Lifestyles of the Easily Obsessed

December 06, 2006

Update

I just got home. I'm too tired to go into details. Tomorrow......

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)

You've GOT to be Kidding Me?

It's 4:37 and I'm still sitting at work. My workday ends at 4:30. So what am I still doing here? I have a flat tire. I went out to get in my car and its flat as a pancake. *insert various curse words here*

So, I walk back to my office and pull out my cell phone to call Mike who should be on his way to pick up Connor to take him to his basketball game which is right up the street. Awesome right? He can swing by and change my tire before the game at 6:00 right? Wrong. There is a message from Mike to call him ASAP. He's going to be stuck at work until God knows when as they just had a big bust with lots of guns and stuff and they have to process it all and I shouldnt expect to see him until tomorrow. Can I pick up Connor?

Wonderful.

So I called him back and we both vented and basically I'm screwed. After some mild panic and frustration we toss around some ideas. He's going to ask his mom to take Connor to his game and I'm going to ask my mom to pick him up and take him home. Great. One thing taken care of. but we both feel awful about missing Connors game.

I called my dad who just happens to be in the area to see if he can meet me to change my tire. He can but not until after 5:00 some time. He has to meet someone at 5:00 but will call me when he's finished. It should be nice and dark by then. Wonderful conditions for changing a tire. I don't even know if I have a spare.

I don't know what our problem with tires is. We go through them like CRAZY! I don't know anyone that gets as many flats as we do. Mike just had to get a new tire for his car last week!

I also have to go to Boscov's before I go home to get Jimmy a new pair of shoes he needs for tomorrow.

I just want to scream!

AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

Today sucks.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 04:36 PM | Comments (3)

November 29, 2006

Pass the Lithium Please

Today I am feeling fat and tired and completely disgusted with myself. I'm also experiencing some bi-polarness in that one minute I'm pretty happy and chatty and the next minute I feel so cranky and snap at anyone who dares even ask me a question. Its been like that all day. Its exhausting bouncing back and forth between happiness and wanting to kill someone.

Things continue to be chaotic and the impending holidays only add to the stress. I CAN.NOT.WAIT for this semester to be over and the students to be gone from campus so I can just crash. I cant wait to be able to just go home after work and relax. And sleep. I feel like no matter how long I sleep, I cant get enough.

I am hoping that I find some holiday spirit along the way too because as of right now, it might as well be April....I dont have any Christmas decorations up at home or work. I cant even think about it.

I feel like I'm walking through a fog. I cant concentrate on anything. I find myself not paying attention to people when they are talking to me. My mind wander off to the million of other things I need to be doing.

And I just drifted off in the middle of writing this....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 01:57 PM | Comments (7)

October 23, 2006

5 Weeks Until Thanksgiving Vacation.......

.......and I'm counting down the minutes!

I think I need a few days to recover from my weekend. Used to be I could come to work and be assured it would be less stressful, less chaotic and busy than my home/family life. But not so much anymore. Things around here just get busier and busier. Which is good, it means more students are realizing the importance of Career Planning, but there is only two of us here in this office and we are running on fumes. Stretched waaay thin. And being asked to take on additional responsibilities as other staff leave or are being let go.

I had originally planned to take it easy this weekend and read and watch movies and tivo. Mike was away at Notre Dame so I stupidly decided to paint the three downstairs rooms that have been primed for 3 weeks while he was gone. I decided on some colors and after bowling on Friday, Connor and I stopped at Lowe's and got the paint and some supplies so I could start painting when I got up on Saturday morning.

My allergies were really awful on Friday and I suffered all day long and forgot to stop and get some of the Claratin that my system can handle. So by the time I got home Friday night, I could barely see my eyes were swollen, red, itchy and sore from rubbing them. So I gave in and took the Claratin-D that I had, knowing full well that it gives me insomnia. But I needed some allergy relief. Sure enough I was up all night Friday night. Tossing and turning, too hot,thirsty, legs feeling all crampy and agitated. I finally crawled out of bed around 6:30 and was painting by 7:00. First thing I did was paint the ceilings in the three rooms. I hate painting ceilings. Then I tried out the color I picked for the bathroom. It was supposed to be a deep reddish color. It turned out pink. It was so ugly. There is no way I will ever paint my bathroom that color. I'm hoping they can add more tint to it to make it darker or else I wasted $25 on a can of paint no one will ever use because its HIDEOUS!

The kitchen was easy, as its a small rooom. I picked out this beautiful creamy gold color that looks fantastic with our oak cupboards. I even moved the fridge and pained behind it! LOVE how the kitchen turned out! (pics forthcoming some day)

Now the computer/less/piano/whatthehellarewegoingtodowiththisroom room...first of all, we dont know what to do with this room. Its wasted space. When we first moved in, we had the computer set up in here and the dogs crates. Now the crates are gone and the computer is moved to the LR. So this room remained empty for years now. My great grandmothers china cabinet is in there but only because we dont have room for it in the dining room.

We thought about moving the piano in there but our plan is to evntually knock out the wall between the useless room and the kitchen and make a nice big kitchen. So I dont really want to move the piano right now. We cant put any kind of furniture in there because the cats have access to it and VooDoo will pee on it. So right now it just accumulates junk and pet hair.

So anyway, I painted that room what was supposed to be a sage green that I loved in theory but with the dark wood in that room, it makes it look...icky. Hospital greenish. Mike loves it, I hate it. But I dont think I will bother doing anything with it right. And Im not painting the wood! I hate painted wood! Natural wood is so beautiful!

So, by the time I finished painting and cleaning up on Saturday, it was almost 8:00 pm. Every muscle in my body was crying out in pain. even the soles of my feet were sore. I showered and fell asleep on the couch.

Yesterday, since I did nothing but paint on Saturday, I had to do all the cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping. Not to mention help Connor with his homework and help him finish making his puppet (pics later, forgot to upload from my camera), and complete all the work I took home with me because I had to have it done by noon today. I was up till after 11:00 grading papers.

And now today I am exhaused. If I didnt have to teach class today, I really would have called off for a mental health day. I sure could use one!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2006

Politically Speaking

There is one thing I absolutley HATE about fall- Politial ads. I despise the constant barrage on ads on tv epsecially. It makes my television viewing a bit unpleasant. Thankfully tivo has helped to allevaite that problem in that I can fast forward thru all the ads!I hate all the killing of trees to send paper ads in the mail. I hate when people call me at home to ask for my support. HATE it all.

Oh, and the poll workers on election day! I feel like I'm running an obstacle course to get to the voting machine! All these people shoving brochures in your face! GET AWAY! I refuse to take any...come on people...by the time I get to there, I know who Im voting for. Your last minute rude shoving of materials in my face is not going to sway me! HATE THEM!

All the ads are so negative, it really makes you hate all the candidates. You completley lose sight of where they stand on issues because of all the mud-slinging. It makes it hard to figure out who you actually find to be a good candidate.

So, a few years ago, I decided that I was going to vote for the candidates who bugged me less. Each time I recieved a piece of mail from a candidate (or about them), they recieved a point. Each phone call was a point. Every time my tv viewing pleasure was interrupted by an add, another point. The candidate with the LEAST amount of points come election day, would earn my vote! I think I ended up abandoing the project because it became impossible to keep track of all the points.

I dont know what would be a less annoying way for candidates to advertise...I know I would prefer if they stuck to their own positions on the issues rather than condeming their opponents....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 10:06 AM | Comments (1)

September 29, 2006

And MY Week Just Keeps Getting Better!

After taking a personal day yesterday, for personal reasons, which I am not at liberty to discuss here since they involve another person, I am back at work today.

Its chilly today. So the heat kicked on overnight. And my office smells like skunk again. I'm gagging. Apparently the ground under the heating vents is still reeking of skunk. I cant deal with this all winter!!!!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 07:52 AM | Comments (1)

September 27, 2006

Today Sucks

I have a headache, cramps, indigestion, I'm bloated and just sat on a tack.

Is it time to go home yet?

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 02:43 PM | Comments (2)

September 25, 2006

It's Another ONe Of THOSE Mondays

Its Monday. You know how I can tell? First, I forgot I had to stop for gas this morning. I left the house late to begin with, then had to stop for gas which made me late. Not late for work but late to get a parking spot. So I had to drive all around looking for a spot and ended up about 25 miles away. Sucks.

Then I realized I forgot to put deoderant on this morning. Im wearing a black sweater and I didnt want to get those white stains on my sweater so I put it on first and thought I would go back and put deoderant on later. But as I mentioned, I was running late and forgot.

So I just scrounged through my desk drawer and I have everything BUT deoderant in there! Contact solution and spare contact case? Check! Hand lotion? Check! Tampons? Check! Toothbrush and toothpaste? Check! Airborne? Dental floss? Febreeze? Lint Brush? Nail polish? Tide stain stick? Check! Check! Check! Check ! Check! Check!

No deoderant. And I didnt bring my gym bag today because I know I wont have time to get to the gym. I guess if it comes down to an emergency I can douse myself with Febreeze!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:42 AM | Comments (4)

September 02, 2006

Brrrrrr and Owwww!

When Mike got home last night around midnight, I woke up briefly and realized I had a really bad headache. But being the lazy person that I am, I decided to just try to go back to sleep and hope it would be gone in the morning, instead of getting up, going downstairs and taking a painkiller.

Well, the headache never went away and I tossed and turned, never able to get comfortable until 6:00 am when my bladder forced me out of bed and I grabbed some excedrin while I was up. It was a horrible "diggging" kind of pain. It felt like someone was running a jackhammer on the left side of my head and the pain waves would just radiate from a central point. Even now, the pain has dulled but I'm still not entirely comfortable. Of course in my sleep deprived, pained state I was convinced I had a brain tumor.

I finally got out of bed around 7:00, knowing there was no way I was going to fall back to sleep. So I came downstairs and holy crap is it COLD this morning. It's raining and grey and cold! It's a perfectly miserable day! The only good thing I can say is its a perfect soup day. Now to decide what kind of soup to make and then run to the store to buy the indredients because the Mulvey cupboards are bare! Didnt I just spend $300 at the grocery store last week? These people I live with eat way too much!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 07:34 AM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2006

I Know I Just Had A Vacation, But I Really Need An Escape Right Now

I'm just a bundle of burnt out, fried to a crisp,ball of emotions. I'm crankey, I know it, you don't have to tell me Mike. I cant stand being near myself. My mood goes from rage to sorrow...really nothing else. I thought yesterday that my head was going to explode from all the shit going on here at work. And then I worry that someday soon I may not even have a job...

I have so much crap I need to take care of and I keep procrastinating and then I get pissed because I feel like I have to take care of everything...all these little details...pay the bills, call the insurance company, call Connors piano teacher, call about Jimmy's financial aid, I need to see my eye dr, order some gift baskets and mail thank you's to some friends, get all of Connor's school suppies and uniforms ready, we've been out of contact lens solution for 3 days but no one buys any....coming to work early so I can leave early so Jimmy can leave for work...and all the stuff I need to do at work to be ready for classes next week and I find myself sitting here, frozen, overwhelmed by having to do too much and I dont accompish anything.

I go home at night and Im just too tired and drained to do anything but sit on my ass on the computer and watch tv. Sleep is my escape. I'm snapping at the kids and at Mike constantly over NOTHING. But everything is seeming like a big deal because I just cant deal with anything right now. So I find myself getting angry about everything. Mike wants to buy a new pair of sneakers. It pisses me off. Someone left the toilet seat up and the dog is drinking out of the toilet. Pisses me off. Someone parked in "my" spot at work. Pissed me off.

Then this morning, I read Stacey's blog and now I'm a blubbering mess.

And I cant take the day off and go home because I have so much to do! But what am I doing instead of working? Wasting time venting about it. I have no motivation. No desire.

