Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Drinks are on Me!

As many of you know, I had my identity stolen last July. It was a pain in the rear to get my credit cleared up, but it was eventually done. The responsible parties were caught and recently pled guilty to theft. Today I received my first restitution check in the amount of $23.91.

If anyone would like to meet at Pablo's this weekend, drinks are on me!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Just Call Me Delirious

Some days I want to blog but just can't think of anything worthy of writing about. Today, I don't have that problem. I have several topics I would like to discuss. I will give you a preliminary outline so that you don't have to read the ENTIRE blog if you don't want to.


1. Am I too negative?
2. My Dad
3. The garage door


1. I started thinking that a chronicle of my pet peeves was a little on the negative side. I've decided that with each pet peeve, I will also tell you something that makes me happy. So, to catch up with my first pet peeve, something that makes me happy is Chick-fil-A (guess what I'm having for dinner tonight?).


2. My Dad is a bit of a free spirit. Not a free spirit so much in the "hippie" sense, but he just does his own thing. He's 66 years old and he still harnesses himself to a tree in his front yard so he can climb on the roof of his house to clean the gutters. A few months ago he rented a jack hammer and tore up part of his driveway. Every Halloween at work he dresses up. See picture to left!

My dad leaves today for a week long vacation to London. He's going by himself and that's they way he likes it. He visited London 40 years ago when he was in the army. He wanted to go back to see how things had changed. Neither my brother nor myself were invited. I thought he might even have invited his girlfriend, Susan (I'll save that blog for another day), but she wasn't invited either.


My dad went all out for this trip. He bought new shoes, a $160 Marmot rain jacket, and a new camera. At one point he told me he wanted to buy a fanny pack but I think I worked enough charm to talk him out of that purchase. I guess he doesn't know that I think fanny packs should be outlawed.

3. Let me start this out by saying... I obviously don't know my own strength. I couldn't sleep yesterday afternoon. I had received one of those annoying calls from work around 1:30 and could never fall back asleep. I got up, hit the start button on my coffee maker, and then the power went out. I was so mad. I really needed my coffee. I sat in the silence of my house and started reading. In the middle of a chapter I realized I wouldn't be able to get my car out of the garage to go to work if the power didn't come back on. I panicked momentarily. I remembered that I have an emergency latch just for these occasions. I pulled the rope and was able to manually open the garage door. Then, I realized I needed to be able to lock the door so no one could manually open the door from the outside. Well, I channeled my childhood before they made electric garage door openers and figured that one out. The power came back on around 4:15 so I decided I would need to reset the emergency latch so that I could open the door with the electric opener. The instructions said to pull the door up or push it down until the latch caught with the carrier. I started pulling on the rope to get the door to open and then the entire emergency latch broke off. As I fell to the dirty, hard, cold cement floor of the garage, I smacked myself in the face with the metal part of the emergency latch. I was sure I had busted open my lip (possible reason to call in sick to work?) but alas, it was only a flesh wound. Nothing an alcohol prep couldn't fix. Not even worthy of antibiotic ointment. Now, I can't get into my garage unless I manually open the door and I have to lock it manually. I haven't decided if I could lock it from the outside. Seems like too much work if you ask me.

Anyone know how to fix a garage door?

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Must You Do That?

I'm one of those people who, without much sleep, can be easily irritated.

I've spent the last two days at a conference in Atlanta (that could be a whole blog on its own). On my way back home today, I stopped in Douglasville, GA to fill up on gas and to grab a few things at Target. The incidents that followed made me decide that I want/need to chronicle a concept I consider often.... pet peeves. I plan to write every week or so on this topic along with all the other jumble that flows through my brain like hot lava.

So without further adieu.....

Pet peeve #1: people who back into parking spaces

(Disclaimer: I must admit, there are VERY few times I feel this act is warranted. If you feel you need to plead your case, post it in the comments section)

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Am I Dreaming?

Has anyone been outside today?

I left work this morning and caught a fierce chill with the first opened door. It was downright cold! OK, so it was 65 but to me, that's cold. I love it!

I woke up early this afternoon to work out in the yard for a little while. Seriously people. We are only 10 degrees away from AMAZING weather. I pulled weeds for about 30 minutes and came inside without even a glisten on my brow.

This is the beginning of a beautiful day!

Monday, September 3, 2007

WTF

Take the title as you will.

First, I'm going to need you all to start blogging again (or at least come home from the beach so you can blog). Sarah has been my only new blog in the past few days. While I can always look at pictures of Addison (hey Whit, which game did she prefer?) and endlessly watch the "Montgomery Flea Market" video (if you haven't seen it, you need to find it on YouTube.. makes me proud to live in Alabama), I want to know what's going on with you all (other than the fact that I'll look even more pasty white when you return from the beach).

Well, I feel like I need to talk about two rather depressing conversations I had this weekend. The first I had Thursday night while I was sitting in my car waiting to sing karaoke with the girls from work (yes, I did sing... bad renditions of Ace of Base and Al Green). My friend K is a tortured soul. He's the most brilliant mind I've ever known but he really has no idea what he wants to do with his life. He just left his job, which he hated, to pursue something similar in another location. Well, he was there all of a few days before he realized he shouldn't be there either and left. He is now on a work sabbatical until he figures what he will do for the next year. He says he'll come to town to visit but I'm not holding my breath. Good thing for him I like to travel and I'm sure I'll be needing another long weekend very soon.

My second conversation was with a friend I've known since 6th grade. She lives in a town where being in your 30's and single isn't necessarily abnormal. However, she has somehow surrounded herself with people in their early 20's who are marrying off left and right. She has not only decided there are no men worthy of her time in her area, but she has also resigned herself that she may be single for the rest of her life. I told her she had a terribly pessimistic view of her circumstances. I think she'll eventually find a man worthy of her presence.. but he'll have to love Jesus and baseball just as much as she does. He'll also need to be a fierce competitor because she doesn't lose without a fight. This friend also told me I needed to try online dating.

Online dating will be the topic for future posts.... suffice it to say... I'm nowhere close to being ready for such an endeavour. LOL!

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Brighter Than Sunshine.....

People... today is a good day.
1. Not a single visor at the gym this morning
2. The temperature outside is actually bearable
3. Today is the first big Saturday for college football (GO DAWGS!)
4. They've resurrected Peter Pan peanut butter (guess what I'm eating for dinner?)
5. I have no plans for today and I still have one more day off work

I hope the rest of you are having an exceptional Saturday as well.