Plant vs Weed: Week 6...And Other Stuff

There's not much to report on Plantweed this week. Still growing and being eaten by snails. Plantweed did get a nice soaking last night though. We had a good amount of rain come through the area, which was nice. Here's a picture that I took yesterday, April 25th.

In other news...

I just finished one of the most painful classes I've ever taken. It was called Shakespeare Power and Justice or something to that effect. I'm not a fan, nor have I ever been, of Shakespeare. I can read it, understand it, and appreciate it as classic literary works but I would never read Shakespeare for "fun". To make matters worse, I had to argue why I think Shakespeare is still relevant enough to have a place in today's high school curriculum. I'm not so sure how much I actually believe that. The language is obscure, the themes are outdated (I managed to argue very convincingly that they aren't ;)) and I think the time spent on teaching and interpreting his plays could be better spent elsewhere. Like teaching teenagers that "ur", "okaay", "kk", and "fuk" are not correct spellings and when to use their, there, they're, its, it's, and other commonly misused and misspelled words. Ironically enough, the play that I think has the most modern relevance is Coriolanus and it's one of Shakespeare's most obscure plays that has only been produced as a play and/or movie a handful of times. Ralph Fiennes directed and starred in the movie last year as a matter of fact. Did you know that? I didn't until I started doing some research. It was so "popular" that it has made less than $700,000 since it's release in the U.S.

Anyway, I'm glad that class is over and that I have fulfilled that requirement and never have to take another Shakespeare class again. Thank you very much!

And FYI...

I'm thinking of imparting the importance of using your turn signal by accosting drivers, ripping out the turn signal handle in their car and shoving it in a very specific place that they won't forget that it's there.

I'm also thinking about driving around my neighborhood until I find the yapping dog that is left outside to freaking yap at 6 o freaking clock in the gosh freaking morning and kicking its owner until it stops yapping.

I have anger issues this week. I need to live on some remote mountain somewhere that's accessible only by helicopter so that I can't get away from inconsiderate people.

Thieves Suck

People suck. I know, I know. I've said it before. It's becoming my mantra. But it just seems like negativity is more prevalent these days. Case in point:  The Oldest Child's iPhone was stolen out of her backpack yesterday at school. I honestly can't understand why someone would have stolen her phone because it was cracked all over the place. We refused to replace it because she refused to keep a cover on it and to keep it out of her back pocket. And I mean it was cracked. Why steal someone's broke ass phone? Because people suck.

What makes it worse is that I'm almost 100% positive that it was stolen by a military kid. Why? Because we used iCloud's "Find My Phone" (Yes. Not only do people suck, but they're stupid too.) and tracked it to a base housing area in the College Grove area of San Diego, specifically, Chollas Heights Navy Housing. Yeah. That's right. I know where you live because you are just that stupid.

It could've been a friend visiting over there, but I would be willing to bet it's a military brat that has her phone. Not sure what they plan on doing with it. I have it set to wipe the next time it's turned on and I'll also be having it deactivated. We're figuring that they're going to take it to one of those cell phone recycling kiosks and get a couple bucks for it.

You know what else sucks? Bad karma. They'll get theirs.

Intruder Alert

Yesterday, I was in and out of the house all day running errands or whatever. Right? So, last night I go to open my bedroom window because it was hot and stuffy upstairs and I notice a sticker on my window. It has a drawing of a falling child and says something about the dangers of falling out of second story windows. I look at the Mister and ask him if that sticker has always been there. Umm. No. That sticker is new. We looked in the office and sure enough, another sticker. We go into the Oldest Child's room and ask her if she has one and she does. WTF???