I'm angry and frustrated because it seems no one cares about whats going on in New Orleans (or what isnt going on) and people are not OUTRAGED about that situation. I know the NOLA folks are but what about the rest of America? What is your excuse. My own family and friends. Co-workers. I don't want to be around people who care so little for their fellow Americans. That cant see the unjustices. Between Spike Lees movie (which I havent seen yet, but I've heard enough about to feel like I have) and the book I'm reading, Breach of Faith. I'm completley outraged by the incompetence of our governement. I think most Americans are still under the misconception that the destruction of New Orleans was caused by the hurricane...when it wasnt. NOLA survived the hurricane. It was the faiulure of the levees combined with the loss of wetlands that basically doomed NOLA. And people knew about these weaknesses long before Katrina and nothing was being done to remedy it. Katrina was really only about a Category 3 Hurricane she she passed thru New Orleans.

And yes there were screw ups at all branches of the govt, but the Feds need to step up and HELP THESE PEOPLE. Why arent there military construction and demo groups down there gutting and rebuilding homes? Oh, thats right because they are too busy over in Iraq. So NOLA is left to fend for itself. But so many people cant get back. They have no means. And no where to live if they did come back. FEMA trailers didnt arrive until what? June? Thats unacceptable.

People, do some reading, click on those links of NOLA bloggers this week and see whats going on down there. See how much work needs to be done and how much help is needed. Its so great that individuals want to go volunteer and help, but it needs to be on a much greater scale. Someone said there needs to be a Call To Action...there does. There needs to be a large scale effort to get this city back on its feet- not just housing but medical care, schooling, law enforcement, the basic infrastructure: roads, public transportation, water, waste disposal, electricity....

With the one year mark almost upon us, wont you give some time to read the truth? And if you are moved to do so, make a donation to a group thats helping people. The Arabi Wrecking Krewe is a great group of people. Or the Tipitina's Foundation. And then to help "w" remember that people still need help, send a bottle of water to the White House. Don't just sit there while this great American city dies. What if it was your city? Wouldnt you wnat people to care?

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:52 AM | Comments (5)

August 16, 2006

Did You Ever.......

Write a really really great blog post in your head, say while you're driving the car home or standing in line forever at the store, and you can't wait to get home to write it out and publish it, but by then the emotions you had associated with it are faded and you dont have the energy or motivation to write it all out? You already had your emotional release, but it was in your head and there was no one to share it with. That happened to me today. I was all worked up about an issue and wrote a great entry about it on the way home an hour ago. Now, when I have time to sit down and write it out...... I dont have it in me anymore. I cant find the same words and phrases. damn. Take my word for it, it was great.

On a side note, I had to leave work early because Connor called me in tears. He woke up and his eye is all swollen and hurts. I figured it was pinkeye but now that I'm home looking at it, it doesnt really look like pinkeye. His upper and lower lid is swollen and red. Maybe a sty?

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 12:31 PM | Comments (2)

June 19, 2006

Sleeeeepy

I'm very tired right now and struggeling to keep my eyes open. Doesnt help that its very warm, I stupidly decided to wear black capris and my a/c here at work is not working.

*yawn*

I somehow scratched my glasses. Both lenses right in the middle where I cant help but notice everytime I look at something. I cant wait to get my new contact lenses.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 10:30 AM | Comments (1)

May 28, 2006

The Swarm, The Sequil

So I called a few exterminators to get some estimates but of course we cant get anyone out here over a holiday weekend, not without paying an arm and a leg, So Mike has been spraying the nest with some Raid or something. But still they swarm. I was in the cellar today and saw a pile of dead ones in a corner so after Mike sprayed the outside hole, he went down the cellar and sprayed the area of the wall inside the house. Well, that really pissed of the hornets or wasps(for my purposes I will refer to them as bees, but they are not really bees, its just easier to type bees, than wasps/hornets/yellow jackets or other assorted flying, stinging insects) or whatver they are, they started flying out at him IN MY FREAKING HOUSE!So he came running upstairs and slammed the cellar door shut. I went to the front door to look out and the screen door had about 50 bees on it! ACK! I flicked the door and most of them fell off and laid on the steps, in the throes of death.

We sat down to watch tv and I could hear swarming noises. I walked over to the exterior wall and OH.MY.GOD! It sounded like there were a million bees in the wall! It was seriously freaking me out! I was having nightmarish visions of them breaking thru the wall and swarming through my house. Mike and I stood at the wall, listening, with a sick twisted curiosity. Then Connor came down to tell us there was a bug in his room. Shit. Mike went up to check it out, made sure his window was shut tight and his a/c on. No bee to be found. So they came back down AND THERE WAS A BEE ON MIKE'S SHIRT! ACK! He screamed and swatted and it flew off somewhere in my living room! Nice. We still havent gound it, hopefully it's dead.

Mike decided to check the situation in the cellar, he started to walk down....ever so slowly.....and there were hundreds of bees swarming around the light! He backed up the stairs, turned off the light and stuffed newspapers all around the bottom of the door. Then we spent the next half hour in morbid fascination watching the bees flock around our side doorlight, get fried and die. Our side porch is covered with dead and dying bees. I would take a picture but it freaks me out too much. I'm afraid they will get in my hair. *shudder* Gah, I get all skeevey just thinking about it.

I don't know what we'll find come tomorrow. I told Mike to get some cement and close up the hole that leads to our cellar...I dont want them coming in! I cant imagine how huge this hive must be. Hopefull this will be the last installment of The Swarm....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:02 PM | Comments (2)

May 26, 2006

Send Me Some of That Neighbors Moving Karma Please!

It's on folks. Our neighbors. They must go. I'm hoping some of the good karma Chris and Beth have will come up our way. Their white trash neighbors are moving! Could we e ever be so lucky? Doubtful. I have a feeling these jerks next to us will stay there forever. Maybe we need to go rub Mia's head for good neighbor luck or something? Anwyay.

I mentioned the annoying, rude, neighbors have their grandchildren visiting. Fine. There are kids on our street. Kids playing and having fun and making noise is a normal thing in most neighborhoods. Well yesterday all hell broke loose. I got home from work and was relaxing in the living room, Connor was doing his homework. Here comes obnoxious kid on the scooter

"honk, honk, honk, honk, honk,honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk,honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk,honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk,honk!"

Oh. My. God. From where I am sitting on the couch I can see out the front window. The kid is right smack dab in front of our windows, honking and LOOKING IN MY WINDOWS. Freakin' little son of *&^%! Connor says to me "I'm going to shove that horn down his throat!!"

It continues. Every time he goes down the street, he stops in front of our house and honks the horn. I go upstairs to change and go for a walk. Mike is down the hall in the bathroom and I yell to him "Can I call the police and report this as a nuisance?" He's pretty fed up by this point too and Mike has a hellava lot more patience with these things than I do. If its bothering him, its got to be bad. So Mike and Connor go out to play basketball, I go for a nice 4 mile walk, burn off my frustration, come home and we start to make supper.

Then theres a knock at the door. Its the asshole neighbor, her daughter and the kid. My first thought is that they brought the kid over to apologize for being so annoying and rude. 'Cause if it was my kid doing that to a neighbor, I would be so embarassed. But no, I couldnt be that lucky. Nope, G-mom and mom are so upset because the kid came home crying because we threatened him! Um, excuse me? I never said a word to your kid! Well of course they dont beleive me. Apparently the kid ran home and said we threatened to shove the horn down his throat and call the police. I laugh. I couldnt help it, I did, I laughed. Then I got pissed and I told them that the little brat has been standing in front of our house incessantly honking that freaking horn all afternoon for 3 days now. And that my family has the right to say anything we want to each other IN OUR OWN HOME! If the kid was close enough to hear what we were saying to each other, maybe he should not be there. Of course they still didnt believe me and started attacking my parenting skills because my son would say such a thing..so Mike got involved and jumped in and told them to get the hell off OUR PROPERTY and mind their own business and if they want to start something how about that handicap parking space they have but handicap tags on their car? Or the expired registration on the car? Oh, she didnt like that and got all nervous. Yeah lady, you dont want to go there. I also defended Connor and said that he has every right to say anything he wants when some kid is out in front of HIS OWN HOUSE being annoying. If they dont like what we say IN OUR OWN HOUSE, keep your friggin kid away! She threatened to "call the proper authorities" if we threaten the kid again. Of course that just made me laugh me cause MIKE IS THE "AUTHORITIES"..........what a dork.

Afterwards I thought I should have told them to keep him away on Friday afternoons because thats when we read porn out loud to each other.

Mike is still fired up about it and was ranting away this morning. We try to be respectful neighbors. We pick up the dog poop several times a day cause no one should have to smell that. The second one of our dogs barks outside we bring them in, we dont take peoples parking spots. We keep our stereos turned down. We dont fight and curse each other out loudly. We keep our yard neat and our walks swept in the summer and shoveled in the winter. Mike wants to move, to the country, with land around us so we dont have to deal with asshole neighbors. (too bad Hugo Selinski's house sold yesterday)

Anyone have any advice? Prayers? Getting rid of annoying neighbor rituals?

What is interesting is that ever cop we know, has problems with their neighbors! What is it with people that like to be pricks to cops and their families? I dont get it. Everyone else on our street is nice, if not weird, but they dont cause any greif...but I guess every neighborhood has that family.....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:15 AM | Comments (3)

May 24, 2006

I Can't Escape The Skunks!

Remember the skunk situation here at work last month? Well, supposedly the skunks are gone. They pulled a dead one out and boarded up the hole they were using to get into the crawl space under our building. However, the ground is still skunky smelly and whenever the heat kicks on, it blasts skunk air into my office. And unfortunatly its been really cold this week and the heat keeps kicking on. So I've been dealing with the residual skunk stench.

Then last night, I had this dream that all my dogs and cats got sprayed by a skunk. I was half asleep/half awake and could swear I smelled skunk as I lay in my bed. In my dream meanwhile I was out buying up all the tomato juice I could find and wondering how I was going to bathe my cats in tomato juice.

When I woke up, Mike commented that he was awake half the night because of the damn skunk outside that stunk up our bedroom! HA! He wondered how I could have slept through it! Funny how the mind works,incorporating the real smell into a dream. Thankfully Mr. Skunk seems to be gone this morning. I was almost afraid to let the dogs outside.

On a different note, our ignorant, rude, obnoxious neighbors have thier grandchildren visiting. These kids are about 4-6 years old and spend the entire day riding this scooter in front of OUR house! It's so noisy and it makes my dogs insane! They bark non-stop and I think the kids are liking it. Yesterday, it got worse. They got the most annoying horn added to the scooter and honked it. all. day. long. In font of my house. Connor wanted to go beat them up. Jimmy wants to go sit in his car in front of their house and honk his horn in the middle of the night. They have the whole street, a backyard and huge driveway to play in. WHY do they have to play in front of my house. I may let the dogs out *accidently* while they are out there. I'm turning into that crabby old lady that everyone has on their street. I have no tolerance for these kids. Its going to be a loooooong summer.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2006

One of The WORST Days EVER!

I was never so glad to see a day come to an end as I was yesterday. It started off crappy and ended...pissy. Let me explain.

I woke up at my usual 5:30 am and stumbled half asleep down the hall to the bathroom. When I opened the bathroom door (we have to keep it shut or Sage climbs in the bathtub and she leaves a filthy ring and clogs the drain with hair and tears my shower curtian) I thought I had stumbled upon a crime scene. The shelves were knocked over. The toilet paper was shredded. There were towels on the floor and someone had pissed all over them. And there was VooDoo. Standing on the toilet seat, frantically meowing at me. Apparently someone closed the bathroom door and didnt realize she was still in there. She likes to lay in the window. So she was trapped in the bathroom all night! And she was not happy about it! She must have freaked out trying to get out and in the process knocked over everything that was not nailed down. And the poor thing had to go to the bathroom so I guess the towels looked as good a place as anywhere else. Until I pulled back the shower curtain to discover she also used the tub as a litter box. *sigh* So 5:30 am, and I am cleaning my bathroom. What I should have done was gone back to bed right then and there.

