It feels good to have my own set of wheels once again. I abhor having someone else chauffeuring me around. It took an incredibly long time to get Pyro fixed after that fender-bender back in February mainly because I didn’t have a steady and reliable flow of income anymore after getting laid off. Pyro still needs a paint job, but is otherwise repaired and running smoothly.

It really is lucky that some of my mom’s friends were able to work on Pyro for me. Otherwise I’d have never been able to afford getting him fixed this time around. The power steering was messed up, I needed a new hood, front bumper, passenger-side fender, headlight, and a few other parts as well. In the end, there is still technically one part that isn’t “fixed”. The air compressor was smashed to bits, however, a brand new one alone cost over $600 dollars. A used, but working one, cost about $400. The guys tried their damnedest to get that fixed. In the end they had to opt to put in a used one that wasn’t working anymore. I’m not that familiar with cars, but from what I understood, the arm of the air compressor connects with the power steering. Without the arm there is no power steering. I did not want a car without power steering, it’ a bitch to drive. So they found an air compressor with the arm intact. I don’t have an air conditioner in the car now, but I can deal with that.

I’ve been seriously considering getting the car painted black, and after seeing the car with it’s primer-black hood, fender, and bumper, I’m even more tempted. The whole “red cars are involved in more accidents” stereotype seems to be true, for me at least. Unfortunately I can’t even afford to purchase some of the Amazon books I’ve been oogling lately, much less a paint job.

My grandfather had some bodywork done to his truck not long ago by a friend of his. The guy cant do a lot of stuff since he operates his “body shop” out of his farm’s garage. He’s mostly set up to work on folks’ vehicles and equipment that gets banged up. But, if I should choose to paint my car black he could probably do it. I’m not sure he could match my car’s current paint color though. It’s called Burnt Orange and is this funny mix between orange, red, and rust. Since he’s set up for very basic stuff I figure matching the paint job might be a bit hard for him. But a primary color? That should be a piece of cake.

Of course, if I paint the car black then the information on my registration and title is no longer accurate. I suspect that would result in a trip to the DMV.

I had a late night yesterday and didn’t go to bed until about 8 o’clock this morning. As a result, my day got started very late today. When I opened my main email account I was bombarded with the typical spam and adverts. “Store X has a sale on diamond engagement rings“, “buy viagra real cheap from us”, the usual.

Mixed in were news updates and one headline shocked me to the core: Singer Michael Jackson dead at 50. I’ve spent the past hour and a half reading over every single news article I can find and it’s still not sinking in. Michael Jackson is dead? It’s so surreal. He had an extensive physical to prepare for the tour, and it was reported that he was in perfect health. And yet today he is dead due to cardiac arrest.

Michael Jackson was one of my mother’s favorite artists. Growing up, I remember listening to and loving his music as well. “Thriller” was a wonderful song, but to be honest, I really loved the performance in the music video. “Billie Jean” remained my favorite Michael Jackson song of all time. To this day I honestly don’t know what to think about the molestation charges. What I do know is that Michael Jackson was a talented artist whose music I’ve loved since I was a child. The world has definitely lost a very talented artist and performer today and already the world seems a little duller.

It’s Wednesday evening, and at long last, we finally got to have the barbecue that was initially planned for Sunday. For a while there it seemed as if the universe itself was conspiring against us. First, on Sunday evening, the night we initially planned to have the barbecue, the electricity went out. It came back on about thirty minutes later, and just as we were about to open the refrigerator to get the meat out the electricity flickered out again. It did that off and on for a couple of hours. In the end we felt it was safer to just eat something quick and easy just in case the electricity went out and stayed out for a lengthy period of time. We didn’t want to be opening the refrigerator a lot and letting the cool air out if the electricity was going to be out for more than a few minutes. A good decision since around 9pm the electricity went out in Vado and La Mesa and didn’t come back on until almost midnight.

Monday evening was comical, as my grandfather was invited out to eat with friends and neglected to tell us. So just as we were getting ready to start barbecuing he left. We opted for Sonic that night.