I call the housing office and I'm like, "Was someone in my house today?" She said that yes, they had been around to all the houses to put stickers in the windows. And I'm all, "So you're telling me that while I wasn't home today, a perfect stranger was in my house without any warning or notice at all??" And's she's all, "Well, we put notices on everyone's door two days ago." I never saw a notice. I asked the kids if they had possibly taken it off the door and they both said no. I start giving this lady an earful. Then she asks me if I'd like to speak to the district manager. Yes please. I give that lady an earful. I'm all like, "I know this is military housing but I don't appreciate being treated like a second class citizen. I also have two pets one of which is a kitten that likes to try and run out the door all the time and the other is a big, older dog who is getting snarky in her old age and who has never been around strangers without one of us being with her." The district manager is all apologetic and understanding but she's like, "The stickers were mandated by the Navy." Fine. I don't have an issue with the stickers other than the fact that they insult my intelligence. I have a problem with strangers being in my house without giving me proper notice. A note on the door blowing away or being stolen by the neighborhood kids isn't a proper notice nor is it an excuse for me not getting notice. I never give PTE (permission to enter) when I'm not home because of my pets. Geez. She asks if I would like them to put a note with my key that they never have PTE. Uh...YES!! I would like that. Cripes.

I have never felt so violated. I hate knowing that someone was in my house and amongst my things without me being there. I'll also be sure not to toss any kids out of the second story windows now that I have a handy sticker reminding me that it's not such a good idea.

Effers.

The Longest Week

I know that I said that I would be back to my Pets Hall of Fame series yesterday. At least I think that’s what I said. But I’ve had a hellacious week and I haven’t gotten back to it yet. I will. Probably tomorrow. I swear to try my best.

I wasn’t even going to say anything until I read Jennifer’s post about her experience at the movies. But now I feel inspired and you all get to listen.

I’m not sleeping. Again. And I’ve had a headache since Monday. Yesterday, I was awake at 3 am and got up out of bed at 4 because I was irritated with trying to get back to sleep. Or maybe I was awake at 2 and up at 3. Who freaking knows at that time of the morning. I get to sleep fine, I just can’t stay asleep. It’s irritating. Blah blah.

Anyway, Tuesday night, both the girls were invited to different friends’ houses for a sleep over. No big deal. I didn’t even have to drive them anywhere which was cool for me. The oldest was told to be home by 5:30 on Wednesday and the youngest was next door so I knew she would be home early. She gives me a call around 9:30 and asks if she and T can come over to our house to play. Sure. Whatever. So they troop over to the house with T’s younger sister, A in tow. Nobody mentioned A coming over too, but what the hell. One more makes little difference in my busy day. So, I tell them to occupy themselves while I was trying to work upstairs in my office. Little did I realize that I was babysitting A and T while their parents went to Jacksonville. Hello!! How do you leave your kids at someone else’s house for a period of time without touching base with them first?? They didn’t roll back into town until 6 last night. By this time, I had fed their kids lunch and dinner and had to deal with constant interruptions to my day while I was trying to freaking work.

THEN!! The girls were outside with some different neighborhood kids playing. The Mister and I were watching TV in our bedroom when we hear the youngest child come into the house yelling, “Leave me alone!!” and crying hysterically. I call her into our room to see what the hell when she told me the other girl, she’s 13 or 14, was tossing her around and the boy, also 10 like the youngest, was trying to pull her out our front door when she was trying to get away. Wtf?!? First of all, you should know that she doesn’t like rough play like that from anybody. Not even her mom and dad. She has a sensory perception thing that makes her overly sensitive to what would be a “normal” situation to other people. But whatever. So I go outside to see what the heck is going on and proceed to yell at the top of my lungs. They really picked a bad day to start a ruckus on my front yard. I yelled at the oldest child to get her butt inside and then yelled at the other kids to take their butts on home. Then I slammed the door hard enough to knock a picture askew. Boy. It was just a bad day. It’s times like those when I have to wonder why I’m the only parent paying attention to yelling and screaming outside. And I would never in a million trillion years drop my kids off at someone else’s house and then leave town for the day without talking to the parents first. What is freaking wrong with people? And lastly, there is a difference between the noises of the terrified and the noises of someone having fun. It shouldn’t be that hard to distinguish.

