Christmas

First of all, I want to say that today is Cody's birthday. He turns 2 years old today. :)

Christmas was good. Our drive to Indiana went well. We ran into some heavy rain for about an hour, but other than that, no problems. We got there about 3:30 AM. It took about 10.5 hours. Not bad. There was snow on the ground when we got to my parent's house. It was covered with ice though, so we couldn't actually play in it. The next day there was an ice storm. Lots of accidents. My parents took us shopping and out to dinner at my favorite restaurant (the day after Christmas).

We went to see 2 movies. Yes Man and Seven Pounds. Both were pretty good. Other than that, we pretty much just lounged around. It was relaxing.

We opened one present when we arrived very early Christmas morning. Then we went to sleep for a few hours and then got up and opened presents. I got the Twilight Saga collector's edition box set, Edgar Sawtelle, and a beautiful, huge purple vase from Joe. I got a bunch of movies, books, candy (as if we need any... I still have the candy from Halloween!), games, and a Roku Netflix player from my parents and my sister. Joe got a toothbrush sanitizer, bongos, a rain stick (musical instrument), movies, candy, and a beard trimmer from my parents and sister. I got him the Absolute Batman Hush book, a tea infuser with loose tea (he's been on a tea kick lately and he thinks that the loose tea with the infuser is better than the bags), and a handheld sudoku game for his traveling (he likes to do Sudoku while on planes and while he's waiting).

While we were at my parents we also played Trivial Pursuit and Mad Gab. Trivial Pursuit or at least the edition we played, is much harder than I remember. They were a lot of really obscure questions! I had never played Mad Gab but it was a lot of fun. My mom is insanely good at it!

We had a good time, but it's good to be home. We sleep in the spare bedroom there and it's just a full size bed so it's smaller than we're used to and also, my parents keep their house a lot hotter than we keep ours so it was hard for us to sleep. My parents heat their house with a wood burning stove, so the air is really dry. I got laryngitis. I still can't really talk. I'm just glad that it's all I got. I haven't been sick in over two years. However, I forgot my vitamins and my parents don't drink much juice (no vitamin C) and I wasn't eating very well because my parents don't have a whole lot of vegetarian food on hand (they normally stock up when they know I'm coming, but it was a surprise, so no food for me!). And all of that combined with the dry air, my defenses were down. My nose and mouth were dried out so there was nothing to stop the cooties from coming in and then I wasn't taking very good care of myself, so my body didn't fight it well. I'm already getting better though, so I don't think it's going to go anywhere other than my throat. It didn't make it to my nose or my chest. Isn't that weird? I'm still going to insist that because I didn't get any worse than what I did, it's because I'm not poisoning my body with meat. :)

Well, it's back to work today. It's quiet though. We have the day off on Thursday for the New Year. Joe said we might only work a half day on Wednesday or have the day off on Friday if it stays slow. Unfortunately, we won't get paid for that, but a day off is a day off! And the way it's looking so far today (only one phone call all morning), we are likely going to have a day off. :)

Pet Peeve + Christmas

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people are hipocrites. It drives me nuts. With MySpace and Facebook, it's especially easy to spot some of these hipocrites.

Allow me to explain. One person who shall remain nameless has photos up on their MySpace page of them getting wasted, kissing people of the same sex, and doing vulgar/sexually suggestive things. In her interests are listed, "getting wasted," "partying," and "sex, drugs, and rock and roll." Not very many things after this is listed, "and I love my lord and savior Jesus Christ." I come across this sort of thing all the time. Christian references and then references to sinful things. Don't get me wrong, I know that people aren't perfect. It just seems to me that the people with pages like that one aren't even trying. Why would God choose to save people like that and send some of the best people I know straight to hell simply because they didn't believe that Jesus was divine and died for their sins? Does this make any damn sense to anyone? Why would God be so ridiculous? I could never believe in that God. But, I am a Unitarian, so I don't believe that Jesus was divine. And, if I did believe in heaven or hell (which I don't), I would certainly be a Universalist... God would send all of God's creations to eternal bliss, not eternal damnation. But, who am I? Nobody. I just would like to think that God would save good people before God would save people for simply believing that Jesus was divine and died for their sins. Anyone can say that they believe, but how many of those people live as if they care about those beliefs?

Okay... I'm tired of rambling on about that. I have good news. Joe and I are leaving for Indiana tomorrow. :) We are going to Joe's doctor's appointment tomorrow morning (he's having a wart on the bottom of his foot removed), and then we're going to his Uncle Joe's house for Christmas dinner (they always have it on Christmas Eve). And then, as soon as we're finished there, we're going home, packing up all the boys in the car, and headed to Indiana. :) Unfortunately, tomorrow is probably not going to be the best day for driving. There is supposed to be rain during the day, and then snow that night. Which means ice covered by snow. I'm hoping like crazy that they have plenty of salt and plow trucks out so that we don't have to worry about accidents along the way. :S

My mom and dad have no idea! I'm so excited. My mom tried to send all of mine and Joe's presents to us yesterday. My sister and I planned for it and she intercepted the package. It's now in hiding in my sister's closet! :) Tonya (my sister) had to give her a phony tracking number. She's wondering why it isn't working, but the lady who did the shipment told her that it's probably because there are so many shipments going out right now for the holidays (it's one of my mom's coworkers who is in charge of shipping -- she's in on it as well). I was worried that my mom would end up finding out and then ruin the surprise, but so far, so good. :) I think we're actually going to pull this off! And I owe my sister big for jumping through all sorts of hoops and such to make sure that we can do this surprise!

My mom is upset because this will be the first Christmas that we haven't spent together. Well, I can't wait to see her face when she realizes that it won't be the case! She's going to cry... she has cried for much less. It's going to be awesome! :)

Wish us luck!

War on Christmas gets personal

I blogged a week or so ago about the supposed "War on Christmas." Well, I get especially irritated about it because a cousin of mine bombards me with forwarded emails about it (along with other conservative agenda emails... during the election it was anti-obama emails). I've asked her nicely repeatedly to stop sending me these "War on Christmas" emails and I've tried to explain to her nicely about why I don't want them. Well, she continues to send them. Yesterday I had finally got sick of it (maybe because I got 4 emails on the subject from her yesterday). The email she sent that I chose to respond to wasn't particularly aggressive or mean. It's by far not the worst one I've gotten from her on the subject, but I finally decided that I had had enough. So, I sent her my final email.

She sent me the following:

I will be making a conscious effort to wish everyone a Merry Christmas .. My way of saying that I am celebrating the birth Of Jesus Christ. So I am asking my email buddies, if you agree with me, to please do the same. And if you'll pass this on to your email buddies, and so on... maybe we can prevent one more American tradition from being lost in the sea of "Political Correctness".

I sent her back the following:

I am a Christian. I say Happy Holidays. When I say it, I'm not saying it out of disrespect for Jesus Christ. I am saying it out of respect for people of other faiths. I have friends who are Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Taoist, and atheist. Many of them celebrate holidays this month other than the one that I celebrate. Below is a list of holidays which are celebrated in this month.

Advent: four weeks prior to Christmas.

Saint Nicholas' Day: December 6

Bodhi Day: December 8

Eid ul-Adha: Starting on the 10th of Dhul Hijja (December 8, 2008)

Winter Solstice: December 21-December 22

Hanukkah: Starting on 25 Kislev (December 22, 2008)

HumanLight: December 23

Christmas Eve: December 24

Christmas: December 25

Signature of the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan): December 25

Boxing Day: December 26

Saint Stephen's Day: December 26

Kwanzaa: December 26 - January 1

Saint John the Evangelist's Day: December 27

Holy Innocents' Day: December 28

Saint Sylvester's Day: December 31

Watch Night: December 31

New Year's Eve: December 31

Hogmanay: Night of December 31 - Before dawn of January 1

New Year's Day: January 1

As you can see, some of them are Christian, and some of them are not. So, I choose to say Happy Holidays because I don't presume to think that everyone that I come across is Christian. If there were no other holidays in December, then it would make sense to be offended by the saying "Happy Holidays." However, Christmas is not the only holiday. Therefore, even though you claim to be being persecuted by the saying "Happy Holidays," I think it would be more fair to say that you are persecuting those who do not celebrate Christmas by refusing to accept that Christmas is not the only holiday of the month.