Tuesday, well, who wants to stand outside in the rain in order to barbecue? Certainly not me!

So for the past three days we’ve anticipated a nice barbecue and ended up altering our plans. Have you ever been eagerly awaiting a letter (or email) about something fairly important, and when you finally receive an official-looking letter (or email) that you think is it, it then turns out to insurance quotes or something else way off? That horrible letdown feeling is how we’ve been feeling. To top it off, some of the dairy and meat products in the refrigerator went bad due to the off and on attitude of our electricity on Sunday. Disappointment after disappointment.

But today we finally got around to barbecuing!

It ended up being fairly simple since the hamburger had to be thrown up into the freezer lest it go bad before we could barbecue it. We had bought it on Friday with plans for it on Sunday. With the way some of the other stuff in the refrigerator went bad we didn’t dare take a chance with the hamburger meat. So barbecue chicken, grilled corn on the cob, green beans, mashed garlic potatoes, flower onions, and grilled veggies were tonight’s fare.

I’ve been told that, when it comes to dieting and cutting back on meals, my specimen collection works better than the best diet pills out there. Apparently there’s something about seeing critters preserved in jars (or paperweights) that makes folks loose their appetites. It doesn’t have that affect on me, but then again, I’ve always been weird.

I first started my specimen collection back in high school, my anatomy teacher had us dissect all sorts of interesting creatures and then, if we could remove certain parts of the specimen’s anatomy correctly and intact, he taught us how to preserve it so we could keep it. That was the big excitement and “goal” for us when we dissected a fetal pig for our final. Getting the brain out whole. After that it sort of grew from there. What kind of different creatures could I find and what species? Could I preserve them as well? I have an impressive collection of arachnids, reptiles, and amphibians. Today though I got a critter I never thought I’d add to the collection:

Denali caught a squirrel today and I was loathe to let her try to finish it off. It was fairly young and it’s parents were nearby and very upset she had stolen their young. How she got it remains a mystery. If it wasn’t for the fact that my mother’s dog, Big Mama, was looking out for, I think Denali would have been in serious trouble. She was so focused on catching, playing, then re-catching the young squirrel that she never noticed how angry some of the adult squirrels were. Luckily for her, in order to get to her they had to get past Big Mama and they couldn’t manage that.

We’ve had a very difficult time getting rid of these squirrels too. They’ve built a rather complex system of tunnels under the storage sheds and have entrances scattered about. There are some tunnel openings along the concrete ditch at the back of our property, about 20 feet from the storage sheds, exits along the irrigation canal on another side, another good fifteen to twenty feet away as well. In short, it makes removing them very difficult since, if you fumigate, you can’t get all of their nesting grounds. And to cut back on their breeding you have to alter their habitat and remove what sustains them. Kind of hard to do with ten pecan trees, a pistachio, and multiple fruit trees scattered around the yard.

It’s really weird too, we’ve always had squirrels, but never did we have such an…infestation before. I can’t even pin down exactly when they all moved in. You might see an occasional one before, but for the past couple of years, you can see multiple squirrels running around and they’re not that afraid of us either. The dogs, yes. Us humans, sort of, but only when we have something to throw or are attempting to get rid of them again. To top it off, these guys are mean too. I really wish Denali wold have never tried to tangle with one.

As such, I really didn’t want to let the little bugger go. Nor did I want to let Denali continue playing with it. These things are rather mean and Denali was pretty lucky she didn’t get bitten or clawed as it was. While I was outside to see what the commotion was, Denali almost got her eyes clawed out twice. Cat has a lot of luck. With no real alternative, the squirrel got added to the collection:

He’s now sitting on my desk and awaiting classification and recording.

I was actually outside, just a few moments ago, cleaning the throw rugs when I happened to to really stop and take a look around me. It’s been hot and windy around here, but on odd days it’s been completely overcast and windy; really making it look like we’re in for some rain. Sadly we haven’t gotten any. Of course, since we just painted the house maybe it’s a good thing. In any case, looking up at the clouds rolling around today made me want to run inside and grab my camera. I did just that.