Fast forward to 6:45 am. The bathroom is cleaned. I am showered and dressed. Time to get Connor up. Well, Connor hurt himself playing basketball the night before and now, he was doubled over in pain. His stomach was really hurting him. I had suggested going to the hospital the night before but he became hysterical when I mentioned it so we decided to wait and see if he got any worse over night. So, I spent most of yesterday, the nicest day we have has so far this year, sitting in doctors offices. (and now its going to be cold and rainy for the next week). The Dr. couldnt find anything wrong, which is a good thing. We went for an ultrasound and there was no damage to any organs. So it was motrin and rest for the remainder of the day.

Finally got home. Got the poor kid something to eat and cleaned up , relaxed for awhile reading. After enjoying my favorite two hours of TV (Alias and LOST) I walked out of the living room to go feed the animals and stepped into a puddle....of dog piss! AGH! Why didnt they let me know they wanted to go out?!?! Ususally they will give a bark or a whine or run around frantically . But nope, not last night. Just a huge puddle all over the dining room floor. Took two rolls of paper towels to sop it all up. Then had to mop the floor, and I was all out of Mr. Clean after the morning fiasco.

After that I just collapsed into bed. Today has started off much better. No animal issues. Connor is feeling better and I'm at work catching up on this deep pile on my desk. And still waiting for news about the job....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 10:45 AM | Comments (1)

April 11, 2006

They Are Having Skunk Sex Under My Office!

So the skunk man finally showed up. I just talked to him. The damn skunk has created a nest right under my office! Its also directly beneath some duct/vent type thing so that every time she sprays, the scent goes through our entire building.

I just got a skunk education. First it could take 3-5 days before Skunk man can trap the skunks. When skunks come out of hibernation, they have no control over their bodily functions, so they are just randomly spraying. Then when they have thier little skunky sex, the male releases an even more powerful scent to keep predators away. They can mate several times a night. And each time he lets loose a spray of odiferousness that could kill a small village. Right under my office.

Skunk man says "they are not a problem unless they invade your domicile". Um, have you been in my office? Have you tried to work while skunks are having sex right under your desk? I consider my domicile invaded!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:38 AM | Comments (1)

Skunk Part 2

So apparently the skunk has enrolled in classes and had decided its going to dorm under my freakin' office! After spending all day yesterday avoiding my office like the plague, and hoping the skunk would be gone today, I came to work and the smell is stronger than ever. I am wondering if our facilities folks even came over to check this out? Did they call the skunk man? I ventured into our back room yesterday. You have to walk past the cellar entrance to get there and the skunk smell was overwhelming! My fear is Mr. Skunk is actually in the basment. Dead. So not only will be have skunk smell, but dead, rotting skunk smell if someone doenst find that sucker.

Add to the smell that someone keeps jacking the heat up to about 90 in the building and it makes for really really SUCKY working conditions. The heat just intensifies the skunkiness.

I may just call it a day, take some personal time and go home. I have no meeting outside my office today. I cant sit in here with this stench. Its making my eyes water, my head ache and my stomach roil. I dont think we should be forced to stay in this building and work under these conditions.....When I got home yesterday I took a shower because I was sure *I* smelled like skunk....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:21 AM | Comments (0)

April 10, 2006

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

There is a skunk under the porch of my office. My eyes are watering. I'm outta here!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:14 AM | Comments (1)

April 02, 2006

A Day of Death in Various Forms

Yesterday was a pretty crappy day. Not just the weather, which was dark, windy with some intermittant rain, but the whole feel of the day.

Started off fine. Just sitting around, watching crappy tv shows. Then Mike and I decided to go to Boscov's to look at this huge ass armoire I saw there to see if he wanted to get it for our bedroom. So off we went. Boscov's is basically the only store that is left in downtown Wilkes-Barre. It used to be such a nice town, now its empty, dirty and usually pretty dangerous. The downtown area is populated by thugs, vagrants, drug dealers, prostitutes, homeless, mental health patients who lost funding for their day treatment program....

It's very scary to walk around downtown. There are robberies, stabings, shootings almost daily. I've always said I feel safer walking through NYC or New Orleans than I do my own hometown. Mayor after Mayor has failed to bring the city back to life, to get tough on crime, to clean house of all the SCUMS from Philly, NY and NJ that have descended upon our city with all their gangs and crime, taking the honest citizens hostage in the process. Read a local newspaper, every time there is an act of violence, look at the names, look where they are from...WE NEED TO GET THEM OUT OF HERE! Make their life miserable....the city is on life support, maybe its too late. Maybe we should just pull the plug and let them have it? I dont know if the current Mayor has the ball or the intelligence to do what's necessary to rehabiliate this once thriving city.

So Mike and I ventured to the dead city. So we get to Boscov's and we fight our way through the strongs of senior citizens. We looked at all the furniture and finally decided on a HUGE armoire, that is actually bigger than our current closet. It's really big. Unfortunatley its one of those Sauder put it together type things, which I hate. I fell that at this point in my life, I should not be buying furniture that has to be assembled. I want real furniture. Unfortunatley, they dont make real heavy duty, real wood, armoires in this size, or for this price. We also didnt want to spend $600 on a piece of furniture at this point.

While we were there we decided to take a look at the suits, because Boscov's does have a HUGE and really great mens suit dept. And they are always having big sales. We saw a whole bunch of suits that we liked and sportcoats and pants...so we'll be going back to make some purchases. While we were looking at the suits a clown walked by. A real clown. With the wig, make up, costume, a wienie squirt gun, baloons....very freaky.

Then Mike wanted to go downstairs to check out the lawn and garden stuff. Thats where we saw her. A woman, with a full beard. OMG. I didnt meant to stare but I had to figure out if it really was a woman, but it was! Mike of course was giggeling uncontrollably. Why? Why would any woman let a beard grow on her face? Sure, she didnt look like she took care of herself in other ways either, but a BEARD? Bic razors are pretty cheap and she was buying stuff in Boscov's. It just boggles the mind.

We decided to get out of there with our armoire before we ran into the rest of the circus and we stopped at my grandmothers house. My grandmother died almost two years ago. My mom, aunt and uncle have kept putting off cleaning out her house, not wanting to have to sort through all her things and get rid of them. It's never easy. But, they decided to rent the house out and found a nice couple who want to move in so the clean out had to be done.

My mom had already taken all of her clothes to the Sallies, but there was still pretty much a house full of stuff. Furniture, christmas decorations, dishes, pots & pans, etc. It was pretty emotional for my mom and Uncle Mike. Everything they came across brought more tears. My mom told us to take whatever we wanted. Mike and I always like to have practical things from our deceased loved ones, rather than sentimental dust collecters. We ended up taking a beautiful purple vase, some cast iron pans, a HUGE stock pot, some other smaller pots and some utensils. Thank you Nana.

We finally came home, hours after we originally intended. As we were walking into the house I noticed the smell. I had first encountered this smell on Thursday. Mike had taken a big bag of garbage out and left it on the side of the house for garbage day, so thats what I thought it it was. But Saturday morning was garbage day and the nice men with the big truck came and took it away. And yet the smell persisted.

I said "Mike, that smell is STILL HERE. it smells like death"

Jimmy came out to help us carry stuff in and he said that despite his horrible cold, he could smell it too. Mike, Mr. Detective, kept insisting there was nothing. "I have smelled death before and I do not smell it now"

*smirk*

So he appeased me by looking under the porch and said there was nothing there, "its probalby just cat pee from the strays"

I insisted it wasnt a cat pee smell. Cat pee is somthing that can not be confused with anything else. I kept insisting there must be something dead under the porch and he kept insisting I was crazy.

So I decided to go check myself, cause I know how he checks things. (I wish he was half as thorough at home as he is on the job)

As soon as I started pulling stuff out, he came over and pushed me aside and said he would do it.

He pulled out some rakes (including the one I was looking for last week), and the stray cat shelters we built, and there behind them, was a dead cat. I started crying. At first I thought it was Smitty, but it was too big. She looked so peaceful, all curled up. I hope she died of natural causes. Poor thing. I'm so sad.

But she must have been there for awhile actually. We noticed Smitty and Jackson havent been coming around to eat for weeks. Now we know why. So Mike bagged up deceased kitty but it still smells to high hell.

So much for Mr. "I know death" HA!

RIP Kitty.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful I re-arranged furniture in our bedroom to fit the monster armoire and started to put it together while Mike cooked dinner. We are the oddest couple. Mike hates to put things together and has no patience and ends up cursing and putting things on backwards and having to take it all apart and start over. So I take on those duties. He doubted that I would get it done in one night. HA! He underestimates me. I not only got it all assembled but got all his clothes put away!

Our bedroom looks like shit however. Its just wall to wall furniture. Thankfully no one ever sees it, its prety functional right now but I hate it. So I'll have to make up for it by making the rest of the house really cozy and pretty.

Meanwhile, Mike was preparing a recipe from the Backstage Pass book. There were a few recipes that caught both our eyes and the one we decided to try was the Angel Hair Pasta with Red and Sassy Pomodoro Sauce, which was served to Harry Connick Jr. and Jill in 1994 at the Hollywood Bowl. It was really good! Can't wait to try the next recipe from the book!

Then to end the night on this death theme, LSU dreams of the National Championship died in Indiana. Apparently they sucked ass last night. I heard Mike and Gayle venting on the phone. We were so disappointed, but they are a young team and hopefully they will only get stronger. Final Four isnt bad for a team of freshmen. Nothing to be ashamed of at all.

Hopefully today will be a day of life....its starting off sunny and bright, looking prety good.....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:02 AM | Comments (2)

March 12, 2006

What the......

I have been up since 5:30! Why did I wake up at 5:30? And not be able to fall back to sleep? I'm not even excited about anything,except that I am going to Target today...is that reason enough to have excitement induced insomnia? Maybe I should check out the sale flyer and see if there is anything particularly exciting on sale?

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2006

Too Sick To Think of a Title

I had to postpone my surgery. My step-MIL works as an anestetist for my eye dr and she called me today to see how I was feeling. She strongly urged me to postpone the surgery until I was better basically because you dont want to be caughing when a dr. is cutting your eyelid with a scalpel! So I left work early, picked up Connor and bought him the new Harry Potter DVD so he would be occupied while I crashed on the couch. I slept for 3 hours. I took some childrens Tylenol cold medicine, thinking it wouldnt affect me as strongly as regular cold medicine...WRONG...out cold within minutes. I'm so tired of being sick. I just want to feel better. My nose hurts so bad from blowing it. My chest hurts from coughing. My head hurts. MAKE IT STOP!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 06:59 PM | Comments (1)

March 06, 2006

Re-entry Into Reality is Painful

I'm back at work. I'm still sick. I'm miserable.

"Take me back to New Orleans...."

Never have those words meant so much. Mike found a job in Lafayette LA last night. We do this every time we return from NOLA...why are we still here. Its cold. Its gray. The winter is endless....The dreariness sucks the life out of you. Spring will make things easier. A little.

I'd still rather be in New Orleans.