And to top things off, the Mister checked in for his training yesterday so he’ll be gone for the majority of the summer. It’s not nearly as bad as a deployment but it still sucks royal. It’s 12:30 and I could use a freaking nap.

Feeling Out of Sorts

I didn’t take any Excedrin PM last night and therefore I didn’t sleep very well. Having an addiction is one of my worst fears so I don’t want to take sleep meds every night. I don’t even like taking Tylenol too often, lol. Insomnia sucks though. It’s depressing and makes it hard to function during the day. It also makes me very short tempered. The carpool incident I posted about yesterday, well, I was literally seeing red. My face got all hot and my hands started shaking. I really wanted to get out of my car and beat the crap out of that guy. And last night, the mister and I got in my car to go pick up Bacon food when I noticed that my rearview mirror had been messed with. I had just fixed it yesterday morning so I know that the neighborhood kids had messed with it last night. I know it wasn’t my kids because they were both grounded to the house last night. When I saw it, the freaking fingerprint-smudged, out of skew mirror, I was tempted to tell the mister to turn around so I could go and put my fingers all over those kids’ faces (they were still outside playing in the neighbors’ yard.). Seriously. I need to get a grip.

To top it off, I have a very tender cyst in my boob. Yes, it’s a cyst. Yes, I know for sure. No, you don’t need to get your panties in a twist about it. It’s just painful and irritating which doesn’t help my mood. It should go away in a day or so though.

I seriously think that if I could just beat on someone a little that I would feel immeasurably better. Nothing too painful just some punches and maybe a few kicks here and there. Any volunteers?

And the Saga Continues

I’m sure you all are as tired of hearing about this as I am of talking about it. But you know what, it’s either get it all out or sit here and cry until I puke. I don’t like throwing up so this is how it’s going.

My renters bounced their rent check again. For anyone keeping tabs, that’s four times in 21 months. Too bad for us is that we had already paid our mortgage and as a result of the two events colliding, my checking account is very much in the red and my savings account if frozen. YAY ME!! I’ve never had a frozen bank account before. I feel like one of those crooks you see in the movies. Anyway, luckily, I get paid the old fashioned way and we were able to cash my check so that we could do things like, oh I don’t know. EAT!!! Also, for those of you that keep up with the drama in my life, we are set to go on our Outer Banks vacation a week from Saturday. Good news/bad news is that the house is already paid for but it’s also non-refundable. So, we either go and have no money to spend while we’re there and spend extra money on gas and food, or we stay home and we’re out a nice chunk of change. Yeah. It’s a conundrum.

Oh! And you know how we found out her check had bounced? We were in Target trying to pay for the oldest child’s knee pads for volleyball when my debit card was refused. Nice. Real nice.

You’ll be happy to note that I’m done being walked all over. There’s nice and then there’s being a doormat. I’ve engaged a lovely lawyer who said that she’ll collect her fees when we close on the house. She’s reviewing our case today and will be sending out a notice to pay or quit tomorrow. It’s the first step in the eviction process. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that we won’t get some bleeding heart idiot judge who will refuse to evict a family in the winter. Either way though, they either leave by eviction or they leave when the bank forecloses on the house. Because if they don’t make it so that we can sell the house, it’s getting foreclosed on, plain and simple. If we’re REALLY lucky, and I mean REALLY, we’ll be able to scratch our way out of this hole without having to let the house go into foreclosure. The plan is to put the house on the market as soon as they are served their eviction notice. If they don’t trash the house too badly, and I’m not a big enough idiot to think that they won’t trash the house on their way out, we should be able to get it sold before things get way out of hand. The realtor I talked to said that Vermont hasn’t been hit as badly as some other places in the country economy and housing market-wise.