As I was scaling these photos down to a more manageable size one song kept playing in my head: Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride”. Eventually I moved to the playlist that had the song on my iTunes and stuck it on repeat.

I’ll be uploading the full-size photos to my Deviant Art account later this evening.

It’s nice to do repairs, maintenance and upkeep of your home yourself. There’s just something about completing a job, looking over your work proudly, and knowing that you did it all yourself. There is however one task I’m not that crazy about - painting houses. Give me spray paint and I’ll wow you with my skills. Give me a roller and somehow I get about as much paint on me as I do the building.

But hey, the good thing about painting the outside of houses is that there aren’t any little knobs or handles you have to carefully paint around. Inside paint jobs, like cabinets, are much more tedious.

As you might have figured out, we were painting the house today. Had to wake up early this morning and get out there to paint the house before it got too hot. We almost finished painting the whole house too. Just need to do the window pains themselves (that requires smaller brushes) and then the wall facing the backyard.

That wall looks so beautiful doesn’t it? Down towards the bottom, there were chips and flaking of wall, not to mention bad water stains. First we had to re-plaster, let it set, then paint. Now looking at the finished product - well it’s great.

Poor Denali found out the hard way that her Mommy is not exactly a safe person to be around when she’s got a roller in hand. Paint gets everywhere. On me, the ground, and even anyone near me.

Something of interest happened today. One of the businesses at the office complex where my mother’s office is was doing some moving in. I think they might have been doing some upgrades to their hardware, but I’m not certain. What I am certain of is that the technician in charge of setting up their computers must be a royal fucking idiot and a lucky one at that.

I sincerely wish I had thought to bring my camera because you had to see it to believe it. The guy left the back doors of his van unlocked and wide open in the parking lot. It was after six o’clock, so you know that most of the folks had gone home for the day. As such, no one was going to be looking out their office windows and noticing anyone messing with his stuff. Walking past, I could see boxes of brand new netbooks/laptops (however you prefer to call them) and some brand new computer towers in boxes as well. Not to mention, his own laptop was open, on, and sitting on a stack of boxes outside the van.

Now sure, hardly anyone was around, but the street wasn’t exactly dead you know. Not to mention, the office he was working at was in the back and out of view of the parking lot.

What kind of moron goes off and leaves expensive tech out in the open like that? Might as well have posted a sign that read: “Free to good home” or something.

Honestly, I kinda drooled when I looked at those towers and lappytops. Hey, if my mother got a new tower I could have mine back and my lack of internet access at home troubles would all be over. Alas, I have an annoying voice in my head that tends to give me an earful if I dare to cross a line. As such, I kept walking.

I can’t help but wonder if anybody ended up jacking anything though and if this is the first time the idiot has done something like that. The van had that green emblem on it that Office Max (or was it Staples?) uses for their install team. Makes me leery of trusting them with my computer troubles when it comes to installation and repair.

It gets pretty hot around here during the summer. It’s a dry heat (usually) mind you and it’s nothing compared to Arizona, but it can still get pretty hot. For Denali, who is a fluffy long haired cat it can be a right pain for her. Her fur gets tangled easily as she climbs through hedges and shrubbery on her adventures and it causes her body to retain a lot of heat as well. And she’s a naturally warm cat too.

I always feel horrible when I pick her up and feel her fur damp under her legs or see her paws sweating. So come summertime, when the temperature climbs and she insists on being outside, Denali gets a furcut. The majority of the fur comes off, though I tend to leave her tail alone and only lightly touch her legs. She doesn’t care much for the process but she always loves the end result.

That’s a lot of fur isn’t it? She got a closer shave this time since I couldn’t find the proper attachments for the clippers unfortunately. The process used to be really troublesome, but after some helpful advice I received, Denali tolerates the process much better now. She does get very impatient though. I tend to cut her fur outside as it’s easier to clean up that way and it’s more pleasant for the both of us. I didn’t get to finish her furcut so there are still spots where the fur is uneven. Poor baby.

Of course, after I finally get around to giving Denali a furcut it goes and rains. And rains some more. Then the temperature drops, although it is humid. My timing seems to be off a bit and now Denali doesn’t look so thrilled anymore. Just grumpy. She’s normally very happy after a furcut, and she was, but now she’s been a real grouch.