Time to start planning our next trip.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:27 AM | Comments (2)

February 04, 2006

Who In The Hell Though 8:00 AM Basketball Games Were A Good Idea

Why am I up at 6:00 am on a Saturday? It's still dark out. I don't have to go to work. But Connor has a basketball game at 8:00 am. Which means we have to leave the house by 7:15. So we have to get Connor up before daybreak so he can have breakfast before the game. I'm not showeringl. Screw it. This is one of those reasons God invented sweatpants and shirts. And ponytail holders. And concealer. I an see a nap in my future.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 06:35 AM | Comments (1)

February 02, 2006

Rude People and My Town is Realy Going Downhill

There are two situations I encounter on my drive to work every day that make me insane. I could go out of my way to come to work in a different direction in order to avoid both of these situations but I'm too lazy and set in my ways.

The first situation I encounter is in front of the Blue Cross Building. Their office is on one side of a busy two way street, the parkade on the other side. Every day I am stuck in this line of cars blocking the entire street trying to turn into the parkade. There is enough room for the people who need to get into the parkade to pull over to the right so that other cars can pass them, but apparently these folks are too ignorant, stupid to do that. So they line up for blocks, stopping traffic and causing a huge jam. What makes it worse is the people coming from the opposite direction trying to make a left turn into the parkade. They will turn so they are blocking the moving lane of traffic and sit there until someone lets them go ahead and enter...so no one gets through. Its just ridiculous. They need some sort of traffic cop or some turning lanes so that people trying to get through dont have to sit there for 10 minutes every morning.

The second situation is on Public Square.

As you can kind of see from that picture, its a square, smack dab in the middle of town. there is 3 lane traffic going all around it and you enter/exit onto four different streets. Every morning, I enter from the street in the bottom right hand corner. I only need to drive halfway around "The Square" in order to get to my exit street in the upper left hand corner. So, the "square etiquette" is that you enter and stay in one of the middle lanes until you are exiting, them move over the right. Typical for anyone used to driving thru a rotary. Well the idiots around here dont know how to drive the square. So many times I get stuck behind the idiot who STOPS in the middle of traffic to wait for all the cars to pass before moving to the correct lane....if there is one thing you DON'T do its STOP!!!! If you miss your turn, just keep going, its a big circle, you're not going to get lost, get off on your next pass for crying out loud!!!! People also dont know how to merge properly either...they just come flying around corners and cut you off instead of letting the person with the right of way pass and then merging. Then you have the idiots who PARK their cars in the drivnig lane so they can run in the donut shop or newsstand! HELLO!!! It says NO PARKING ALL OVER! I am really surprised there arent more accidents here!

In other news, as of January 31, we have had 5 murders in Wilkes-Barre already. All drug related (of course) and big surprise...all the folks have NJ/Philly addresses. I wish they would all GO BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM AND STOP POLLUTING MY TOWN! SCUM SUCKING FILTHY WASTE OF A LIFE DIRTBAGS. And thats as profane as I will get in case my dad reads this.lol.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:24 AM | Comments (2)

January 31, 2006

Word Cloud

I saw this over on sweetney and thought it was really cool! You enter your blog address and the site scans your blog for the most commonly used words and creates a "word cloud". If you like you can have it made into t-shirts...

Here's my word cloud:

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 01:29 PM | Comments (2)

January 05, 2006

Fly The Friendly Skies....I Don't Think So!

Yesterday Mike called to tell me that we had a message on our answering machine from United Air about our upcoming flight. He gave me the number they left and I said I would call to see what they wanted. I figured there had been a change to our flight as so many flights in/out of NOLA have been changed.

So I called the number and waited. And waited. And waited. I was on hold for 45 minutes before a person picked up the phone. And guess what? She didn't speak English very well! Big surprise eh? Why does every organization outsource their CUSTOMER SERVICE to freaking India??? When you call customer service they should be the most competent, reliable, UNDERSTANDABLE people in the organization, they are the front line for Christs' sake!

What I could make out of what she was telling me was that our original flight was cancelled (just as I figured) and she was rebooking me on another flight. It would leave NOLA at noon and go to Dulles, arriving at Dulles at 3:23pm. Then depart Dulles for Charlotte at 2:15pm. Huh? Ok...first off,my original flight was nonstop from NOLA to Philly so why am I flying from NOLA, to Dulles, then back down to Charlotte and then to Philly? And how am I supposed to make a flight that leaves before I even land? I pointed this out to her and she put me on hold. When she came back she was speaking even faster and I had no idea what she said.....something about new flight confirmed...blah blah...philadelphia.....7:00pm....blah blah. I decided to just check online to see what changes she had made to our flight and thanked her for her assistance and hung up.

So I got online and tried to view my itinerary. But the CS person forgot to assign my FF # to the new reservation so it wasn't showing up.

So I called the Mileage program number and didn't have to wait long at all until a very nice man answered the phone. I explained my situation to him and he explained that unfortunatly, he could not be the one to add the FF# to the reservation, I would have to call customer service and have them do it. All I could think was "you are shitting me!!"

So once again, I called customer service and waited 36 minutes for another non-english speaking person to answer my call.
I told him that I needed to add my FF# to my current reservation and after about 15 minutes we managed to communicate the necessary information to each other. Before I hung up I checked to see if I could access my itinerary, and it was there. So I hung up.

I started looking at the itinerary and while the first incompetant boob did change that second flight time, she still had us flying from Dulles to Charlotte, and the new times were not much better. We would have 17 minutes in between flights! Now, anyone that has ever flown knows that is IMPOSSIBLE to do! And that's not accounting for any delays. At this point I just wanted to cry.

I started searching the United website for some other numbers to call...and started calling a few, hoping for an english speaking person to answer. I lucked out and got a very sweet gal who listened to my whole story and agreed that those flight times were ridiculous. She then broke my heart by saying that she could not change anything and I would need to speak to reservations again. I sobbed loudly and told her they were the ones who created this mess and I couldn't understand a word they said. She giggled and promised to connect me to someone in America, and not India. A quick transfer and I was speaking to another lovely person who looked at my itinerary and agreed that was completley messed up.

While all of this was going on, I had searched the United site for all flights departing NOLA on that day and noticed that there was a nonstop flight leaving at 11:00 that day, flying directly to Philly.I pointed this out to the lovely woman and she said "your right, now why didn't they just put you on that flight in the first place. You originally had a nonstop flight, that should have been the first choice"

No freaking kidding.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:31 AM | Comments (3)

December 23, 2005

Question for G-Mailers?

Anyone else having a SPAM problem the past two days? My SPAM filter seems not to be working as I'm getting a shitload of SPAM in my inbox! It's making me insane!!!!!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 07:50 AM | Comments (4)

December 21, 2005

No Surprises!

Is there something wrong with me because I hate surprises? No, you dont understand I LOATHE being surprised. With a passion. I think it all goes back to my 5th birthday. My parents threw me a surprise party and it scared and scarred me. And now, I absolutley hate when people try to surprise me. Mike knows this, at least after 11 years of marriage you would think he would, but yet every year for christmas he tries to surprise me with something and I usually find out about it and then we get in a huge fight because I HATE SURPRISES! HATE! He says I should just humor him and maybe he's right but what about me? I seriously get physically ill thinking about it. It causes me stress and anxiety knowing that he has something planned and I'm going to have to react to it. My stomach is in knots.

I can't even explain what it is..part of it is I dont like being in the center of attention, with people watching me, waiting for my reactions. I dont like drama or fanfare. I hate people watching me opening gifts..I get so stressed out about what they expect my reaction to be and I dont hide my emotions very well. If I dont like it, you'll know it, I cant hide it. Apparently I display my emotions on my face very loud and clear. I have no poker face and I have no control over the frowns and pinched nose if I dont find something to my liking. So the words coming out of my mouth may be "oh how nice, I love it" but the look on my face is saying"WTF were you thinking"?

I know he means well but honestly, just avoid all the drama and argueing and DONT SURPRISE ME WITH ANYTHING EVER! Is that too much to ask?

So now here it is 3 days before Christmas and I'm annoyed and Mikes mad at me because I found out about a surprise (he keeps saying its not a surprise, but if its something he is doing without my knowing about it, its technically a surprise) he has in the works and I told him I dont even want it. So now its ruined for him and me cause I'm pretty sure I know what it is (I'm not dumb, when the UPS man makes a delivery with addresses on it, I can figure things out) and he wants me to just be happy about it....but I cant be. Because I'm so annoyed!!!!!

I just dont understand why he keeps doing something that he knows I find no joy in, to try to make me happy? And then gets mad when I'm not happy?

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:34 AM | Comments (2)

December 02, 2005

It's Going To Be A Loooooong Day!

I've been up since 4:00 am. What the hell is wrong with me?

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 05:47 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2005

EXHAUSTED

I am so tired today. Just exhausted. This weekend was just running around from one place to another. My plans of sitting on the couch reading never transpired. My house is a mess because I had no time to clean. I was *this* close to calling off sick today and staying home to sleep. But I didnt. I have too much going on at work today. I just want this day to be OVER so I can go home and vegetate. I'm too tired to even write anymore and I have about 12 different topics I want to mention...maybe later, after a nap.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2005

Insert Really Loud Scream Here!

About right now, I am FREAKING OUT!

My pre-vacation insomnia is in full swing. I tossed and turned all night, thinking of things I need to do before we leave. I finally just got up at 5:00 am and got ready for work.

Of course since I've been getting up at 5:00 am the past two days, by the time evening rolls around, I'm beat. And I just want to crash on the couch, which stresses me out more because I need to do so many things!

AGH!

Now, off to another in-service!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:16 AM | Comments (1)

August 14, 2005

The Airline Industry Needs To Be Regulated Again!

I've always thought that de-regulation of the airlines was a bad thing. I think its utterly insane that it costs so much to fly from one place to another and that rates will vary by hundreds of dollars from day to day, hour to hour, airline to airline. There is no rhyme or reason to it.

For example.

We have an airport 10 minutes from our house. Its a small airport but we have Delta and USAir and now Hooters that depart from there. Its really conveneint,rather than driving to Philly, Harrisburg, Allentown or any of the NY airports.

But we never use it because paying for a flight from Avoca is akin to being anally raped!

When I was booking our flight to New Orleans, flights from Avoca to New Orlenas (with a stop in Philly) were about $600/pp. From Philly direct to New Orleans $$189/RT. Of course thats on Southwest, one off their supersaver fares. If we flew out of Baltimore it would have been $59/each way!

So, I was just sitting around here and out off curiosity checked to see how much a flight from Avoca to Philly would be. Are you ready for this....$1,033/pp! And, here's the kicker....its not direct! There is a stopover in Cincinnatti or Atlanta! WHY go so far south to Atlanta to get to PHILLY! If I wanted to fly to New Orleans they send me to Philly first!

I'm flabbergasted.

And on a very random note, Victor Garber is on the episode of Law & Order right now and he has very big fluffy hair.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 05:19 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2005

Someone At The Drive-In Needs to Plan a Little Better

This is the third time this summer that this has happened. We love going to the drive in. LOVE it.

Since I hate movie theaters for various reasons I mentioned at some point, the drive in allows me to see new movies in the privacy of my own car. We love to stock up the cooler with water and soda, stop for a pizza or hoagies or something else for dinner and head out early. There are tons of families there playing frisbee, football or just hanging out and talking. Its great for people watching too. It only costs $5/pp for TWO movies! TWO! At the movie theatre we would pay what, $7 a person for one movie? And have to sit in a crowded theatre listening to people talk out loud during the movie, have some little snot kick the back of my chair and have to take out a second mortgage on the house in order to buy some popcorn and some drinks.