I just don’t understand people like this. It’s not as if I forced her to move into the house and THEN told her how much the rent was going to be. Why do you move in somewhere that you can’t afford? And if you can’t afford your rent, why do you buy four ATV’s and shell out for a huge SECOND wedding??? Despite the fact that we are in serious financial SHITE, my rent will still be paid on time. This is how life should be:

1. Pay rent/mortgage.
2. Pay electric/heat and water bill
3. Pay renters/home owners/car insurance
4. Pay car payment
5. Buy food somewhere in there
6. Everything else

Am I the only one that thinks this is the logical and RESPONSIBLE course of action? You have to have somewhere to live. That somewhere has to have heat and running water. That somewhere needs to be insured and you have to have an insured vehicle to earn the  money to pay for the above. HELLO!!! If you are old enough to get married, have kids, and vote, you should be mature enough to figure out how to manage your finances. It’s also not as if she is making less money than when she moved in either. She works and has worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont. That job is the whole reason she moved to Vermont in the first place.

Grrrr!! People suck and you can’t tell me that they don’t.

Feels Like a Monday

This is me being an unhappy camper. I was having a fantastic day yesterday until a certain bill arrived in the mail. It’s the sewer bill for the Vermont house. It comes to us but our renters are supposed to pay it according to their lease. I should also be more specific and say the bill is a “Collectors Delinquent Notice”. Turns out that the sewer bill hasn’t been paid in five months. I know it’s hard to believe that a mother with a good job could be so freaking irresponsible and STUPID. Wanna see for yourselves?

Can you figure out the total amount due? Don’t worry. I’ll tell ya. It’s $698.43. How in the WORLD can people be so freaking…I don’t even have a word for it. What’s worse is that I’m a complete and total idiot where this whole situation is concerned. I’m too freaking nice. Wanna pay your rent late? SURE go right ahead and stick it up my butt. Wanna burn the house to the ground? SURE, just send my some nice photos. I like a good fire. Wth.

I told the Mister that I am going to send her an e-mail because I’m done being Mrs. Nice Guy and he told me to be firm and professional. I don’t believe I’m in the right frame of mind to be professional and my firmness might smash her face into the ground. If I were to call, it would get ugly. She’s been renting from us for 21 months and out of those 21 months, I think maybe THREE of them didn’t give me high blood pressure. I’m having a hard time seeing why I have to be nice.

Maybe I should just stop paying the mortgage. We could join the ranks of those who have had their house foreclosed on this year. We certainly wouldn’t be lacking for company.

I need an objective person to write her for me, lol.

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???

Hear Me Whine

So, I’m currently, as I type, on the phone with Panasonic’s customer support. I’m on my third transfer just so you know. Anyway, we’ve been having an issue with our LCD TV for about a year now. It started out as a small yellowish blob in the lower left hand corner. That blob has spread so that the entire screen is now yellow. Of course, it’s out of warranty. It’s out of it’s extended warranty too. I got a bug up my butt today and decided to call around to some repair shops to see how much it would cost to fix it. After describing my problem to a very helpful and patient man, he told me that the PART is going to cost $1400. THE PART!!! $1400!!! I also just found out today that Panasonic was involved in a class action lawsuit having to do with the life of the projection lamps. Ours blew in less than a year, but WHATEVER.

I just disconnected with the customer support person. I gave her an earful in a very dignified voice. I didn’t cuss or yell at all. And then I told her to enjoy the few thousand we spent on the thing and hung up on her. Panasonic sucks. Their customer support sucks, their technical support department is worthless, and they purposefully design their products to breakdown directly after the warranty expires. Okay. That last part is my opinion but I’m sure it’s probably true. I’m not happy. Oh. And they design the stupid TV’s so that they only fit on certain stands that cost $314.96. They suck for that too.

I’m tired. I’m sorry. I didn’t get to sleep until 3 something and I was up again at 4:45. I went to the Harris Teeter to pick something up for dinner and forgot to get my Starbucks on the way out. I should forget about the Starbucks and have a glass of wine. I have a nice Pinot Grigio I should decant. Have I ever mentioned that I hate people?? BUT COME ON!! $1400! What a load of bull. It’s not even four years old yet.