Of course, because of the rain and mud she’s been staying in a lot. So maybe that’s added to her displeasure. I’m thinking it just might be a good idea to get some term life insurance or something. Maybe sleep with one eye open for while?

There is indeed such a thing as internet addiction. I should know, I’ve been going through withdrawal. First my internet service provider was acting screwy and now I’m just flat out without internet at home. The computer at my mom’s office said “I Quit” and did not bother to give her two weeks written notice either. As a result, my mother has taken my desktop to her office since it still had some of the programs she uses on it. It was actually a shared computer until I inherited it. In the mean time Joana has no internet access at home. You see, where we live it’s dial-up, satellite, or nothing. She has AOL and since I have a screen name already I just use that. Well, I don’t really like AOL but it’s a step up from People PC. Either way, I refuse to put their software on my laptop though so I have to go without internet for a while. Sucks to be me.

So when I want to use the internet I’ve been forced to drive into town and use various free hotspots. Pain in the butt I tell you. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be dealing with this sporadic internet usage, but in the mean time my posts will be lengthy and sort of random. There have been some interesting things happening in my life and rather than make a new entry for each one I’ve condensed them all into one post. So here we go:

May 11, 2009

I mentioned in the previous post that a relative of mine had passed away recently and that the Rosary was being held on Sunday evening. Turned out that was incorrect. We were given the wrong day and the Rosary was actually held Monday evening. My great aunt and uncle were, apparently, incredibly put out that they drove all the way to Anthony, TX for the service on the wrong day. Mind you, they got the information for the service from someone else and not from the immediate family of the deceased. So, upon finding out that the Rosary (Rosario, Wake, whatever) was actually on Monday evening they were miffed and refused to attend. Their excuse was that they were prepared to attend on Sunday and it was too much of an inconvenience to drive out again. Never mind the fact that the incorrect information was their fault since they didn’t bother to actually call someone in the immediate family or look it up in the paper. They just heard by word of mouth and ran with it.

But then hey, this is the same woman who is still trying to sell my great-grandmother’s house and the farmland surrounding it. I mean really, what can you expect from someone who has no regard for family history and only worries about remodeling their home to keep up with the Jones?

May 13, 2009

Texas has the most inefficient court system I have ever seen or heard of! If Texas officials are complaining about heavy case loads in the lower courts that primarily handle vehicular offenses, well they only have themselves to blame! In New Mexico, it has been my experience that, should you decide to contest a ticket, you appear in court on the date stated on the citation. If the officer doesn’t appear, it’s dismissed. If they appear, then you plead your case before the judge. It can get thrown out, changed to a warning, or you loose - whatever. But the fact remains, it’s all taken care of that same day.

Not in Texas.

In case you’re wondering, the ticket I’m contesting is the one that was issued to me back in February when I had that accident. Yeah, I’m still going through the process of contesting it. My first court date was set back on March 20th which was about a month after the incident. When I appeared in court I was given three options:

1. Plead guilty or nolo contendo and pay the ticket at the cashier.
2. Go before a judge, plead nolo contendo and take a driving class. Upon completion, the ticket will be removed from my record. Got to pay $110 for the class though.
3. Plead not guilty and be given a new court date.

You can guess which option I chose. Now, I had an idea that this wasn’t going to be a one-step process. When I was issued the citation the officer advised me to contest the ticket and informed me that when I went to court, I would need to say that I plead not guilty and they would give me a new court date. Considering the reason I had the accident was because I was trying to avoid a jerk that swerved into me, yeah I was going to contest it. The officer stated that the majority of the time citations for vehicular accidents get dismissed because the other party involved doesn’t have to appear and generally doesn’t since their vehicle is usually fixed by the time the court date comes around. In my case, she didn’t see anything, they moved our vehicles so the officer couldn’t “witness” anything either. In my situation it would be stupid not to contest this ticket, right?