So, yeah, the drive in is much more economical and more fun. And more comfortable. But here's the irritating part. You would think that when there are two movies being shown, and one is geared for children and the other for adults, that the childrens movie would be shown first right? Well, the fucktards that run this drive in continually run the adult movie FIRST! So if I want to take my child to see "The Bad News Bears", we have to wait until 10:00 and they have to first sit through "Skeleton Key". Now I want to see both movies, but I don't think I want Connor to see Skeleton Key and he would probalby fall asleep before the second movie even started! I don't know who decided the order of the movies to show but I sent off an e-mail to the drive in....very politely suggesting they reverse the order ....but I'm sure it will be ignored. *sigh*

So, thats my irritation for the day.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 07:49 PM | Comments (2)

July 22, 2005

Too Many Decisions

SO I didnt sleep much last night...why must people make my life so complicated? Or why do I let them? I convince myself we are content then someone dangles a carrot in front of us...up all night thinking...can we? should we? What about the other thing? *sigh*

So many things going on right now it just makes my head spin.

God, please help us make the right decisions.

Ok, so we dont need to decide right now, still time to gather more information and have many more sleepless nights pondering the options.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 07:07 AM | Comments (0)

July 19, 2005

If Cars Were Horses.....

I'd shoot mine right now!

I. HATE. CARS. All they do is suck up all my money. Just keeping our cars in gas is a small fortune days. Then, y registration and inspection were due. Registration no problem, but my car didn't pass inspecttion. I need front brakes and a pipe, some pipe that connects to the catalyic converter or something. I dont know...

So, our favorite mechanic JIMMMAAAAY! is no longer operating his business since he got arrested. Damn. He was a great mechanic.

Luckily my dad hooked us up with another good mechanic. I know he didnt rip us off but the bill was still over $300. Stupid emissions testing. What I dont get is, last year when PA started emissions testing, my car failed so I had to get a new gas cap. I havent changed it, so why should I have to have it tested again? Oh yeah so the state can steal MORE of my money.

The a/c is shot in Mike's car and in Jimmy's car. It never ends.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2005

This Is So Just My Luck

I'm always whining that I never get to go to any cool conferences in any cool places. It seems all the career related conferences are in lame cities in NJ or in Lancaster or State College. People I work with are always going off to California, Florida,Nashville, heck even St. Paul....the last conference I went to was in Kutztown. Wow.

So today, my Executive Director called to see if I would be going to a conference in San Francisco! WOW! I got so excited. He was supposed to be going but due to a family emergency he cant make it. See, thats the thing, the conference starts TOMORROW! Which means I would have had to fly out tonight. As it does every time a Harry concert is announced, my mind started racing, trying to work out the logistics.

Unfortunatley this was the worst timing ever. Jimmy is having his wisdom teeth out tomorrow and I just can't leave him. He certainly cant drive himself and he cant be alone after the surgery. So it was not meant to be. But my mind went to the possibility of spending three days in California...just for a few moments. Damn.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 07:18 PM | Comments (3)

July 11, 2005

Because Turtles are Notoriously Quick and Dangerous Animals

There is this cop in a nearby town that is the biggest asshole on the face of the earth. He is the type of cop that gives other cops a bad name. He was fired a few years ago but he sued and they gave him his job back. He's caused so many problems for so many people I know. Hes the kind of guy that you give a gun and a badge and he thinks hes above the law. We hate him. HATE. I don't hate many people but I detest this man so strongly that I have wished him dead on a few occasions. There mere sight or mention of his name makes my skin crawl and my blood pressure skyrocket.

Well, apparently last Friday, Officer Asshole needed to prove his manhood. Seems a nearby resident found a lost, what he described as a "50 lb snapping turtle" in his yard. Now, there is a picture in the newspaper accompanying this article. This turtle in no way weighed 50 lbs! So, this man first pokes the turtle with a broomstick and is shocked when the turtle got angry and bit the stick in half. So he called the police and Officer Asshole responded. And shot it. Dead.

I can't begin to tell you how angry this made me. And not only me. EVERYONE I know and many, many people I dont know are outraged by this. There was absolutley NO REASON to shoot this turtle. It was lost and scared. It was a TURTLE people not a rabid dog. My husband said he would have thrown a towel over the turtle and taken it back down to the river and set it free. The manager of the local SPCA and a local wildlife control professional agree that Officer Asshole used excessive force to handle this situation. A turtle is not a "life-threatening" animal as Officer Asshole was quoted as saying. He also thought this turtle was so life threatening that he waited untilhe called the media and they showed up to capture this moment on film...

I'm hoping with enough pressure Officer Asshole will be fined or reprimanded. Many local people have been expressing their outrage to the SPCA and the local police department that employs this poor excuse for a cop. Anyone out there wants to add to the pressure e-mail me and I'll send you the contact information.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 10:20 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 01, 2005

I Wish I Was A Soprano

Anyone know a good hit man? Seriously? Damn my Italian family for not having any mob connections. Hmmm there was that guy at my Grandfathers funeral that told my dad that if he ever needed help getting rid of a body to give him a call...Mike's barber perhaps????

Maybe I'll just visit the VooDoo Priestess when I'm in New Olreans. Something has to be done about this problem. Before I lose my mind or have an aneurism. My blood pressure is so high I can feel my blood boiling.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2005

Time Flies When You're NOT Having Fun Too!

Holy crap! Tomorrow is July 1st already! Where did the entire month of June go? It seems like it was just May, June is a complete blurr! And I haven't even done anything really fun that would account for the month passing at such a speed. Just work, cleaning, gardening, work, cleaning, shopping, gardening....same old, same old.

Remember when you were a kid and summers seemed to go on forever? Days of swimming, bike riding, catching lightning bugs? Now I'm panicking because once the 4th of July hits, its all downhill...the back to school sales will be starting before you know it. At least the weather has been summer like, I just havent had any time to kick back and enjoy it.

Hopefully this weekend will be nice weather wise and we can spend some time outside having fun and not cleaning or doing chores. Although Mike does want to paint the deck. And we have to go to his partners wedding on Saturday which I'm not looking forward to because I wont know anyone there and Mike will get TRASHED with all the other Troopers and I'll have to be the sober designated driver and be sulky and bitchy all night. Arent I just gobs of fun?

On a happy note, my cousin is supposed to be opening his bar soon! Tonight I think! Wheeeee!

Connor has been attending the College Discovery program. He's on week two. Last week was sea science, which he absolutley LOVED and has added Marine Biologist to his list of things he wants to be when he grows up. Already on there : palentologist and professional basketball player! He spends hours on the internet looking up all kinds of information on sharks and whales and the oceans. This week is Crafty Campers and they have already made tote bags, wallets, wind socks and t-shirts! Next week is off because of the holiday, then he has "All Shook Up" which is about the earth and earthquakes, and then "Hogworts" which is a chemistry class with a Harry Potter theme. FUN! THen he's off for two weeks, then Basketball Camp for a week! Then its off to New Orleans for us!!! Then summer is over. Bah.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:22 AM | Comments (1)

June 29, 2005

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE???!!!

My ignorant idiot neighbors have company and instead of having them PARK IN THEIR EMPTY DRIVEWAY, they are parked in front of my house so that we had NO WHERE TO PARK today! I came home with all my bags that I lug to work, plus grocery bags and had to drag them up the block because these fucktards cant be considerate of the other people that live on this street!
A pox and a plague on them! May the vehicular gods curse them with an assortment of auto related malfunctions..........

People, in general, suck.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 05:42 PM | Comments (3)

June 14, 2005

Need Help! AOHell!

Ok, so when we first got internet back in 1997, we got AOL. It sucked. But it was what I was used to. But eventually, a few years ago we got a cable modem and kept the AOL BYOA(bring your own access). But when we got our new computers this spring, I decided I didnt want to clutter them up with AOL crap so we finally took the plunge and switched our e-mail to g-mail and started moving to close the AOL account. I've been buggging Mike for awhile to call and he kept forgetting. Tonight I finally got him to call.

These people are the biggest assholes on the face of the earth. They are giving us such a run around trying to cancel this account! They cant find it, blah blah blah, they need our master screen name, which we never used and I have NO FREAKING idea what it was.....but they certainly have no problem billing us every month!!!

Anyone have any advice how to deal with this?

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:19 PM | Comments (4)

May 06, 2005

Even When I Try, I Can't Get Ahead!

ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I've been really working on getting my finances under control this year. I have two credit cards left that will both be paid off by the end of the year. I am up to date on all my bills. In fact last month, I accidently paid a few bills twice! So I dont have to pay them this month, which was really nice! But dummy me, I managed to screw up anyway.

Last week I got paid and I sat down and wrote out checks for all the bills due last week and the ones for this week, which I would mail on Thursday when Mike gets paid. Fine. Great. On the ball even. But what did I do? I MAILED ALL OF THEM LAST WEEK!!!! Last week was so crazy and hectic, somehow I managed to mail all of them. And they all came back. Yesterday. And I bounced two checks! AGGHHHH! Im sick about it. Yes I have overdraft protection but my savings is depleted because I just bought our airline tickets for our New Orleans trip and Mardi Gras! AGH!!!!!

I really need to pay more attention to what I'm doing....at least Mike got paid today so we are back on track. But I hate that feeling, looking at my bank balance with a negative balance....

I've been going to the gym faithfully every day this week. Yay me! There are these 4 high school girls, barbies, that have been there at the same time as me. They annoy me to no end. They come in and put their water and CD Players on the four good ellipticals (there are 4 good ones and 6 crappy ones),then go over to the floor mat area and do ab workouts, and chat and NOT USE THE ELLIPTICLALS for like a half an hour! THAT IS WRONG AND IT PISSES ME OFF! And the gym staff on at that time is a young, sappy guy who just stand there drooling over these girls and he wont do anything about it.Asshole.

Then when they finally do get on the ellipticals, only two of them actually work out. The other two, just pedal a few times, chat, read a magazine, talk on their cell phone, go to the bathroom flirt with boys, walk around, come back, pedal a few more times.....I'm about ready to throttle them.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 01:17 PM | Comments (2)

April 26, 2005

I'll Have a Salad, Hold The Ants

I usually have a nice salad for lunch every day. I love a big salad. I prepare it at night and I use different types of lettuce and lots of vegetables.Make it really colorful with different textures. Feels less like rabbit food.

I look forward to a little quiet time with my salad and a book or catching up on some blog reading.

Today I pulled out my salad and put a little dressing on it. I had a box of croutons in my file cabinet. I thought I would add some to the salad today. I dumped a few on and noticed that something was moving...I blinked and looked again. THERE WERE ANTS IN MY CROUTONS!

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The box wasnt that old. It was all sealed up, but somehow those pesky ants got in. I flushed the entire salad. I had to settle for crappy sandwich. I still feel all creepy thinking about the ants. Guess I'll never keep any food in my file drawer again!

This incident rought back some other memories...havent thought about this for a long time....

When my brother was 2 he needed open heart surgery and my parents decided to take him to the Mayo Clinic to have it performed. I was 10 at the time. We decided to drive out to Minnesota from PA. I remember I had a broken arm. I remember I had a really cute white skort and Ronnie colored on it in the car with a black crayon. I remember stopping at Notre Dame on the way out. But most of all I remember the ladybugs!

We were going to be in Rochester for quite some time while Ronnie recovered so my parents rented an apt/efficiency type thing. The night we arrived our room wasnt ready yet so we had to stay at a hotel. We went to a nearby deli to grab some hoagies (subs) for dinner and took them back to the hotel. I settled in to watch The Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Mysteries and everyone started eating. I didnt eat tomatoes back then and opened my sandwich to pick the tomatoes off and what did I find? Thats right, ladybugs. Lots of them. I'm sure I screamed or something, being a hystrionic 10 year old girl.

I can remember my dad packing up all the hoagies and going back to the deli to return them..I dont remember what we ended up eating that night.....but wow, I can picture that hotel and so much of that time we spent in MN.....although we were not there for a happy reason, it was a nice time together as a family...at least the way I remember it....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 02:56 PM | Comments (2)

Things That Bother Me At The Gym

1. People who do not dress appropriately. This includes people who wear jeans, dress shoes, regular bras, no bras, and tight/shiney spandex to name a few.