And furthermore, Christmas is not an "American tradition." Christmas is a Christian tradition. America is not a Christian nation. It is a nation unassociated with any religion. There is no American religion. In the United States, we have freedom of religion [You might try to argue that that is what our founding fathers intended, but you would be wrong... a lot of our founding fathers were not Christian (and those that were still insisted on a separation between church and state), therefore it wouldn't make sense that they would want a Christian nation http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html]. While Christians may make up a majority of the population, there are still over 20% of Americans who are not Christian. And Christians have no right to persecute those who are not a part of the majority.

So, instead of pretending that there is some sort of war on Christianity or Christmas, how about doing the Christian thing and being loving and respectful of our neighbors? It's not "Political Correctness." It's being kind and showing respect, instead of being uppity and pretending that Christmas is the only holiday in this season.

While this email may not change your mind about the Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays issue, I would appreciate if you would take me off of your list if you're going to be sending out more emails such as these.

Thank you.

I'm not sure that Dr. Fuller would be proud of me since this email does not exhibit perfect psychic space, but I am proud of myself for being assertive. :)

Life Update + My Love for my Dogs

My inhaler is apparently working. I had to use it several times in the first few days. However, I haven't used it since Saturday, and I seem to be doing fine. :) So, that is great news. I think I'm going to cancel the follow-up doctor's appointment that I had scheduled for January 2. I'm not interested in going to see the NP who doesn't read when I'm feeling better. She doesn't know what's wrong anyway. I have 2 refills for the inhaler and the inhaler will last me 100 times. At this rate, the inhaler will last 6 months! :)

Joe and I tried to get all of the dogs together to do a Christmas picture to send out with our Christmas cards. I set the timer on my camera and we posed in front of the Christmas tree. It never failed that at least one of the dogs would lay down or look somewhere other than the camera at the last second. So, that didn't work out. Finally our patience wore thin and we gave up on that. We may try again, but our days are numbered before the Christmas cards have to be sent out.

I've been making cookies and fudge and other delicious but bad for you treats. I'm stuffing tins full of goodies to give to people. It's a very slow process. :( And, I keep eating what I've made and then I have to make more. haha... that's not so bad, though. :)

Cody attacked Jippy on Monday. I was a mess. First of all, Cody has never attacked any of the dogs. He is as sweet as can be. Jippy irritates the other dogs, and it's likely that he started the fight (he bites the other dogs and jumps on them when they don't want to play -- he's not vicious... just annoying). Daly has attacked him before, but I thought we had it under control. The dogs know that they aren't allowed to fight (unless they're playing -- It's easy to tell the difference). Cody is especially not allowed to be aggressive because he's so big. He could easily hurt any dog he decided to turn against. It's never been a problem before.

I was walking down the stairs getting ready for work when I heard them fighting outside. I assumed that it was Jippy and Daly. It hasn't happened for a while, but they're the only ones we had ever had a problem with. I ran down the stairs and out the door. Well, as I got to the door, I realized that Cody was on top of Jippy biting him. I started screaming at Cody and I shoved him off as I got out the door. Cody stopped as soon as he heard me, but I still wanted them separated. Jippy was shaking. I haven't really spanked Cody since he was a puppy. There hasn't really been a need. I occasionally slap him on his butt when he's doing something he knows he shouldn't be, but never hard. It's just a little tap. It's just the fact that I have slapped him that upsets him and he knows that he has to stop. It breaks my heart to do that because he gives me the sad puppy look.

Well, this time, I was so upset that I really spanked him. Hard. I don't know if it hurt him or not, but I know I hit him hard. Several times. He gave me the sad puppy face and that just made me cry (I was on the verge before because I was so upset, but that sent me over). Joe took Cody and put him in a crate in the garage while I comforted Jippy. He shook all over. So did I. When I calmed Jippy and Daly down (she got upset over all of the commotion), I went into the garage and talked to Cody. I know, some people think I'm crazy for talking to my dogs, but I swear that they understand most of the time. Cody was upset. He doesn't have a crate. Only Jippy, Daly, and Jack have crates. So, he wasn't used to having to be in a crate. I yelled at him and cried and he was sad. I calmed down and told him that he wasn't allowed to attack his brothers. Then Joe and I went to work. I was crying for part of the ride into work. Cody stayed in the crate all day while we were at work.

It's really upsetting to me. For so many reasons. The dogs are not allowed to attack each other, for one. And then, it was Cody. Cody is the one I least expect it from. I've not had any problems out of him. He's not an aggressive dog. He occasionally growls at strange dogs, but he's never attacked any of them (without provocation -- there was a greyhound who attacked Jack and so Cody bit that dog, but I don't count that... that's in his job description). He's always incredibly patient with the other dogs, even when they are incredibly annoying. I expect better of Cody. I love all of the dogs equally, but I love them all for different reasons. Jack is sweet and cute. Jippy is dumb but adorable. Daly is my eager little girl. Cody is my amazingly loyal and smart and just plain good dog. It's not that I love Cody more, it's just that there is no argument that he is the best dog we have. I don't know if that makes sense. He does what he is told. He always behaves himself. We never have any problems out of him. He's the one you can really trust to not let you down. So, I was in shock and so disappointed that he would do such a thing. And on top of it all, Cody is incredibly strong and so much bigger than the other dogs. He weighs about 80 pounds. He has huge teeth. He could seriously hurt or kill one of the other dogs very easily. I hadn't ever thought twice about it before because it's never been an issue. Now it's in the back of my mind eating away at me. If I think that Cody can't be trusted with the other dogs, other arrangements will have to be made. Arrangements that won't make any of us very happy.

Cody is the only un-neutered dog we have. If this happens again, Cody will be getting neutered, no matter what Joe wants or doesn't want. And I don't want to think about what will have to happen if that didn't help.

I'm sure Cody doing that is just like how my mom felt when I skipped school in high school. She was so disappointed in me. She wouldn't speak to me for weeks. I had always been the good daughter. I never did anything wrong and I got straight As. I'm sure she was shocked. It makes me laugh to think of it that way.

I want to go back to how I don't actually love Cody more than the other dogs, because I'm not sure that it made sense... I mean, why wouldn't I love the "good" dog more than the other dogs? I want to try to explain how it's possible. I love Cody for all the reasons that he is a good dog. He protects me when Joe is not home. He is loyal. He knows lots of tricks. He's eager to please. He's just a good dog.

Jack isn't always perfect. He doesn't always listen (even though he is also a very good dog). However, he's got a different personality. He comes across as human a lot of times. He's stubborn, but sweet as can be. And, he always wants to be with me. So, even though some people wouldn't think of him as as good of a dog as Cody, I love Jack just the same for all of his cute imperfections and all of his human characteristics.

Jippy is the least trained dog we have. He is not smart. He doesn't understand what you're trying to get him to do a lot of the time and when he gets confused, he rolls over on his back and pees on himself (it's called submissive wetting). It irritates Joe. While most people wouldn't see how I could love Jippy as much as Cody or Jack, I do. He needs me to understand him. He tries so very hard to please me. It's easy to see that he doesn't want to upset me. He loves me very much and anyone can see that. It's hard for him to understand, but he still tries. And I love him so very much for it. He has to try much harder than the other dogs. And that means a lot.