Online Social Life

I often joke that I've been giving up "real life" in favor of my online social life. It's easier, more versatile, and it's on demand. If I'm bored, my computer is always there unless, goodness forbid, my Internet is out. If people online are irritating me or my butt starts to hurt from sitting in my chair all day, I get up and find something else to do. When I can't sleep, my computer is there for me to find something to do at 2 in the morning. I can take as much or as little of my Computer Universe that I want. It's completely up to me. But, I'm starting to question how much of a joke it really is.

I've recently started to expand my Computer Universe by joining several online social networks such as MyBlogLog, Blog Catalog, and Entrecard, not to mention that I'm also starting to pay more attention to Twitter. Btw, I'm not linking any of that. Google them if you want to find them or click on their buttons in my sidebar. Through these various sites, I've found a plethora of new blogs to read. So many in fact, that my Google Readers rarely says, "Your reading list has no unread items." I've blogged about my blogging habits recently in a post titled, "Blog Stats". But that's not what this is about.

I found an article online (go figure) today that piqued my interest and made me feel not quite so bad about my own online habits. Read it here: The Web Habits of Highly Effective People. I figure I'm in pretty good company since I frequent many of the sites listed by these professionals and now I have even more online haunts to haunt. This article led me to another article which I found quite interesting about blogging: The Death of Personal Blogs. The author talks about how blogging has morphed from being about people's personal thoughts, feelings, ideas, and opinions to people syndicating their blogs or abandoning their blogs altogether for positions which pay them to blog for other people about certain subjects. I confess, I've looked into this before because quite frankly, I was a little surprised that people could get paid for blog posts. Big companies hire bloggers though, not just dot coms that are here one day and gone the next.

There are other online pursuits aside from blogging and social networking though. People play games online, make an honest living online, keep up with news from around the world, go to school, conduct research, and a slew of other things.

I find it amazing that there are still people in the world who consider the Internet to be a waste of time. How much is too much? That's all a matter of opinion. I think that if I didn't have my online pursuits while I lived in Vermont, also known as the land of NOTHING, I would have lost my mind or ended up divorced and I never would have gotten my Christmas shopping done. It's a portal to the world, to different people, to different cultures, to be really dramatic. I wish that I had had the Internet, as it is today, back when I was in high school. It would have made projects so much easier. I'm thankful that my own kids will have it when they are in high school. Well, provided it's still around: Full Capacity, heheh.

This Pissed Me Off

The timing of this story that I saw on the news about 15 seconds ago is eerily uncanny. One of our news channels profiled a story about a website that lists people, first and last names, as bad tippers. The website gets its contributions from waitstaff at various restaurants and they get their information off of credit card receipts. This is perfectly legal too, btw. Considering the outright lousy service that we had at the Outback, we still left a reasonable tip just because I feel bad when I don't. What pisses me off is that maybe the reason why they're getting bad or no tips is because their service SUCKS or the food is NASTY. I'm of a mind to start tipping according to the service that I receive and not because I feel obligated to do so. Tips, like respect, should be earned. Also, I'm perfectly aware that there are people that don't tip or don't tip enough because they're just rude, but I'm also perfectly aware that waiters and waitresses receive tips when they don't deserve them.

Also, I perused the database to see what's what and you wanna know what? While they post the first and last names of the so-called offender, they don't post the names of the servers. I think it would be telling if one certain server had frequent postings because this would say to me that they either have very rotten luck or they actually suck at their job. If they are so willing to post the names of the accused they should be willing to back that with their real names as well.

And I'm not posting the link to the website or the news story because I won't be a party to them getting traffic. Do your freaking job or get one where the majority of your wages isn't based on your people skills.

One last thing: No, I didn't see my name or anyone else that I know on the database. This isn't a personal rant, lol.