2. People have really bad b.o. Take a shower, use some deoderant, wash your clothes!

3. Women who come in full make up and have their hair done all nice and dont bother to break a sweat

4. Machine misusers-this includes people who don't know how to use the equipment properly, people who monopolize the equipment by sitting and carrying on a conversation with the person next to them, and people who dont wipe down the equipment when they are finished using it.

5. People who dont actually work out. Walking at a slow speed on the treadmill for 10 minutes is NOT a workout. Unless you have a health problem that limits your exercise intensity level...your just foolinng yourself

6. People who read while working out. Or talk on their cell phone.

7. People who wear too much cologne/perfume

8. People who put on headphones and sing. Out loud.

9. Anexoric looking women who run on the treadmill for hours.

10. People who chew and pop their gum loudly.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 07:23 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2005

Seeing More of My Neighbors These Days

So I've seen more of some of my neighbors in the past few days that I really care to. The other day while sitting in my living room, minding my own business, I happen to glance out the window and see the Mole Man standing in his window, lights on, in his underwear and nothing else. It's bad enough I have to see this man in his zubaz and holey shorts. Did not need to see the underwear.

Then on Saturday night, Mike and I both fell asleep on the couch watching tv. I was awakened around midnight by people yelling. I went to look out the window (someday I will learn not to do this) and saw that the guy who hit the gas line last summer, was apparently drunk once again. He was on his porch argueing with his wife. She was in her bra and underpants. What kind of neighborhood do I live in?

On a side note, the movie "House of Sand and Fog" was really wonderful. WOW. Ben Kingsly was amazing...heartbreaking...

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2005

When It Rains, It Pours

Mike took his car to the mechanic and found out it needs a new computer. I don't even want to know what thats going to cost us. *sigh*

I miss our old mechanic, Jimmaaay!, he was so cheap. Too bad he's in jail.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)

My Kids Think They Are Living In The Dark Ages

Right before Christmas, when we were going thru the hell that is replacing a furnace, our microwave decided to kick the bucket too. My mom had an extra in her basement so she gave us that so we didnt run right out and buy a new one. Not that microwaves are really that expensive, but with the holidays and the furnace costs, every little bit helped.

Last night I was warming up some veggies in the microwave for dinner and noticed a strange smell. I walked around sniffing but couldnt determine where it was coming from. No one else could smell it, but thats not unusual as I have a very strong sense of smell. I finally decided it was coming from somewhere in the kitchen. I walked over to the microwave and shut it off. Opened the door and realized that although the veggies had been in there for 6 minutes, they were still very cold. So it was the microwave emitting the smell, probably some type of radioactive toxic fumes and my kids willnow produce children with 3 heads or something.

Jimmy and Connor have never experienced a day of thier life without a microwave. Jimmy wondered how I would cook (hahaha). I told him to use the oven. He's distraught that a hot pocket will take 20 minutes to cook rather than 2 minutes. Kids today are spoiled. They are so used to having everything instantly.

Of course I'll be in microwave popcorn withdrawl. Jimmy suggested I buy some Jiffy Pop. I havent had Jiffy Pop in years. Just may have to do that.

HARRY POTTER

So we are a bit behind the times and jus finished watching all three Harry Potter movies. Santa brought them for Connor and we had a Harry Potter marathon. I didnt think I would like the movies, normally not my kind of thing, but I really did. The Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite of the three, it was dark and creepy and sucked me right in. I've never read any of the Harry Potter Books and I realize a new one is due out very soon. I'm thinking maybe I will start reading them. Just what I need, another obsession.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:21 AM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2005

The Post Mardi Gras Funk

I'm in a funk. Don't know if its just the letdown of returning to my normal life after the excitement of Mardi Gras or what but I'm feeling rather funky. Yesterday marked the return to the routine: school, work, dinner, homework, bed. Life just doenst get much more dull than that.

In addition, my own job is incredibly stressful this week. Its always hard to return to work after a vacation. 500+ e-mails, piles of mail, resumes and people needing appointments. Add to that - My boss will be out all week. Her father passed away this morning. So its just me to cover the office and all the workshops and classes we have scheduled in addition to dealing with the walk ins and catching up on everything.

A positive note on an otherwise crappy day- the sun is shining and its nearly 60 degrees. I took a walk at lunch and basked in the gloriousness that is today. Unfortunatly its not going to last, its just a tease. This is winter in PA afterall. We are due a major blizzard before we get spring to stick. Its so nice out I'm wondering if I can convince Mike to cook on the grill tonight? Hmmm, ribs and pasta salad sound rather yummy......

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)

January 31, 2005

WHY AOL SUCKS!!!!!

I just wrote this very long and detailed entry about my long involved process of deciding on which laptop to purchase and all about our income tax refund that will allow thi 16e3 s purchase and shout outs to all the great people who helped me with my decision....and AOHell decided to shut down. Why do I even keep this crap assed internet service? Why? Because I have been dolphnlvr6@aol for so long I'd be sad to lose that piece of my identity! So stupid a reason. We have a cable connection so its not like I need it. Old habits die hard.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:16 PM | Comments (3)

January 26, 2005

Snow Repreive

Whew! Woke up this morning expecting to find no less than four inches of snow on the ground. Was happily surprised to see just a dusting, less than an inch. The weather people had us all in a panic again about the possibility of 4-8 inches of snow overnight. So I went to bed grumpy, tired of the snow and woke up elated when I looked out the window! Connor on the other hand was not so happy. He actually broke into tears when I got him up for school and broke the news that there was not a delay. He's had a dealy every day for the past two weeks due to bitter cold or snow so he was mighty disappointed.

Mike and I had our yearly discussion about where we plan to move to when we retire in 18 years. We both agree we are not going to spend our old age trapped in our house because we are afraid of falling on the ice or having heart attacks from shoveling snow when we are 70.  Of course since Mike can retire after 20 or 25 years on the force ( I forget which) we will still be pretty young when we do retire. So while we havent picked a definate location, we both want to be within driving distace of New Orleans and the beach, but out of hurricane area. So, we have some time to really decide. Then there is always the option of just buying an RV and driving all over the country, exploring. That might be a fun way to spend a year or two.

Speaking of New Orleans, a week from now we will be packing up and getting ready to leave! Yahoo! Im so incredibly excited....I may kiss the ground when we arrive.  I've been listening to my Mardi Gras music all week, everyone at work is tired of hearing about it already...still havent touched that list I posted a few weeks ago! I need to get moving!!!!!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2005

Rain with some clearing

It's grey outside. Its dark, raining and gloomy. Yesterday it snowed all day. Then it rained all night. Today we are left with big piles of slop. I shouldnt complain. There are other areas of the country experiencing much worse weather than this. In fact, this is a rather mild winter for Northeast PA. Its supposed to hit 60 degrees tomorrow!  But today its just grey. My bed was so inviting this morning as I was getting ready to leave. It was all I could do to not kick off my shoes and climb back in and snuggle under the covers.

Mike just called to tell me he let the dogs out and Sage climbed under the porch and wont come out. Shes going to  be covered in mud. Hes going to bed so I get to deal with it when I get home.

There is a bright spot on the horizon. Lost and Alias are on tonight!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)

The Best Laid Plans....

Last week I decided to take Tuesday the 11th off from work. Its very slow at work right now as the students are still on break. My boss is in FL, and my secretary and I have cleaned, re-arranged, organized and tossed out so much crap. We were left with sitting here staring at each other. So I thought taking a day off sounded like a good idea. I decided on Tuesday because Mike was scheduled to work day shift. Connor would be at school, Jimmy would be sleeping most of the day (he still keeps rock star hours) so I would basically have the house all to myself! Oh the glory! Sitting in my pajamas drinking tea and reading, watching some movies, doing nothing. Also since it was Jimmy's birthday I thought I could make him a nice dinner if he didnt go out with his friends. Well as soon as I announced I was taking the day off, Mike decided it would be a good idea to get the kittens spayed on Monday so I could pick them up Monday night and be home with them all day Tuesday. To keep an eye on them. Whatever, ok, thats not a big deal. Then we decided since I was going to be home, we should get the new dryer delivered that day. Ok, fine....

So, yesterday, I got up, got Connor up and off to school. Drove home. It started snowing. HIs school announced they were letting out at 11:00. SHIT! There goes my peaceful day. So I get two hours to myself in which I accomplished nothing, then drove down to Connors school in a blizzard and picked him up. Of course he wanted to be entertained for the rest of the day. Then the dryer delivery arrived 2 hours early! AGH! I hadnt cleared out the area in the basement for them! I had the cats secluded in the bathroom that you need to go thru to get to the basement! Then the delivery guys tracked mud and slush all thru my house! On top of that, the power cord on the dryer too short to reach the outlet and the vent we have is too small and we need to get a new one now.

Later in the day the cats decided they had recovered enough and were bored and climbed up into the cupboards in the bathroom and knocked everyting to the floor. Cold medicine, lightbulbs, suntan lotion, a bag full of old paychecks,

I did make Jimmy a great dinner of cajun chicken and pasta. Since the weather was so crappy he decided to stay home.

So basically my day of leisure turned into a day of running errands, clenaing and averting disasters. Just like every other day of my life. It must be that ancient indian buriel ground.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2005

Big Decision

We got new cell phones right before Christmas and I've yet to program a personalized ring tone. I've just got an annoying beeping sound at present. I can't decide what song to use.......on my old phone I had the theme from Bufffy.....thats not avaialbe on this one. I can choose the theme from X-Files....?

There arent any Harry or Bone songs of course......ARGH.........I just can't decide....

I can do the sound of humpback whales? What is my song?

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 05:29 PM | Comments (1)

Confusion

Please excuse me while I try to revert back to my original look. The mardi gras theme, while festive, was giving me a headace. Now I cant remember how I had the color scheme before.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2005

Annoyances

I think one of the reasons I had problems getting into the Christmas spirit this year was because retailers everywhere have been cramming it down our throats since the minute the back to school sales ended. Actually even before that. In July I was bombarded with  invitations to the "HALLMARK ORNAMENT PREMIERES". I'm sorry but in July I just cant think about christmas. There is truth in the "too much of a good thing" theory. I like to celebrate each holiday in a timely manner. I'm really starting to resent merchants extending the holidays by weeks or months to increase their sales.
When I went to the mall 4 days after Christmas, there was Valentine stuff out already! Tonight in the drug store they had Easter stuff out! ENOUGH I say!

I think there should be a law that stores can not advertise, decorate or display holiday items until 2 weeks before said holiday. And while we're at it, lets extend that to political campaigns too. I get so tempted to not even vote because of all the advertising and signs that go on during election time. For months and months before the actual event. Give the candidates 2 weeks to campaign. If they are current office holders they should be doing their jobs and not out on the campaign trail anyway. Spare us all from the mud slinging, the lies and the barrage of "I approve of this message". Wouldnt the world be a much happier place?

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 07:35 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2005

Doin' the laundry

Our dryer died right before Christmas. I just didnt want to spend $300 for a new dryer right before the holidays so I put up with lugging my laundry over to my moms every week. Well, today Moms dryer died!  What are the chances of that happening. So I had 5 loads of clean wet clothes that needed to be dried. My only option was to take them to the laundrymat. Ew. I hate the thoughts of the laundrymat. But I had no choice. So off I went, quarters in hand. We have two laundrymats in town. The first is right at the bottom of my street. So I figured for convenience sake I'd try that one first.Ive never been in either one so I didnt know that one would be drastically different from the other.  I walked in and the first thing to hit me was the smell. OMG. It was so strong. Moldy, mildewly, old smell. Then I notice half the floor is ripped up. There is a a huge hole in one wall. I started getting a very creepy feeling and I seriously thought if I opened the lids on the washers I would find body parts. I didnt look. I turned around and walked out.I half expected to be shot on my way out. Or mugged. The atmosphere completly made me forget I was still in my own town, right on my own street. I think Ive been watching too much Alias.