Daly was the hardest for me to get attached to. But now, I love her all the same as the other dogs. She is lazy. She is not as smart as Cody or Jack, but she is still smarter than Jippy. As she's becoming an adult (she turned 1 on Friday), she's getting even better. She tries to please. And she's very affectionate. She loves to give kisses. And she's learning lots of new tricks. She loves to be near me. It's easy to see how much she loves me. She's very loyal. She wants to be near me when the other dogs are playing (even though she wants to play as well). She fights it. She runs back and forth between playing and coming back to love on me. It's cute. I know that she loves me as she loves her brothers. And she brings out goodness in her brothers. She can get them to play so easily (when she's not being lazy). She has a lot of goodness in her and anyone can see it.

So, it might not make sense to everyone, but I do love all of my boys dearly and equally. I do not have favorites, although it may seem like it sometimes. I just have different expectations for all of the dogs. But I love them all the same for different reasons. :)

Breathing Update

I went to the doctor yesterday. They have no clue what's wrong with me. She said that my lungs sound fine. My oxygen level was normal. However, my lung strength or whatever you call it is lower than normal. She said that since I wheeze some when I run, I could have a slight form of asthma. She prescribed an inhaler.

I have an appointment to go back in 3 weeks. If the inhaler doesn't work, she's going to try something else. So, basically, she has no idea what is wrong with me and she's just going to prescribe stuff until something works. I hope the inhaler works. I don't have the money to be going on a hunt for what's wrong with me with the doctor! :S

Also, I didn't like this doctor. Well, she was actually a nurse practitioner. I am not against NPs normally. She didn't seem very professional though. And she looked like she might be younger than me! When she came into the room, I was reading something on my Kindle. She asked what it was and when I told her she said, "Well, I don't read." I'm sure my jaw dropped. Don't you have to do a lot of reading to get through medical school/nursing school??? So, that scared me some.

Also, she wants to treat me for acid reflux if the inhaler doesn't work. I told her that I don't have acid reflux anymore. But, she insisted that acid reflux was one cause of shortness of breath. I think that she's crazy. If I don't have it, how can it be causing problems??!?

Also, if the inhaler doesn't work, she wants to do chest x-rays to make sure everything looks okay in my lungs. $$$ And if she can't figure out what's wrong with me, she's going to send me to a specialist in the same practice as her. Why didn't she just send me there to begin with?! Oh, well. Just hope/pray that this inhaler works!

The "War" on Christmas

This is absolutely ridiculous. People who believe in this crap just piss me off.

I celebrate Christmas. I don't get upset when people tell me "Merry Christmas," "Happy Holidays," or "Season's Greetings." To me, it makes no difference. I celebrate Christmas, so I don't get upset when people tell me "Merry Christmas." It's a seasonal holiday so I don't get upset when people tell me the other two either.

What really pisses me off is when people who celebrate Christmas get upset by other people telling them "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings."

Christians are not the only people in the world. There are lots of other holidays in December, so why should Christians get to be the only ones recognized??? That makes no sense. So, I get pissed off at the Christian conservatives who tell me that I am attacking Christianity and Christmas by saying "Happy Holidays." They say that I am persecuting them. That is F*@#ing ridiculous. Just because I am accepting that other people may not believe as I do (and I don't even believe as most Christians do... I just celebrate the holiday as a day of thanks to what Jesus represents...), does not mean that I am being hateful of Christians. It means that I am accepting of those of us who do not celebrate Christmas.

I mean, come on. Christianity may have a hold on the U.S., but Hanukah is at least widely recognized as a December holiday. So, who is actually being persecuted here?? The Christians?? I think not. I think that the fact that the conservative Christians are making such a big deal out of this proves that they are persecuting everyone who is not Christian. If everyone were completely ignorant of other holidays taking place during December (or if there were no other holidays), it would make sense that people would be offended by "Happy Holidays," because there would only be ONE holiday in the month. However, there are lots of holidays and people have to at least know about one or two of them. So, it's inexcusable. And it pisses me off.

It makes me want to say "Happy Holidays" every time. I usually wait for someone to greet me. And if they use "Merry Christmas" then I usually say "Merry Christmas." After all, if they just assumed that I celebrate Christmas, then I don't feel bad assuming the same about them. If people raise a stink over it though, I want to stomp on their faces while screaming "Happy Holidays." Or maybe singing the Hanukah song. That would be nice. :)

Anyway, for those of you who still aren't convinced that Christmas isn't the only holiday this month, I've put together a list. Here it is:

Advent: four weeks prior to Christmas.

Saint Nicholas' Day: December 6
Bodhi Day: December 8

Eid ul-Adha: Starting on the 10th of Dhul Hijja (December 8, 2008)

Winter Solstice: December 21-December 22

Hanukkah: Starting on 25 Kislev (December 22, 2008)

HumanLight: (December 23)

Christmas Eve: December 24
Christmas: December 25

Signature of the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan) : December 25

Boxing Day: (December 26)

Saint Stephen's Day: December 26

Kwanzaa: (December 26 - January 1)
Saint John the Evangelist's Day: December 27
Holy Innocents' Day: December 28
Saint Sylvester's Day: December 31
Watch Night: December 31

New Year's Eve: (December 31)

Hogmanay: (Night of December 31 - Before dawn of January 1)

New Year's Day: (January 1)

So, there, all of you damn conservative Christians! You don't have a monopoly on the holidays. So hold your tongues. Or I'll give you a slap in the face with words. lol :)

A day I dread...

I have a doctor appointment later today. I dread days like these. I don't know what is wrong with me, therefore, I do not know what they'll have to do to me. And doctors tend to rely on tests to figure out what is wrong with me. And lots of tests use needles. And I hate needles. I have an irrational fear of needles and other sharp objects. Mostly needles. It's called belonephobia. I hyperventilate when someone tries to give me a shot or take blood or anything else involving a needle. This is especially bad considering the reason I am going to the doctor.

I can't breathe. lol... so I'm sure hyperventilating would not help the situation. I have always had difficulty breathing. Those of you who have been around me a lot have probably noticed that I "sigh" regularly. This is me trying to get air because I don't feel that I'm getting enough. It used to be that I only had this probably when I was stressed out. I could just relax and take a few deep breaths and I would be fine. Now, I am not under stress, but I can't breathe. I try to take deep breaths, but I don't feel that it's working. I feel like I'm not getting enough air.

This has been going on for about 2 months now. I've been trying to forget about it, but I finally had a breakdown on Monday night because I was getting stressed out about it (that doesn't help my breathing!). I haven't been sleeping because I haven't been able to breathe. Joe is making me go to the doctor. I don't have insurance, so I have to pay out of pocket, so I was trying to see if it would just go away! It didn't. And now I have an appointment to find out what's wrong with me.

I did some research online. There are several things it could be. The dust in our house while we were remodeling could have triggered asthma. I could be anemic. I may just be insane. :) lol... hopefully I'll find out soon, though. And without needles. :S

News for Today

So, I was glancing at Google News this morning, and the first headline definitely caught my attention.

Jet crashes into home; mother, grandmother, child killed

Is that not insane?? According to CNN, the pilot exited the plane and parachuted safely to the ground, but his plane hit a house and killed 3 people. There is also another child missing. They couldn't find her last night and they're still searching for her today. WTF, man. That is just crazy news to me. Apparently the plane was supposed to be landing on a marine base or something. This news kind of reminds me of Donnie Darko. I'm just waiting for the next headline to be about some crazy effing scary bunny terrorizing people. lol

Also in the news is this:

Deal to Rescue American Automakers Is Moving Ahead

I think it's bull crap. We're just rescuing everybody. Who needs to be be responsible anymore? Just do what you want and then when everything falls down around you for the bad decisions you made, the government will just bail you out. Where is the responsibility and accountability in that? If you're at risk of failing, you should fail or find a way to pull yourself up. It should not be the responsibility of the government or the American people to pull your ass out of the stupid mistakes that you made. It especially pisses me off with the automakers. What happened to supply and demand? Obviously we don't need the cars. Therefore, one of the giants should go under. Then the demand will go back up for the other suppliers. We shouldn't be saving companies that we don't need! If they don't want to go under, they should find another niche! It's ridiculous. If I own my own store and I'm in competition with other stores, when the going gets tough, one of us is probably going under. Whoever that may be, they'll need to find something else to provide to the public, or they'll just be gone. That's the way it should work. Grrr... Yeah, it might suck for the rest of us for a while, but we need to reset for all the stupidity that has taken place. Otherwise we'll never learn a lesson!

