that’s unidentifiable. What’s worse is that it smells so bad the smell sticks to you. Why would anyone want to buy food from a place like that? We went there for the second time tonight thinking that maybe the first time was just a bad day and that we were only getting ice cream so we could be in and out in a flash. Not only we were wrong about the stink but they didn’t have any Ben and Jerry’s at all. Ugh.

I’m off to wash my own stink away. Laters.

Post-Haze

I must be coming out of my moving funk because I have had a lot on my mind today.

First off, if two vehicles approach an intersection facing each other (coming in opposite directions), both have a stop sign, and both are turning left, who has the right of way? What if one arrived at the stop sign first? I’ve tried looking this up online and I can’t find this exact scenario. I don’t care if one is turning right or going straight.

Before we moved, I didn’t really get out much. I am very much a homebody. I enjoy puttering around the house with my work, school, books, etc. Now that I carpool our oldest, I am out and about every day. The more I’m out, the more I think that people should have to take and pass the written part of a driver’s test every five years and the road test at least every ten years. People are freaking maniacs on the road. Mindless maniacs at that.

Also, who do you write or call about needing a stop light or four way stop in your town? The intersection by my daughter’s school is manned by a police officer every morning because traffic is so insane. This morning he wasn’t there and traffic was backed up about two blocks, I kid you not. Despite the fact that I leave so that she can arrive to school ten minutes before the bell (you know, for the all important locker stop and morning gossip) she arrived late this morning because our friendly police officer was elsewhere. He happens to be an Ohio State fan so we like him, lol.

Secondly, RSS readers are for lazy people, myself included. Take that however you like.

Thirdly, despite the fact that I went online at the USPS website to have our mail forwarded and paid the $1 it took to do so (what’s up with that?), my mail still isn’t getting forwarded. I’m not happy especially since I am anticipating the arrival of a couple checks and I may or may not receive them at this point. Yeah. I know. I’m going in to fill out the thing at the office today.

Fourthly, why is this season of Weeds so dark? I realize what it’s about, but it used to make me laugh now it makes me tense. Same thing with season 1 of Californication. It started out funny and now it’s just sad. I NEED MY FUNNY!!

You  know what I just learned? That “fourthly” is a word unless my spell checker is dumber than me, heheh.

Oh Yeah?

Today is the Mister’s birthday. He is now as old as me and dirt finally. He loves rubbing it in that I’m 70 days older, heheh. We went out to dinner and then we went and picked his bike up from our former neighbors’ house. Did I mention that we accidentally packed his motorcycle keys and didn’t find them until last night? Oops.

Today was also the first day of our fall semester. It’s going to be a challenging semester. LOTS of reading and HUGE papers to write.

So, this is short and sweet. I'm very tired and going to bed now. Toodles.

Aftermath

Aftermath??? There wasn’t even a “math”. Hanna was a real snoozer. Not complaining, mind you, just saying. At least we have everything we need should a hurricane actually knock on our door. Here are some “storm” pictures:

No rain, no wind at this point. It was about 7:50 am Friday morning.

Here it had just started raining but still no wind. It’s about 11 am.

Pretty good downpour and some wind now. About noon’ish.

This is a very short video I took of the wind and rain about 3 o’clock Friday afternoon.

We didn’t lose power at any point during the storm at our house. Funny thing about is that we went to a friend’s house to watch the OSU game Saturday afternoon. At this point it wasn’t raining too much but we still had some gusty winds. Minutes before we pull into their driveway, a tree limb fell and knocked their power out, lol. We missed the first quarter of the game and that was the only time we experienced any power loss due to Hanna.

That was our exciting weekend. Even though it doesn’t seem like he’s going to, I hope Ike fizzles out before making landfall. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for all in his path.

Picture Day!

I have some pictures to share with everyone. Yay!

The first two are of the youngest child’s room freshly painted. I have to say that I was really pleased with the shade of pink.

The next two are of the oldest child’s room freshly painted. Again, I really like the purple.

Do I have a couple of girly girls or what?

The next three are of the FROG which is now officially our office. I love the blue. I was a bit afraid that it would be too dark but it gives the space a cozy feeling which I like.

The cubby space in the corner here was a bitch (sorry) to paint, heheh.

The folded up things on the floor are canvas coverings that I used to protect the carpet. Way superior to plastic imo. It covers better, it’s reusable, and it doesn’t stick to you when you’re all sweaty from painting.

Anyway, that’s that.

The next picture I took today looking out my backyard. I just wanted to show how blue the skies were today and how calm the winds are compared to what they’re going to be tomorrow. We’ve had an absolutely gorgeous week where the weather’s been concerned. It’s been a bit hot, but beautiful.

We’re ready for Hanna. She’s probably only going to be a tropical storm but better safe than sorry. We have a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch but no evacuations so far. Our governor has also already declared a state of emergency. They’ve already canceled school for some of the neighboring counties while others are having an early dismissal. The Mister also gets to come home early tomorrow which will be nice.

I’ll update again tomorrow.

On Being Incommunicado

I had a little scheduling snafu with the cable company which resulted in our Internet being disconnected until today. It was a good thing/bad thing situation. Good because I have so many things to do with moving that I didn’t need to be online. Bad because my job is online and now I’m behind. I spent today playing catch up.

Anywho, Moving News!

We’re completely moved now. It was a bad time let me tell ya. We had some help moving the big stuff like the washer, dryer, beds, etc., but turned down help when it came to boxes and little things like that. We hate asking for help and being a burden but I wish we had asked for help. I have bruises on top  of my bruises and I’m sore in bad places that should never be sore. I also got eaten alive by mosquitoes. Mosquito bites on top of bruises suck bad. The positive thing about the whole experience is that the Budget truck rental guy let us have the hand cart for free, gave us a discount on the rental, and let us keep the truck a day longer free of charge. His son-in-law is a Marine and that’s the military discount he gives. How nice is that?? Giving us an extra day with the truck was completely wonderful. We would never have gotten everything moved in our original time frame. The Budget man deserves a kiss.

In other news, we’re getting our gear ready for Hanna. How ironic is it that the first storm that we’ve had to deal with this year shares its name with our dog, Hannah, who harasses us on a daily basis?? The forecasters are saying that the strongest it will be is a Cat 1 hurricane and she’ll roll over us really fast. I’m not overly worried. My biggest concern is that the dogs don’t like to go outside in the rain and the youngest child is terrified of storms. We’ll deal though and I’ll do my best to take pictures to share.

In Youngest Child News…

We got everything straightened out at her new school and they apologized to her for the punishment they meted out last week. An actual apology to a 9 year old, lol. We’re all feeling better about the whole deal now and she no longer hates school.

I have more to say but I’m tired. I’m to the point where I feel like I’ll never not be tired again. I know. Whine, whine, whine.