So I went to the other laundry near the shopping center. What a difference! Bright and clean and no smell! And busy! Who knew so many people did their laundry on Sunday? So I tossed my clothes in a few dryers, sat down to read but couldnt concentrate. My suspicious Alias ridden mind had me paranoid that someone would try to steal my towels and underwear so I had to keep an eye out.....

After two trips and 8 loads of laundry I was done. Hopefullyby next weekend we will have a new dryer. We are going to look at Lowes some night this week.l

After that expereince I decided to put the Christmas decorations away. I want to have all the decorations packed in their boxes and back up in the attic before we leave for MG in  ONE MONTH! So I got everything put away except for the tree. I'll do that next weekend. It took 3 days to decorate it, it will take just as long to undecorate it. I usually leave the snowmen/winter decorations out until March-ish but Mike said just put everything away. He asked if I wanted to face all that stuff when we got back from MG and hes right, I dont...so they are all packed up now too. Everything is all dusted and clean....and bare. The boxes still have to go up in the attic. I'll wait until the tree is done to do that. Its too much of a pain getting up there.

I'm so disgusted with our internet these days. We keep losing the conncection. I'm not sure what the problem is. Sometimes there is nothing, sometimes it says we are conncected but we cant get on the net, just keep getting time out errors. We have Adelphia cable and Jimmy wants to switch to Verizon DSL. Any opinions on Verizon DSL? We probably would have went with it in the first place but it wasnt available here when we switched from dial up. Jimmy is  also having a problem with his computer, it wont reboot when he shuts it down. I told him to take it over to the computer shop and get it checked out.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2004

I'm so over the mall

After vegetating on the couch for 3 days, I spent the past two days (or parts thereof) driving to the mall, sitting in traffic, standing in line and digging thru discounted merchandise.

Yestrerday I thought that 4 days post Christmas, most people would be back to work and I wouldn't be fighting the crowds to return the few things I needed to return. WRONG. I should have turned back when I realized I would have to wait about 20 minutes just to get from the highway into the mall parking lot. Or when I had to park a  mile away and lug all my returns (including a really heavey set of flatware). Or how about when I saw the line at the return register was 80 people long. But nope I persisted. I managed to return just about everything yesterday and then felt the need to buy something else. Since I only had gift receipts for some of the items, the stores would only give me gift cards back. And I hate leaving the mall empty handed. So I spent about 4 hours digging thru all the 75% off racks of winter clothes and managed to find three sweaters I thought I liked, but now am experiencing buyers remorse and I think I will end up returning them too. I had to start the trek home because Mike had to go to work. So I decided to go back again today. I ended up finding a really nice Columbia jacket for 60% off. So I bought it. But I should have returned the sweaters and used that credit towards the jacket.

Then I decided to go to Target and check out the wrapping paper situation. I hate paying full price for something thats going to end up in the garbage. So I got back in the car and headed up the highway. I was stopped at a stop sign when all of the sudden my car gets slammed into from behind! Then again. WTF? So I pull off inot a parking lot and the person who hit me follows. It was a reallly young girl, she was nearly in tears. My back bumper is cracked. Crappy fiber glass piece of shit. So I get all her information and give her mine and call Mike to let 1400 him know. No one was hurt and thats what we have insurance for. But I'm still pissed.

The little fender bender took the joy out of discount shopping for me and I was in a piss poor mood. The wrapping paper was only 50% off and they had tons of it left so I decided to wait another week and see if they mark it down more. I got some nice 50% off calendars at Barnes and Noble and I purchased season 3 of Alias. You see, I finished up season 2 today and I just cant wait for Netflix to send the rest of it. And, Season 4 starts on WEDNESDAY and there is no way I can manage to get all 6 of Season 3 DVD's from Netflix by then. So, I bought it. But man, Sydney woke up in Hong Kong and had been missing for 2 years and Vaughn is married and I'm going to be pathetically sitting home for the next 4 nights so I need something to watch!

On a side note, after I spend hundreds of dollars for christmas presents for Connor for the Nintendo DS that he HAD to have and multitudes of games for his Gamecube and PS2, he is sitting downstairs playing Atari Flashback, moving a pixelated square around the tv. Something is wrong here.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 07:44 PM | Comments (1)

December 29, 2004

My brain is turning to mush

I've done absolutely NOTHING for the past two days. I said I wasn't going to leave the house and I have held fast to that declaration. Ok, I lie. I did run to he grocery store yesterday. Actually I drove. We needed some essentials like bread, milk, microwave popcorn. Otherwise I have been plowing my way through Buffy season 7 and Alias Season 2. I must say Buffy and Sydney have much more interesting lives than I do.

I will be taking a short break from my vegetative state today however. My MIL is coming to visit and then I am going to drag my ass out of the house and to the mall, FINALLY. Will make some returns and see if I can get anything good on sale. Mike is off today so I won't have to drag Connor with me.

This week of vacation is just going much too fast. At least there is Mardi Gras to look forward to in 36 days or else I might lose my mind. The winter semester just drags on and on. Cold, darkness, freezing rain, sleet, snow. No holidays until Easter. 2005 will mark 5 years that I've been at my current job, which is a bit of a record for me. I tend to get bored and seek other employment after a few years. A few things working to keep me at my present job- 1) the economy pretty much sucks. Not many other jobs out there to go to. Except in social work and I would have to be pretty desperate to go back to that. 2) Jimmy is staying at Wilkes at least for another semester so I need to stay as well so he can go for free. 3) I actually like my job. Its fun, non stressful and  I work with some really great people. I can't imagine ever going back to the stress of the business world. Academia is where its at.

I've also been spending alot of time at the Dell and Mac websites.  We are going to invest in a new computer this spring. I pretty much have my mind set on a laptop ......today. I was going back and forth on laptop vrs. desktop and I think I'm definitely leaning in the laptop direction. This PC, while coming up on 8 years old, is still in fairly good condition. If we take it for more RAM ( I think that's what it needs, I'm so non-technical) and a new sound card, it will still be a good computer for Connor. And Mike.

Now I was pretty much decided no matter what the new computer would be a Dell. We have two Dells now, and  I have a Dell desktop and laptop at work and I have never had any trouble with any of them. Sure Dell customer service sucks ass.....but I've really had to deal with them very very few times. Like maybe 3 in nearly 8 years?  Wendy is doing her best to talk me into getting an ibook. Jimmy and Mike are really anti-mac. Mike because he's just learning to use a PC, the idea of figuring out a mac just annoys him. Jimmy hates Macs. As a rule I do too. It seems whenever I need a computer lab for my class I end up in the Mac lab and we waste so much time figuring out how to use the damn things.

I know Mac people are very loyal to their brand. And Macs don't have the virus issues that PC's do. (why do virus writers not write for Mac's???) But I run alot of virus software and its not like I'm downloading things and I never open attachments in e-mails. We had a virus problem way back when we first got this computer and *knocks on wood* we've been ok since. So in addition to playing on the mac site, Ive been configuring various Inspiron notebooks too.  My mind is so overwhelmed at this point.  Thankfully I have a few months to keep researching and seeking opinions. So if you are reading th 1400 is and have any laptop advice, please leave some comments. 

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:55 AM | Comments (4)

December 27, 2004

C-c-c-c-cold

Another ass freezing day here in lovely PA. Its all of thirteen degrees right now and the wind is whipping and blowing. It started snowing last night and was still snowing until about an hour ago. But, there is hardly any snow on the ground because the wind is just blowing into drifts somewhere. Not outside my house though. Just a little dusting out there.

I really wanted to go to the mall today to make some returns and take advantage of all the sales but is just too freaking cold. I'll wait a day or two. I need to get a lighweight warm jacket for Mardi Gras. Dont want to take my long winter coat and dont want to take my leather jacket....so I need something.

I think I'll just sit home in my sweats today and I think I hear Buffy and Spike calling me.....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2004

On My Way to Hell

I've decided to just get it all over with and go to the mall after work and finish my christmas shopping TODAY. I just have to brave the crowds, the lines and the traffic and get it done if I expect to get any sleep this week. I have my list ready. I ate an energy bar.  I have my checkbook and my Visa. Time to just do it. I think at this point I'd rather have root canal. Well, maybe not but at least that option involves good drugs and laying down for about an hour.

Wish me luck. If you dont hear from me for a few days I'm either in jail or the looney bin.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2004

The Mole People and Other Annoying Neighbors

I'm sitting here at my computer and I can see out my front window and I see the Mole People out and about. The Mole people (TMP) are our neighbors across the street. I'm sure they are very nice people, but man are they weird!  I can't even remember how we came about calling them TMP, but it was soon after we moved into this house 7 years ago.

TMP are just strange. For the longest time they only ever left their house at night. They had a teacup sitting on the front railing of their porch for 2 years. Mrs. Mole Person wears ear muffs in May. They put their dog in a wagon when they go for walks.  They make Grandma Mole Person get out of the car in the middle of the street, then pull into the driveway. If you peek in their windows, they have orange streamers and dolls hanging from their ceiling.

And all of that I could easily ignore because it does not affect me in any way. But TMP are also rude.

We live on a very small street. Its an alley actually. Its a one way street with houses on both sides. Houses very close togehter. Although I LOVE my house, I d 1400 ont love my street. Anyway, most of the houses on my side of the street do not have driveways. (A few do however). All of the houses on the other side of the street have driveways. Parking is an issue all the time. I beleive that the polite thing to do, is park your car in front of your own house. If you have a driveway, park in it. Dont park in front of someones house that does not have a driveway.

We have 3 cars in our family. One of us will (try) to park in front of our house. The other two cars go down the street where there are no houses.  I would NEVER take someones parking spot. When we have company, I explain to them where they can park. There is a dry cleaner at the bottom of the street with plenty of parking and there are two other bigger streets that border our street. Well, not all the neighbors abide by this common courtesy.

Some of our neighbors think nothing of taking up the entire street with their cars. Its so irritating to come home from the grocery store and have NO WHERE to park. Or spend an hour shoveling snow from in front of my house to have some asswipe park there the second I leave! Thats so rude!

TMP are the worst offenders however. They have a driveway and half the time they dont park in it! They park their cars on the street and have this big open driveway and then we have no where to park! They especially like to park their cars in front of our house. It makes my blood boil when I come home and see that truck in front of my house. Mike swears one day hes going to park our cars in their driveway....

In the morning the Mole Man comes home from work and leaves his truck parked in the street waiting for me to leave so he can pull into my spot. How lame is that?

The other thing with people on our street is that half of the have "handicap parking" signs in front of their houses so no one can park there. BUT, none of them are handicapped! They dont have handicapped placards or tags for their cars, but they have the signs. Apparently back a few good years, anyone in our town could get one if you knew the right person.

The house to our left is another doozy. Its a double block. The side closest to us is vacant right now. The two families that have lived there in the past 7 years have been total scumbags. One had a bunch of juvenile delinquent teenagers that would climb out the windows at night. The police were at their house all the time. The most recent family had seriously expired inspection and registration on their cars which drove Mike nuts. They had us wondering too. A family of four but yet every garbage day, they had about 12 bags of garbage out on the front sidewalk. Who has that much garbage?

The owner of the double block is a crochety old man. Hes so miserable. He never lets the tenants park in the driveway that separates our house from the double so they end up parking in our spot too. And the thing that really pisses us off, is every time it snows, he doenst clear that driveway, then it ends up melting and running down our sidewalk and freezes, turning our sidewalks to ice.