Good News, Bad News...

I always like to start with the bad news.

I have always been a fan of Frosted Mini Wheats (the cereal). I recently found out that it has gelatin in it (for those of you who do not know, gelatin is made from crushed up animal bones and ligaments, etc. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin). Some vegetarians choose to still eat gelatin, or at least not go out of their way to avoid it. I am very firm in my vegetarianism. I don't eat anything which required an animal to be killed in order for that item to be made. So, gelatin is out.

I religiously check the ingredients in food to make sure that there is nothing in it that I can't eat. I have no idea how I missed it on the Frosted Mini Wheats ingredients this whole time. I'm guessing that I just thought I had checked it before and then never checked it again. So, I was a bit ill about that when I found out. And, now I will no longer be buying or eating Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats. :(

Also, Joe and I went to this Italian restaurant near where we live. I ordered a vegetarian dish. Several bites in, I thought I got a tiny bit of meat, probably sausage. I spit it out just in case, but I wasn't completely convinced that it was meat, especially since I had already eaten quite a bit and there had been nothing in it. I also didn't want to ruin the meal for Joe. Well, I took a few more bites and sure enough, I bit down on a piece of sausage. I almost threw up. Joe wanted to send it back and get me something else. I didn't want to cause any problems, so I didn't. Maybe I should have. I'm sure that someone just used the wrong spoon or something. I probably would have said something, but I forgot to tell the waitress beforehand that I was vegetarian (As I do quite a bit of the time to make sure there aren't any mistakes). If I would have told her when I ordered, then I would have sent it back and had them take it off of my check. So, that ruined that meal.

More bad news (but this leads to good news!), my parents are officially not coming down for Christmas. They told me that a few weeks ago. I was disappointed, but I am determined to spend Christmas with Joe. And, Joe has a tradition in his family of spending Christmas Eve at his Uncle Joe's house. For those of you that know Joe, you know that he doesn't have a whole lot of family left (that he likes/speaks to) and he certainly doesn't have any other real family traditions. So, I am not about to make him miss his only real tradition. Therefore, I would be spending Christmas with Joe and his family and without my family.

I wasn't moping about it so that Joe wouldn't feel guilty, but he apparently knew that I would be disappointed about it. So, he offered to pack up the boys and go to Indiana with me right after we finish at his Uncle Joe's house on Christmas Eve. That is usually done about 5:00ish, so when we finish there, we will pack the boys into the car and drive to Indiana (roughly 11 hours away). It will be a long night, but I will get to surprise my parents. :) I know that my mom will be especially heartbroken that I couldn't be there for Christmas, so she will be ecstatic when I show up on her porch at 4:00 in the morning on Christmas Day. :) I'm so excited!

Also good news, I re-read Twilight to get the ugly movie images out of my head. It's much better now. I started re-reading New Moon just for the fun of it and then I realized that I don't like the book as much because Edward leaves and Bella is heartbroken. That got me to thinking though... They're making a New Moon movie. The movie should have very little of Robert Pattinson in it. Therefore, the New Moon movie still has a chance of being decent. :) lol... anything to keep my hopes up!

Good News...

Here's some good news for the great state of North Carolina:



Jessica's Law Takes Effect In North Carolina
Sunday, November 30, 2008 – updated: 11:08 pm EST November 30, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Starting Monday, many sex offenders convicted in North Carolina will get longer prison sentences.

Under "Jessica's Law” a person who commits certain sex crimes against a child under the age of 13, must serve at least 25 years in prison.

It's named after Jessica Lundsford. She used to live in Gaston County.

In 2005, the 9-year-old was kidnapped, raped and buried alive by a convicted sex offender in Florida.



Finally. Some justice. Hopefully this will help keep some children safe. So that people who were caught once will hopefully not have a chance to get out and hurt more children. :) Hopefully they'll rot in jail until they're too old to be able to hurt any more children.

A Twilight Disaster...

Ugh. The movie was awful. Absolutely pitiful. I can't believe that so many people have talked about how good it was. It was a disaster.

The script was poor at best. It was like the screenwriter took a chainsaw to the actual book and then went around picking up scraps of it and gluing it to a new piece of paper. A lot of quotations from the book were in the movie, but they weren't in the right places and they sometimes weren't said by the right people. My favorite lines from the book were in the movie, but they were poorly placed and the lines were butchered. Lines that should have been beautiful seemed forced and uncomfortable.

The acting (if you can call it that) was absolutely awful. Robert Pattinson is no Edward. He looked uncomfortable throughout the whole movie. He just seemed scary and stalkerish instead of mysterious and intriguing. And, a lot of the other male actors were way hotter than Edward. James (the villain!) was way hotter. Even his brothers, Emmett and Jasper, were hotter than Edward.

Alice seemed ditzy rather than eccentric.

Jasper seemed constipated the entire movie.

Carlisle looked way too young and kind of creepy looking instead of dreamy.

Jacob looked way too pretty (like a girl). He's supposed to be ruggedly handsome, like Hugh Jackman. Not pretty in the way that Kate Hudson is pretty.

I came to terms with the way that Bella looked. I can deal with that. It wasn't the Bella that I wanted. Even with regard to her acting. I didn't like the way that Bella was portrayed. However, I think that she did the best job she could with the script that was given to her.

If I had to choose a mate from the movie, I totally would have picked Mike Newton. And that is completely inexcusable from the book standpoint. I thought that Michael Welch did an awesome job with Mike though.

The movie. It sucked. It lasted for 2 hours. Nothing really happened. There was no real show of how and why Bella and Edward fell in love.

1. Bella moves to Forks.
2. Edward seems to find her repulsive.
3. He disappears for a week.
4. He comes back and talks to her.
5. He follows her to Port Angeles.
6. They're in love.

That's it. One minute he finds her disgusting, the next minute they're inseparable. There is nothing to show how they feel for each other. They say they're in love, but that's the only way you'd know it. The whole thing is so forced and uncomfortable. It's awful.

There is a scene where Edward and Bella kiss for the first time. It's beautiful in the book (It is dangerous because he thirsts for her blood but he wants to control himself because he cares for her). The scene in the movie was horrible. It was very uncomfortable. People were laughing in the theater because it was so bad.

Also, the fight scene with Edward and James was not very believable. Edward can read James' mind. Therefore, the fight should not have been like that. James shouldn't have been able to hurt Edward at all. Edward can see what James is going to do before he does it. And he's also incredibly fast. This can be seen in Eclipse when Edward fights Victoria. So, that was really discouraging as well.

The movie was very disappointing. It was poorly acted, it had a piss-poor script, the plot was forced, and the special effects were bad. And it didn't do the book justice. :(

Twilight Tonight

Joe and I are going to see Twilight tonight. :)

So far, I've heard bad things from critics, but great things from my friends who have seen it. It's getting my hopes up so I really hope that it is good.

I'm getting excited. Like a giddy teenager. Just a few years older... lol

I hope that all of my hopes and dreams aren't smashed. I didn't like any of the trailers and I liked very few of the actors that they cast for the parts. So, before, I wasn't really looking for the movie to be good. Now, people have told me how amazing and wonderful the movie is, so I'm hoping that it lives up to the hype. :S

Wish me luck.

lol... luck. On watching a movie. Sounds silly. I just don't want to be heartbroken about how pitiful this movie is.