SHEESH! Part 2

So, I go to the grocery store. I needed some soda and parmesano reggiano for dinner. I get to the checkout and go to pay and my check card isn't in my purse. I immediately gasp, then I remember, I stuck it in my back pocket when I got gas. I pat my butt trying to feel for my card when it hits me: I'm not wearing my jeans because they're at home stinking of gas!!!! ARGH!!! I pull out another credit card that I'm not even sure how much credit it has on it to pay and thankfully, it had enough.

Here I am again, home, typing up my woes, and getting ready to go back out to finish up my errands for the day. It's only 1:30 and I feel like it should be 10 at night.

SHEESH!!

Do You Smell Gas??

WELL, I DO!!! I just got home from putting some gas in the car...and all over the ground. The stupid pump didn't shut off and I spilled a gallon or two on the ground, on my shoes, on my leg, and all over the side of my car. I was PISSED!! I went inside and complained to the clerk and then I squealed my way out of the gas station. I had to come home and change clothes and shoes even though I have more errands that I need to run. So, I've wasted time and money because of this and not to mention, I'm way angrier than the situation calls for. But GEEZ! Aren't the oil companies raping us enough at the pumps without having their equipment malfunction too? And now my entire house smells of gas. Thankfully, it's a very nice day today so I can open my windows but GEEZ! And another thing. You know how they say that you shouldn't go to bed angry or do this or that angry? Well, I have another one for you. Don't shave your legs angry either. I decided to put on some shorts since I had to change clothes anyway which required some personal grooming (hehehe) and paid the price for that too.

Sheesh all over the damn place.

And one last thing...I read in the online version of one of our news stations yesterday that the boil water notice has been lifted for our area. That was YESTERDAY!! We had no idea we were still under a boil water deal because that last main break was on Thursday. All the water main breaks were accidents too. The news story said that the engineers didn't know where the pipes were and the busted through them while doing other work. Three of them in a week's time. Nice.

SHEESH, SHEESH, SHEESH!!!

Not the Best of Days

Yesterday was rough. The morning was good, the afternoon was baaad and the evening was worse. I wasn't the only one having a bad day yesterday either. Was the moon full or something? Anyway, the following is a post that I typed up yesterday in response to my horrible afternoon. I saved it because I had already posted once yesterday, hehehe.

~

Which is worse? People that invite themselves over, people that show up unannounced, or people that make plans to come over and then don’t show up at all?

People. People SUCK! Alright. Certain people suck and some people suck more than others. But mostly, people just SUCK!

You know. I may have a small, insignificant, little housewife life. I don’t have a degree, I get carted around at the whim and inconvenience of others, I don’t work outside of the home, and I'm a lowly enlisted wife, but I do have important things in my life and a routine to my day. When somebody invites me to do something with them in the middle of my day, I have to make allowances for that and rearrange other things that I may have had planned for my day. Don’t call me ten minutes prior to our arranged meeting time and say you’re going to be an hour late, call me back three hours later and ask if I’m ready to go, and then expect me to be nice to you. At this point, I pretty much hate you and you can go crawl underneath a rock and don’t ever bother me again. And save your excuses. After three hours, if you’re still able-bodied enough to call to see if I’m ready, you don’t have an excuse that I want to hear.

This is not friend behavior.

What a Bunch of Bull!

Read this article on The Simpsons Movie. I cannot believe that freaking Vermont beat out all the other Springfields. From all the votes, this just reinforces my belief that most people are complete, freaking, morons. Now, Vermont gets to premier the movie. It figures this would happen mere months after we move away. Sheesh.

Today

THANK THE GODS THAT IT'S ALMOST OVER!!!!!!!!!

1 hour and 10 minutes left of the day. Nothing bad can happen in that little bit of time right??
(knock wood)

Today sucked royal monkey butt. Nuff said. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow will be better even though I'm already dreading it.

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!