I really wish we had bought that 10 acre Christmas Tree Farm in the country. No neighbors to deal with.....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 10:46 PM | Comments (3)

Christmas Shopping

I'm still not finished with my Christmas shopping, even thought I started it back in October. I swore I would be finished and have everything wrapped well before Christmas week. But here we are with 4 shopping days until Christmas and I still have a few gifts to buy and NOTHING wrapped. Not one thing. I'm down to the difficult people: my dad, my wealthy uncle, the kids godmothers, my MIL's boyfriend. What do you get people who don't need anything? I hate buying something for the sake of buying something and I really hate giving gift certificates. Everyone else on my list has a wonderful, thoughtful, meaningful gift.

You would think my dad would be easy, but no. He has to be one of the hardest people to buy for ever. What makes it even more difficult is his birthday was the 8th so anything we could think of to get for him, we bought for his birthday.

My son Jimmy just got a job at igourmet.com so maybe I'll just get cheese for everyone thats left. He gets a nice discount so I think a big ole wheel of  Gouda will suffice. They have over 500 different kinds of international cheeses! Who knew there were that many cheeses!?!? Jimmy said there are even smellier cheeses than Limburger. Its true, you can search the site for  Stinky Cheeses! Jimmy has been working alot of hours and I'm hoping that this lesson in manual labor will inspire him to stay in school and get a degree in SOMETHING!

Back to Christmas......I guess I'll have to wr 1400 ap Connors teachers gifts soon, since his party at school is on Wednesday. I just know I'll be up all night Christmas Eve wrapping the kids presents. I cant do it when they are home, Connor still believes in Santa and as this will probably be the last year, I'm milking it for all its worth.  Of course I went way overboard with presents for them again this year. I cant help it. I love to spoil my kids. If that makes me a bad mother so be it.

Jimmy has been getting more and more difficult to buy for. Hes almost 19 so its not like he wants any toys. We bought him a new computer 2 years ago, an iPod for graduation. He has a car.He has a really nice 35mm and digital camera  He gave me a list of DVD's and I got most of them. He's finally starting to like clothes too, but unfortunately has inherited my taste in expensive clothes. But we did compromise on some nice stuff from The Gap and Bon Ton. And some lenses for his camera. And a combo printer/scanner/copier.  And I got him a few silly surprises too, like a Giant Homer Simpson Pez Dispenser, some books on photography.

Connor decides to tell me two weeks ago that he wanted the Nintendo DS. I was about ready to throttle him. WHY SO LATE! I was out Black Friday and they were everywhere! On Sale! By the time he decided to let me know, these things were practically non existent. Its all hes talking about . He's so nervous that he didn't tell Santa in enough time. Well, I'm so excited to see his little face on Christmas morning when he opens up his own Nintendo DS! See, Mommy is a miracle worker and managed to secure one of these hot little items.  Just don't tell daddy how much I paid for it! The rest of his stuff consists of a slew of  video games, some books, Garbage Pail Kids Cards, (anyone remember those??), a skateboard,some games and some DVD's. And pajamas.

I also have to make more Christmas cookies, since the family managed to eat every crumb of the ones I made last week. And believe it or not, I still have to clean. I slacked yesterday and didn't do too much. I need one day off to veg, right?

I dread going to the mall this week. Its going to be a zoo. But there is one bright spot. Our contract with T-Mobile expires this week and we can finally switch to Verizon! Hooray! T-Mobile has been a nightmare of missed calls, no reception, excessive fees, etc. Just about everyone I call is on Verizon so it will be saving me a bundle! And we can finally get rid of these crap-ass phones and get some cool flip phones! I think we are the only people on the planet at this point without flip phones. And I want a camera/video phone...that will come in handy at Mardi Gras!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Cripes

I think my contact lenses are frozen to my eyeballs.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 09:27 AM | Comments (0)

-2

The temperature right now is -2. It must be much much lower with the wind chill factored in . The wind has been so strong its kept me up half the night, sounds like our roof is going to blow off. Of course as I lay in bed listening to the wind, I am thinking about the poor stray cats that live under the field house. I've tried so hard to catch them and now it breaks my heart that they are out in this. Even worse, near Williamsport, a 9 year old boy has been missing since Saturday. I cant even imagine what his parents are going thru. Which is worse, your child possibly being kidnapped or out lost in weather like this? 

All the schools have a 2 hour delay, except my University. I guess since the kids are gone home for break now they don't care that the employees have to go scrape 3 inches of ice of our windshields in order to get to work. I do have alot to do today. Grades are due in by 4:30 and I think I have some interviews today for the new position. Ok, time to hit the shower and wake up...

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 06:59 AM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2004

First Snow

We had our first snow of the season today. Probably not even an inch but the roads got very icy and since the snow itself was so minimal, the salt/plow trucks havent gone out. Add to that that its going down to 20 below zero tonight with the w 1400 ind  chill, the roads are just a sheet of ice. Its currently 11 degrees. Brrr. Even my dogs dont want to go out. I wanted to take a few pictures of the snow on the bushes with the christmas lights but its just to freakin' cold.

I'm not a big fan of winter. I like snow at Christmas time .It doesnt feel like Christmas to me if there isnt any snow. But after that, I wish it would all melt and go back to the 60 degree weather. I hate the bitter cold. I hate shoveling. I hate scraping car windows. I hate January and February, two very long cold months. I can see lots of venting ahead in the next few months.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)

Swiffer My Saviour

I finally got around to cleaning a bit last night. I tackled the kitchen, washed all the dishes and cleaned out the fridge. Then I decided to wash the floors. We have white ceramic tile floor throughout most of our downstairs and by this point it was grey. It was just gross.Grody.Filth. So first I vacuumed it to get up the dog hair and loose dirt. Then, I went thru an ENTIRE pack of Swiffer Wet Jet pads to clean two rooms! It was sooo dirty! But today its all shiny and clean and we can again walk barefoot in the house.

Our priest told a cute joke in church today....

George and Laura Bush were visiting Russia and were having lunch with The Russian Ambassador to the US, Rudolph and his wife Wilma. The were sitting in a restaurant overlooking a beautiful lake. George looked outside and noticed that it was snowing and he commented on it. But Rudolph replied "No, George, that isn't snow, its rain."

George looked again and insisted that it was indeed snow. Rudolph again disagreed stating more emphatically that it was rain, not snow. But George persisted until he was nudged by Laura who said "George, Rudolph the Red knows rain dear."

Ha. I guess I should get off the computer and do something. I need to go to the store and do some laundry and Alias is really calling me. And I need to figure out what the hell is wrong with my own computer. (I'm using Jimmy's)...I cant get an Internet connection on it. Its really pissing me off. I uninstalled and reinstalled the net card thing, Ive scanned, defraged, virus scanned, deleted cookies.....every maintenance thing I could think of...But it just wont connect.....

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2004

Maybe I Should Just Get Up Already

And I have insomnia once again. When I get stressed  or excited, I get insomnia. Some people eat, some people get drunk, I get insomnia.  I have no problems actually falling asleep, it's staying asleep. I usually wake up with all kinds of thoughts running thru my head about things I need to do or upcoming events. Lately its been Christmas shopping, paying for our Mardi Gras trip and most recently CLEANING MY FRIGGIN HOUSE!!!!

You see, we just had a new furnace installed, and that saga could be an entry in and of itself. But take a week of workmen traipsing thru your house, up and down the the dirt floor basement, using all kinds of nifty power tools, sawing and cutting and welding, lugging new parts in and old ones out and it really creates a mess. There is a layer of dust on just about everything in my downstairs. My kitchen is a disaster . We went 2 days with NO heat at all so I was reluctant to wash dishes or laundry so now both are piled up pretty high.

Then, I had to keep the dogs, AKA "BUMPUSES" locked in my bedroom so they didn't eat any of the plumbers. So now everything in my bedroom is covered with doghair. Normally I don't allow them in the bedroom, I try to keep it a dog hair free zone so we can get dressed without having to lint brush off for 20 minutes before leaving the house. And I generally like to climb into bed at night and not end up with a mouth full of dog hair whe 1400 n I pull up the covers. So I can't wait to strip the bed, wash EVERYTHING and vacuum for about 3 hours.

And I don't even want to talk about the bathroom. Why is it that men can never hit the toilet when they pee??? Why do I have to clean my bathroom every day or be faced with piss on the back of the toilet, on the floor  and rugs around the toilet and the toilet seat? Huh? Someone explain that to me? I live with 3 boys and I HATE sharing a bathroom with them! They are pigs! I keep clorox wipes on the back of the toilet and constantly remind them to USE them to wipe up after they are done, but apparently they dont beleive they are missing the toilet bowl. I even bought this thing called a "Stink Finder". I actually bought it because one of my cats decided she didn't like the litter box anymore and was pissing on the dirt floor in the basement and I needed to find out where so I could sanitize it and get rid of the cat piss smell in my basement (Is there any worse smell in the WORLD than cat piss???) It actually worked! Its this little black light thingy that makes urine, feces and other bodily fluids glow. Its pretty cool . So on a whim I took it into  the bathroom and nearly vomited. Piss everywhere...sprays on the shower curtian even! I took everything out, scrubbed it, bought a new shower curtain and bath rugs....but not before I showed the boys the evidence. Apparently its still too much of an effort to piss in the toilet though. I can't wait to scrub that bathroom again today.

It's hard work keeping up after a family of 4 and 6 animals. I work outside the home all week and when we get home at night we are so busy with homework, dinner, showers, etc I don't have much time for cleaning..tidying up sure, but not cleaning. I am a bit of a clean freak, I have different products for everything and I get really annoyed when someone cleans something with the wrong product. So generally everyone is too afraid to clean or face my wrath.But seriously, who would even think its appropriate to use Mr. Clean on the carpet???? When there is a perfectly good bottle of rug shampoo sitting right next to the Mr. Clean.  I love nothing better than giving the house a good cleaning and then setteling in at night to relax, knowing all is well. I do get stressed when my house isn't clean. Not that i'ts ever filth, but it does need to be vacuumed and dusted alot. And Mike has this defect, for some reason he is unable to lift the lid of the hamper. So his dirty clothes will be found on top, behind and all around it. Is the hamper lid that heavy? Am I abnormally strong that I can lift it? He lifts weights every day, the wicker hamper lid shouldnt really be a problem.

But most of the mess does come from the animals. When we got married we only wanted one dog. And we had one, the best dog ever....but she was killed when she ran off the porch into traffic. Since then we have overcompensated for that loss by accumulating pets like most people accumulate what? Cd's? We swear after these pets have crossed The Bridge, no more pets. Well, maybe just one cat. And one small dog.

Well, the sun is up now, I guess I can start my day. It's going to be a busy one. Before I can tackle my cleaning I have to go to Connors basketball game, then a haircut. Time to get movin'!

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 06:15 AM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2004

Testing

So it was one of my goals for the new year to start a blog. I love reading other peoples and I certainly have enough free time and plenty of things to blab about. Whether or not anyone else finds them interesting enough to actually read is another story. Reading others blogs fulfills that voyeristic need I have. Same as walking around town and peeking into  peoples open doors and windows, getting glimpses of their lives.

I've been looking around at various blog sites and this one seemed relativley easy to use and  I can upload some pics..... which is one of the reasons I wanted to do this in the first place... to have a place to show some pics of the many concerts and vacations and events I attend. I toyed around with making a website but I just dont have the skills.... and I know that there are people out there who would gladly assist me, but  if I go with something thats too much work to keep up, I'll just abandon it.

Thats pretty much the story of my life. I decide I'm interested in something and get all gung ho about it, jump in with both feet and then either get bored, or decide its too much work. So I'm going to give this a try. I cant promise I will update very often or that  it will ever be very interesting. I'm certianly not going to post any of the juicy details of my life for everyone to read! You'll have to wait for the mini series for that.

Posted by dolphnlvr6 at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)