What I'm Thankful For...

1. My wonderful family: Joe, Jack, Cody, Jippy, & Daly. My babies are smart and sweet and beautiful.
2. My fantastic friends.
3. My healed relationships with my parents and sister.
4. A house not in Crackton.
5. Four-Day weekends :)
6. A degree in Religion & Philosophy (I can't believe I finished in May... It seems so long ago now).
7. Mario Kart. It's amazing how much fun it can be. Especially with cool people.
8. Black Bean Soup. It's just so incredibly comforting and delicious. :)
9. Good books... like the Twilight Saga and White Oleander. You just can't beat curling up with a good book.
10. Rain. It rained yesterday. I missed that a lot during the drought (technically a lot of NC is still in a drought -- Shelby is still in a Severe drought, Salisbury is in a Moderate drought, and Charlotte is still "Abnormally Dry", but there are now only 6 counties in an "Exceptional Drought" and only 8 counties in the slightly less bad "Extreme Drought." See the link for more info.).
11. Autumn. There actually was a fall in North Carolina this year. It was beautiful. Oh, how I have missed the change in seasons. Indiana always changes dramatically and I missed that in NC. I didn't have to miss it this year! :)
12. Hope. In many things. A hopeful change in direction for the way our country is headed. A possibility of snow in Shelby, North Carolina. :) A house in a nice neighborhood. A lot of things.
13. Having tickets to South Korea to see a couple of amazingly awesome people.
14. A job. Not my dream job. Not an exciting job. But, a job. That pays pretty well. And that is something that no everyone has. Especially with the way the world is right now.
15. A clean conscience (vegetarian since August 20, 2007). I can look animals in the eye without the guilt of knowing that their kin had to die for my dinner. :)
16. Netflix. It is so awesome that I can watch movies and tv shows online. It makes me happy.
17. Good television. Mostly The Big Bang Theory and Heroes. They keep me entertained on Monday nights while Joe is gone to his basketball game. :) And to go along with this, Sylar... Wonderful character. You have to love the bad guy who has the potential for something good. Keeps me on the edge of my seat. And I would totally date any of the guys from Big Bang. They are awesome! lol

And so much more... I am just thankful for the here and now. :) It's wonderful.

Wonderful weekend...

My weekend was wonderful. Joe said that it was probably his best birthday ever. Saturday morning, Jon and Aileen called him from Korea. He was so excited. He kept telling everyone about it. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. Philip was the only person to arrive on time. Everyone else arrived at about 4:00.

We went to play Ultimate Frisbee at the park in the cold. It was only about 40 degrees. It burned our lungs, but once we started running around, our bodies didn't feel quite so cold. Joe had a great time.

Then we came home and hung out. Philip got Joe a Wii game where you fight people with light sabers, so they did that while I finished dinner. They played Epic Duels as well. I made vegetarian lasagna and my ravioli from scratch. It was really good.

Then we played Mario Kart for a while (Joe loves doing Mario Kart competitions) and those of us who weren't a part of the current race, smoked the hookah. It was fantastic. We had banana split shishah first and then we did mint chocolate (my favorite). Dan and I won the Mario Kart competition despite it being Dan's first time playing. :) Later on, we played Cranium Wow. It was girl's versus boys (Kelli and I versus Joe, Nate, and Philip). Later, Haney joined the girls team. lol :) The girls won. As usual.

At 8:30, pizzas arrived from Papa John’s. They were Jon & Aileen’s present to Joe. So, pizzas from South Korea. ;) Joe was thrilled about that as well. Late that night (or early the next morning) we went to Denny’s. Haney started getting sick despite the fact that he hadn't drank anything. We went to bed about 3:30. I woke to the sounds of vomiting not much later. Poor Haney. We got up at 11:00ish the next day. Then we played more Mario Kart and goofed off some more. They were getting ready to go when I realized that we hadn't touched either of the 2 cakes I made. (haha... only us). So, they ate some cake and then went on their merry way. They left about 4:30. I spent Sunday doing some cleaning. The house was a disaster! Lol

Then, last night, Joe and I watched Closer and ate black bean soup. And I didn’t want to get up this morning even though we went to bed at a decent hour. I couldn’t fall asleep.

Joe loved his presents. He got a harmonica, a lap harp, wooden spoons, a guitar (from me), the Wii game and the light sabers, and a bunch of guitar picks and other accessories. And he is awaiting his musical presents from my mom: a tambourine and maracas. If you can't tell, we went with a musical theme. Joe has a "Music Room" in our new house. However, we didn't have anything musical to put in it. So, now he has plenty of stuff to put in it! :)

Could it be????

Are we actually finished??!?!

No, not really. Hahah! Fooled you. :)

To be fair, we are pretty much finished. For real this time. I have to mop and put the new door handles on the bedroom and the music room. That would have been all there was left to do, but Paul Kitchen screwed up in a way we didn't even realize. There were 2 doors leading into the kitchen. One from the foyer and one from the dining room. Well, we wanted them taken off so that there would be more room and so it would be more open. He told us that he would haul them off for us. Tuesday night we realized that we still hadn't put on the door for the half bathroom. I went to the garage to find it. It doesn't exist. However, there is still one door left in the garage. One from the kitchen. Paul hauled off one kitchen door and one bathroom door instead of 2 kitchen doors. Unfortunately, the kitchen door was much bigger than our bathroom door, so it doesn't fit. So, we have to get another door and have it installed. Zach will be coming tonight to get a check, so we'll probably see if he can do it for us. Hopefully he can.

After that, we will be finished. :) Finally.

Saturday is Joe's 27th birthday. I had a really awesome idea for his birthday present, but I ran out of money and time. lol... I had to buy a bunch of stuff for the house and it took up all of my paycheck from last week (well, most of it... the rest went for my monthly charitable donations and my Netflix subscription which come out of my account the middle of the month). So, I have to wait until I get paid tomorrow to buy Joe's present.

And! Twilight comes out at midnight tonight. I wish I could be like the giddy teenagers lining up to see the midnight showing. But, alas, I already missed 1.5 days of work this week for house-related reasons, so I can't be late and or mentally gone tomorrow. So, I will either see it tomorrow night, or I will wait until Sunday afternoon to see it. Either way, I am going to see it this weekend! :)

The good, the bad, and the ugly of my weekend...

Joe and I got a lot accomplished. The house is relatively clean and organized finally. However, the wall that I was supposed to be repairing in the kitchen just will not work.

The cabinet people tore off some laminate that was the back-splash before. We were leaving it on the wall because it was glued on and the wall was damaged behind it. Well, of course, the people we hired can't do anything on their own, but when we want them to leave something alone, they don't ask and just do it themselves. They can't turn on a light because they didn't ask, but they can ruin the wall in my kitchen without asking. Their excuse for tearing it off? "We thought you wanted it torn off." Did we ever tell them that? No. Was there any reason for them to think we wanted it torn off? No. They're just stupid. And I better be getting a damn discount because now I have to have new wood or laminate put up there. I tried and tried to sand the glue off of the wall. I even bought an electric sander to try to sand it down. Nothing. I got a chisel and hammer. That worked-ish. It damaged the wall as much as it got the glue off. Zach is coming in to put in the new whatever hopefully today or tomorrow. It shouldn't be too expensive, but I know where I'll be sending that damn bill.

I thought that the countertops looked lighter than what they were supposed to. I figured that it was just because they looked different when there was a lot more of it together. Well, I found the sample in a box this weekend. It is definitely darker than what they put down for us. And that pisses me off. Can't these people get anything right?

At least we are just about finished. I'm done with all of this stupid crap even if it doesn't look right in the end. This has been absolutely ridiculous.

We paid a lot of money for tile that isn't right (the floors aren't even and the grout lines don't line up and it took FOREVER). We paid a lot of money for countertops that aren't right. We paid a lot of money for plumbing that isn't right. We paid a lot of money for electrical that isn't right (we paid Paul Kitchen to put in a vent fan in our bathroom. It doesn't work).

If I ever think about hiring someone to do remodeling work for me, someone please just knock the ever-loving shit out of me. I deserve it. I should NEVER forget this hellish experience.

Strange News from Around the World...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jcOvvtsmfNmImgbi_kq5WYoe6cSAD94E3F380

Austria -- Has anyone heard about this? It's absolutely disgusting. Definitely check out the link. It's so incredibly disturbing. I can't imagine. None of these children is ever going to recover from this. What makes people do this? What happened to this man to make him think that this was a swell idea?? I just don't understand.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jcOvvtsmfNmImgbi_kq5WYoe6cSAD94E3F380

Nebraska -- This is not okay. Joe doesn't like it when I make black bean soup often (I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and never get sick of it). However, if he ever tries to wack me with a pot for making it, he will lose a testicle over it. :)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081112/od_nm/us_fat

Canada -- Well, if you're too damn fat to be comfortable in prison, maybe you should just have to deal with it. Lose some weight. Or don't do illegal things to get you put in jail if you know that you're too fat to fit on a prison bed. This is ridiculous. If you don't want to have to stay in jail, just become obese! It's a get out of jail free card! Then you can get out and start your life of crime all over again!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081111/od_nm/us_crime

Beijing -- I support this man. If your relatives are criminals, definitely arrest them. They're standing against everything that you stand for. They have to go! It's one of the many reasons that I didn't go into law enforcement. Sending my redneck relatives to prison would probably put a damper on holiday get-togethers. :S

Some Random News

I got some more painting done in the kitchen. I have to fix the walls before I can do any more painting. We got more stuff organized and unpacked. The house looks like a home. :)

I am tired. I just want to go back to bed, curl up into a ball, and fall asleep for a few more hours. It would be so nice! I plan to do some sleeping in on Saturday. I haven't really been able to do that for a while. It will be fabulous!

I need to find new chairs for our dining room table. The ones we have are not good. In fact, I would go as far as to say they are bad chairs. Ugly. Bad, bad, bad. And in our nice new house, bad chairs are especially bad. So, I want to replace them.

My mom just finished the Twilight Saga. She really liked it as well. She's probably not nearly as obsessed as I am though. I downloaded the Twilight Movie Companion book last night to my kindle. I haven't started reading it yet though. I had too much to do. I was going to read a little before I fell asleep, but my kindle was going dead and I wasn't sure where my charger was. I need to find it. Joe and I will be going to see the movie on November 21. It's the day before Joe's birthday.

Speaking of Joe's birthday, I will be having a party for Joe. Nothing huge. He doesn't like big surprises and he doesn't like for all of the attention to be on him. So, we are going to play ultimate frisbee, eat dinner, hang out, play some games, maybe play the wii, and smoke the hookah. It should be a good time. So long as all of the cool people can come. :)

Finally! Some real progress!

I am so excited! We actually have a fully functioning house! Everything in the kitchen works! Everything in the bathrooms work! Most everything is in our house! It's so wonderful!

Yesterday, the countertop people drilled the holes in the counters for the sink. Then, the plumbers came and hooked up the plumbing in the kitchen for the sink, the disposal, and for the dishwasher. I made dinner last night in my new, fully-functioning kitchen! :)

That's not to say that we are finished with the house. I finally found the right paint for the kitchen last night. Sherwin Williams had the right formula for the Slate Green paint that I wanted. So, we bought some and started painting the kitchen. It looks much better. I have to finish touching up the paint and finish painting one of the walls in the kitchen. I also have to do touch up paint on the walls where the baseboard heating was in the hallways. And then I have to do some cleaning. Then, I think we will be finished. :) It's so exciting!

I'm going to take some pictures tonight and I'll put them up hopefully tomorrow. I can't believe the end is in sight! Finally!

Other exciting news: Connecticut ruled in favor of gay marriage! Yay! One step back for California, but a huge step forward for Connecticut! :)

Closer

I don't really feel like blogging. That's why there hasn't been an update in the past few days. I get irritated and stressed out when I do an update. So, I decided to wait until some good things happened for me to do an update.

Friday, the countertops were promised to be in. They weren't. No one knew what was going on. We finally got a hold of someone. They promised that if they didn't make it Friday, it would be Saturday morning at the absolute latest. Well, the plumbers came to do the bathrooms and kitchen on Friday and since they couldn't do the kitchen (since there was no sink or countertops), they just left and didn't even do the bathrooms. I was not a happy camper. They came back on Saturday. Well, the countertops still did not arrive. No one would call us back. I was beyond pissed. But, the plumbers hooked up the bathrooms.

We got most everything moved in and I got a lot of organizing done. The house feels a lot more like home now.

The countertops were installed yesterday morning. Finally. They look okay. Not as good as I had hoped, but at least they are in. Unfortunately, the paint does not match. You might remember that Lowe's formula for Slate Green is incorrect. They give me a paint which is not Slate Green, but instead it is a yellowy green color. It's not good. So, I picked out another color a lot like Slate Green, but darker. I thought it would be okay, but it doesn't match the countertops. So, Joe and I are going to try to match the Slate Green color. We're hoping that Sherwin Williams can help us. ** Fingers Crossed **

The light fixtures in the kitchen and the bathrooms are supposed to be installed today. Also, the countertop people have to come drill the hole for our faucet because they didn't do it yesterday. They better get it done today. I'm sick of having to wait. We can't do the plumbing for the kitchen until they finish! Grrr...

But, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Please, don't let a train come before I reach the end. :S

No surprise...

The countertops were not right. No one called us yesterday, so we assumed that everything went smoothly. We walked into the kitchen and still had no countertops when we arrived home last night. This is a big problem. The plumbers are coming today to hook all of the water up to the sinks (and also the dishwasher and the garbage disposal). They can't do that if THERE IS NO SINK!

We tried to get a hold of Steve, but there was no answer. He finally called us back this morning while we were on our way to work. They cut the countertops wrong, so they couldn't put them in. I was freaking out because we don't have time to wait another few weeks for countertops. No problem, says Steve. They ordered a new one yesterday and it will be put in today. What the hell!? It's taken us WEEKS to get these counters in, but they can get them in one day!?

This remodeling project is going to be the death of me. I'm going to end up in an asylum. Please come visit me...

Anyway, the plumbers can't get there until about noon, so they're going to get started in the bathrooms with installing the sinks and the toilets and the shower in the master bath. Hopefully by the time they finish with that, the countertops will be installed and they can finish up the kitchen. If not, Steve needs to be paying for the plumbers to come back out because it's his damn fault that we're behind. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I am so absolutely serious. Do not ever even consider remodeling your house. If you must, do NOT hire these fools: Paul Kitchen, Buddy Dyer (tile guy), Hensons Cabinets, or Bolton Plumbing. It will just end up being ridiculous. I am just about ready to go insane. I feel like crap, I'm not sleeping well, I have dark circles under my eyes, I cry at least every other day, and I still don't have a finished house. It is not worth it. I don't care about how beautiful this house is when we finish, I would not do it again. At least not with these assholes that we hired.

It's absolutely amazing. We hired people with empeccable recommendations. Now the people that recommended them are saying, "hmmm... they are known for X." It really pisses me off. If you knew that this person was lazy or sloppy or slow or known for never showing up, why in the hell would you recommend them?! I am not like that. I will never recommend these people to anyone. Because, even after it has taken over 3 times as long as it was supposed to, it is not as good as it was supposed to be. So, Fuck 'em.

If you need your hardwood floors refinished, I can give you a recommendation: Maurice. I don't know his last name, but I do have his phone number. If you need a handyman (woodworking, shelves, trim, painting, hanging doors, installation, etc.), I have two people to recommend: Sammy Hood, who is wonderful, and Zach (idk his last name either). I have phone numbers for both. Also, Sears did a wonderful job helping us with our heating and air conditioning unit. They cleaned up after themselves and did everything they could to make everything right as it should be. And they never wavered on cost, even though lots of things went wrong and it probably hurt their profit a lot. They took a little while, but we weren't in need of the unit with the way the temperatures were at that point, and we were too focused on everything else going wrong. So, if you need a unit and you have some time, definitely go with Sears. :)

Another day, another problem... with the house.

Yesterday, the vanities were installed in the bathrooms. The one for the master bath is wrong. Of course it is. Because nothing can go right with this damn remodeling project. It was supposed to be a really dark brown wood. They sent us a really red wood. So, it doesn't match the rest of the bathroom. And, because they took over a week longer than they were supposed to, we now do not have time to get a new one in before the appraisal. So, we will have a beautiful bathroom with a vanity that does not match. Wonderful.

The countertops for the kitchen are being installed today. Finally. If they aren't right, I don't know what we will do. I'm just hoping that they are perfect. Just give us this one thing! Because that would be it. That would be the only thing that didn't have something go wrong. It's really hard to stay positive while remodeling. I get more depressed the longer it takes. Not just in that it's taking forever, but in that absolutely nothing has gone the way that it was supposed to.

Tomorrow, the plumbers are coming back to finish up. They have to hook up the sinks in the kitchen and the bathrooms.

I still have to finish painting the kitchen. I have to finish hanging the doors for all the rooms. I need to replace the handles for all of the doors. We have to have the locks changed for the house. And we still have to clean the entire house. We've been cleaning, but it will need more cleaning. And then we have to actually move in. Almost all of our stuff is still sitting in the garage. Yay.

I will never, ever do this again. EVER.

Mixed Emotions...

Last night I was so incredibly happy. Barrack Obama won. Not only that, but John McCain gave an incredible speech. It left me feeling so wonderful about the direction that our country is heading. We will have change. We have a nation where truly anyone can do what they set their minds to without having to feel discouraged about race or gender. We have a nation where republicans and democrats are willing to work together to make our country a better place. I was brought to tears several times throughout the evening because of how proud and euphoric I was. It was incredible.

And then, today, I was still riding that high. And then part of me cracked. Proposition 8 passed in California. And other gay marriage bans passed in Arizona and Florida. So incredibly disappointing. I am really hoping that it will be overturned. No one has the right to take other people's rights away based upon sexual preference. It's ridiculous.

How likely Is It That McCain Will Kick the Bucket?

Well, I did bring it up in my last post, so I thought that this was very relevant. This author gives some odds of how likely it is that McCain will die in his first term as president [God (or your preferred Authority) help us!] leaving Sarah Palin as the President of the United States. I shudder to think of it. Anyway, he goes on to compare those odds with things we come across in every day life. It's definitely worth a look. :)

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2008/09/15/feeling-lucky-the-odds-of-a-president-palin?tid=advert/bizjourn/prespalin

Also, there are a bunch of websites where you can dress Sarah Palin up in her old clothes and even her new $150,000 wardrobe. This one is my favorite (I love that you can see Russia through the window in her closet!):

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/election2008/shopwithpalin/index.html

And, my favorite story that I came across today is of Sarah Palin's other wardrobe malfunction. See Below...

Yes, folks. Those are donkeys on that scarf. Even Sarah Palin wants you to vote Democrat. :)

I voted! :)

It was my first time going to the polls (I sent in an absentee ballot in 2004). Joe and I went together this morning. I got up at 5:30 AM so that I could get ready for work and still get to the polls by 6:30 AM when they opened. We had to wait in line for 20 to 30 minutes and then we voted. It was pretty uneventful. But also exciting at the same time. It is an extremely important election.

I, of course, voted for Barack Obama. Unfortunately, the people surrounding me a majority of the time are McCain supporters. So, I have taken a lot of crap from people around me. I don't understand it. I don't go around telling people that they are stupid for voting for McCain when that evil wench would end up being president if/when McCain kicks the bucket in office. I don't tell them that they are stupid for voting for a third term for Bush/Cheney. So, why do these people feel the need to bring me down for voting for Obama? The worst argument I've heard is that Obama doesn't have enough experience. Well, first of all, Palin has less experience and she is likely to become president if McCain wins (because he's freakin' old!). Second of all, we've had "experienced" leaders in office and so far it hasn't done us much good.

People are ragging on Obama because of his eloquent speech and saying that it doesn't do much good. Well, how often do we bash Bush because he can't speak well? The president is the face of our country. It sure helps if we don't have a complete dumbass in that role. It can help bring the country together and it can help the rest of the world see us in a better light. And after the hole we have dug ourselves into in the past several years, I don't see that as a bad thing!

Anyway, I've already irritated myself, so I'm going to stop. I shouldn't have to defend my vote to everyone I know. It's my vote and I can vote for whoever I damn well please. Thank you very much!

On a different note... I found this comic and it made me happy inside. :)

If you're ever thinking about remodeling a house...

DON'T DO IT! It's not worth the pain!

Buddy has promised us for the 537th time that today will be the last day and our tile will be finished today. I'm not holding my breath.

Rudy came out on Friday to set up the electrical on our hot water heater because the plumbers lied and didn't hook it up how they were supposed to. We now have hot water. However, the plumbers messed something up when they were working on our house and so our shower does not work. The sink and the toilet work, but the shower has no water running to it. They didn't call us back until today. They're going to try to fit us in today. If I have to pour water into my tub via Solo cups from the sink again tonight, someone is going to pay for it. Well, actually, I'm just going to take it out of their pay. For my suffering. People sue for those kinds of things all the time! :)

Also, we were paying the plumbers over $4,000 to replace all of the cast iron pipes under the house (~$2,000 for the pipes going into the house and ~$2,000 for the pipes going out of the house). They told Joe that they didn't replace a few of them because they were in such good shape, so they offerered to take a few hundred dollars off of the bill. First of all, we told them to replace all of the pipes no matter what condition they were in (cast iron will rust and deteriorate and PVC will not... we didn't want to have to worry about it down the line... just get it all over with now). And next, when the shower didn't work, Joe crawled under the house to check to see if they forgot to turn something on. They haven't replaced ANY of the pipes going out of the house. So, a few hundred dollars is not going to cut it. Try a discount of over $2,000. I think that they were counting on Joe not checking to see if the pipes were replaced! I mean, anyone could look and tell that they haven't been replaced. They are still cast iron instead of being PVC pipe! These plumbers are obvious crooks. Also, we paid them to install a shutoff valve in one of the closets because we didn't want to have to turn it off from under the house. Well, they installed one but it DOESN'T WORK!!! Why is everyone we hire so damn completely incompetent!?!?! It doesn't make any sense at all.

The house is a complete mess. It's covered in a thick film of dust from all of the work that's been done. I sweep and I dust and it just doesn't help. Our stuff is still sitting in the garage until everything is finished so that we can actually move in. That should be by this weekend. Should be. Of course, it should have been over 2 weeks ago that we SHOULD have been able to move in. But here we are. Still living out of boxes sitting in our garage.

Also, I decorated my house like crazy for Halloween and our neighbors promised lots and lots of Trick-Or-Treaters. I bought over 30 pounds of candy. Good candy. We had 13 Trick-Or-Treaters. THIRTEEN. That is not lots and lots. I totally got jipped. And now I'm going to gain 10 pounds by eating that 30 lbs of candy. Hopefully it will make me feel better about the lack of Trick-Or-Treaters at my house. I also went to Walmart and got a lot of Halloween stuff half off on November 1. So, I will be prepared again next year and still hoping for lots and lots of Trick-Or-Treaters. :)

Also, one of my bestest friends came to visit me yesterday. :) Everyone needs to go see the play that he's going on tour with for 14 months. You can go here to get tickets: http://www.annieontour.com.

AAAAHHHHHHHHH!

That pretty much sums up my life right now.

Just a quick update...

1. The house is still not finished. Buddy is still not finished with the tile despite all of the promises to be done by the time we got back. I don't think he even started until yesterday. Buddy didn't even touch the tile in the half bathroom. The kitchen STILL is not finished. The master bath is starting to resemble a bathroom now, but it is probably going to take Buddy weeks to get any further. However, if he's not finished by this weekend, he should be hung until dead for being such an imbecile. The plumbers did not do all they were supposed to do and now we have no hot water (which is an absolutely wonderful thing to come home to... NOT!). Our hardwood floors have been refinished. They look wonderful. The countertops were delayed. Again. They're supposed to be in next week. They won't tell us an exact date. Jerks. The plumbing in the kitchen can't be finished in the kitchen until the countertops are put in, so we have no water in the kitchen either.
   
   
2. The GraphExpo was incredibly boring. I met some people. I wandered around and got blisters on my feet. Joe and I went to the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum while we were there. We also just wandered around the city. We had to do some shopping on Sunday when we arrived because we couldn't do laundry before we left (the plumbers cancelled 3 times in a row so we had no water), and therefore, we had no clothing to pack. I got some new clothes out of it, so at least something positive came out of it.
   
   
3. We are almost finished with the house in Crackton. I am leaving work early today to finish cleaning it up and to do some touch up painting (the power will be turned off at 4:30 today). All of our stuff is out of that house. And most of it is sitting in the garage in Shelby. We started moving some stuff in last night. However, there is only so much we can do when we can't use our bedroom, our bathroom, the half-bath, or the kitchen. It's so incredibly frustrating.

It was nice to at least have a few days away from it all. Now, I'm way behind at work, and only the tiniest bit further to being done. Yay.

Vote for Ansley! :)

Subject: NC Dept of Ag.-Vote Ansley!!

ON BEHALF OF THE ANIMALS

Ronnie Ansley has issued a statement supporting a ban on gas chambers in NC. The continued use of gas chambers and the sorry performance of the Animal Welfare Dept. have all taken place under Steve Troxler, the incumbent.

Regardless of party affiliation, it is important for the welfare of NC companion animals to elect Ronnie Ansley for Commissioner of the Agriculture Department.

His opponent Steve Troxler had an ad on TV recently that mostly discussed farm issues. However, the last clip was him petting a dog. Ironic. Maybe he caught wind of the emails going out in support of the animal friendly candidate, Ronnie Ansley.

Just a suggestion, contact everyone you know in all counties to support & vote for Ronnie Ansley (give reasons).. Most campaign headquarters are not aware of the animal issues (gas chamber and heart sticks) that hinge on who is elected. Also, most people have not been informed about the benefits for animals that electing Ansley will bring about. You can share that information with them.

It is important to let your everyone who is an Independent or Republican know not to vote a straight ticket because Ronnie Ansley happens to be on the Democratic ticket. Encourage them to cross party lines on this position and vote for Ronnie Ansley!!

Since N. C. is a toss up state this election, this may be the best chance to replace Steve Troxler. If Troxler stays in office gas chambers will continue to be used. So the point is.....get the word out to the general public & the campaign headquarters ...

ON BEHALF OF THE ANIMALS
VOTE RONNIE ANSLEY (NC DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER)

Thanks,

Peter


Peter MacQueen III,

President

The Humane Society of Eastern NC

Southport, NC 28461

910-477-0368

Someone is going to get hurt...

Well, we had to call an electrician to get the kitchen ready for our new cabinets and appliances. No one would call us back until yesterday. He wanted to tear out walls to fix it and he was going to charge us $1,300. And then we'd still have to fix the freakin' walls! Rudy, our tech here at work, offered to do it for $500 and not tear out all of the walls. So, he came over last night to do it. We were there until 1:30 AM. He's still not finished because part of it has to wait until the cabinets are in. So, we'll be finishing that up on Thursday night. It's such a pain in the rear.

The drywall is about finished. Larry said that he was finished, but Sammy is making him come back to redo one corner of the half bath. It wasn’t as smooth as it should have been. Joe and I were just going to let it go, but Sammy didn’t want us to feel shafted. It’s the corner next to the door where there are just a few inches of wall. The floors upstairs still aren’t done. He went back and sanded them another time and he sanded the stairs. Then he had to pull staples out of the living room floor because Joe never finished his job. He’s going to be doing the staining today. And sanding the downstairs. He said that the staining upstairs shouldn’t take long.

Buddy didn’t show up yesterday. He didn’t answer any of Joe’s phone calls. He did tell us that he’d be working on another job yesterday, but it wouldn’t take all day. I’m ready to kill him. When he put in the tile in the half bathroom, it looked funny to me. I thought it was because it was dirty (there was dust from the drywall all over it). Well, last night I went in and swept it up so that I could get a real look at it. It’s 2 different tiles in there. There are 5 tiles of what we actually picked out (that dark brown tile), and then the rest of the bathroom is in a dark tile with lots of reddish colors in it. And then, I was sweeping up the kitchen last night (because there was sawdust from where Rudy had to cut some of the walls for the new sockets) and stuff kept getting trapped between the tiles. He did a shitty job of grouting the tile. There are deep holes in it so stuff falls into it. So, Joe is going to make him fix the grout in the kitchen. We have to talk to him about the half bathroom.

Joe spoke to Buddy just a little while ago. He argued with Joe about the tile in the half bathroom. He thinks it's the same throughout. It's obviously not. Even Rudy just glanced at it last night and said that it was different. You don't have to look closely to see that it's 2 different tiles!

Before, Buddy told Joe that he could finish everything by Friday. Joe spoke with him the night before last. The problem was that the floor guy (refinishing the hardwoods) would be in the way of Buddy. Joe told Buddy that he worked it out with the floor guy so that he will not do the foyer until Thursday. That meant that Buddy could continue working on the other bathrooms until Thursday or possibly Friday (depending on the speed of the floor guy). Well, Buddy told Joe that night that he had everything worked out with the floor guy. Since Joe had already told him what the plan was, Joe assumed that working it out meant that he was going to follow the plan. That was a stupid assumption. Buddy isn’t over there today. What he meant when he said, “worked it out” with Maurice is that he just isn’t going to show up again until next week so that he could stay out of the way.

Joe told him that it was unacceptable. We have to get our stuff moved in! We will be gone Sunday through Thursday and we have to be out of Crackton by Friday! He needs to be finished! Since he said that he could be done with everything by Friday, that meant that he should have been able to be finished with at least the master bath by Thursday! Which meant that we could move in! Now who knows how long it’s going to be. If one more thing goes wrong with Buddy, I’m going to call him myself and cuss him out. I don’t think Joe is getting his point across well enough. Why does this have to be so difficult? Joe told him what to do and he changed it. It’s stupid.

But, on the positive, our cabinets arrived yesterday. They were in boxes in our garage. We opened up one to look at it. It was hard to see the cabinet, but it looked pretty! It looked a little more red than I had anticipated, but right now it’s hard to tell. They’re in the garage and it wasn’t very well lit and it was still in a box. So, we’ll be able to tell tonight! :) I think they’ll look really good.

I'm trying to stay positive about all of this. No matter what, Joe and I have to be moved in on next Friday (Halloween). If everything is not finished, I am going to have a conniption. I take that back, I will accept it if the half bathroom is not completely finished yet. However, if anything else is still unfinished, someone is going to pay for it. We set it up so that everything would be finished last week. My mom left a week ago. They still aren't finished with the things that were supposed to be finished when she got here 2 weeks ago. I can tell you one thing. People asked us to give recommendations for workers after we finish remodeling our house. Buddy and Paul will be getting no recommendations. I will be telling people to stay as far away as possible. This is f*@#ing ridiculous.