I’m not so sure anymore. I went into court on the 13th of May thinking this was going to all be over now. It’s my second court date, we’ll get this done and I can get on with my life. Boy was I mistaken. It was a “pretrial” and so all the judge did was give us three options:

1. Plead guilty or nolo contendo and pay the ticket at the cashier.
2. Go before a judge, plead nolo contendo and take a driving class. Upon completion, the ticket will be removed from my record. Got to pay $110 for the class though.
3. Plead not guilty and be given a new court date.

Hmm, sound familiar? If you chose option three, as I did, you could choose to have a bench trial or a trial by jury. I went with bench trial and so they’ll contact me with a new court date.

As I said, Texas has the most inefficient system I have ever seen. What could be taken care in one go is instead just dragged out beyond belief. It’s a no wonder there’s a heavy backlog in the courts.

Also, do you recall me mentioning how mailing addresses of those who are issued citations are sold to local lawyers so that they can solicit you to death? It’s true! Your name goes into the system and then the lawyers all send you mailings advertising their services. After that, they just keep bombarding you with adverts for all of their services. To the point, I have never seen so many people opt to have a lawyer handle their citations before. Before that day, I think I might have seen one maybe two people take that route. There were about six or seven lawyers there that day representing folks and all of them had more than one client who was on the docket. Crazy!

Of course, considering how Texas operates, I’m not surprised folks go that route. Then again, maybe that’s why they drag the procedure out so much. More money for the lawyers who pay to receive the lists of those who have received a citation. Win, win, win.

May 14, 2009

Speaking of that car accident, I finally get to get Pyro fixed! One of my mom’s friends picked the car up and was going to start working on it. He has to look for parts and he wouldn’t actually be able to start until this week, but Pyro is finally going to get fixed and I’ll be able to drive it on the street without sweating a ticket for having a popped up hood and smashed front light. It took a while to save up enough money for this sadly. But hey, as soon as Pyro is fixed I’ll have my own mode of transportation back. More frequent internet usage that way, assuming the computer trouble isn’t solved by then. It’s just a good thing I’m not the type to splurge on things like travel insurance or even just frequent flier miles, or hotel points. There is no way I’d put any of it to use this summer.

There’s more that’s been going on that I could blog about, but right now, I think that’s the most important bits. That and this post is getting a wee-bit long. Back with more at a later date!

Mother’s Day was a simple affair this year. Instead of a cake, I made my mom a Danish Creme Cheese Twist, a card that sadly made her cry, and some new cds and decor for her office. It was completely lacking in extravagance I’m afraid. No all-expense paid trips, road tripping in an rv, tickets to an upcoming show - nada. I short on funds this year so I went with the “it’s the thought that counts” route.

Word of advice, when you’re broke don’t read blog entries about a holiday. Some of the things people will be able to do will make you feel even worse.

There was a death in the family recently too, in fact, tonight’s the Rosary (Wake) so that put a damper on the celebratory mood as well.

Interestingly enough, there was someone else who wanted to wish my mom a Happy Mother’s Day too:

Somehow Mom didn’t seem too thrilled to see this guy sitting on the towel rack. She has arachnophobia and tends to go into mild hysterics whenever she sees a spider and this guy was kinda big.

I thought he was kinda cute looking myself, and he was pretty big too. About half the size of a dollar bill with the majority of that length being made up by his legs.

Alas, mom did not share my opinion and ordered that this guy be put to death on account of the fact that he has eight legs and is an arachnid. Since it was Mother’s Day I complied despite wishing to relocate him outside. So at 6:30pm poor Mr. Wolf Spider was executed promptly and without prejudice. He was given a quick funeral and buried at sea.

Translation: He was squished to death and flushed down the toilet.

What do you do when you have a hankering for ramen but there isn’t any to be had in the house? Improvise.

Not a single cup of instant ramen, not even a packet to cook some over the stove. Instead I found a package of fidel noodles, a can of beef stock, then grabbed some ginger, soy sauce, garlic, and threw them in along with some diced onions for a quick ramen fix.

It’s definitely not authentic, as if the fidel noodles and beef stock didn’t tip you off, but it tasted good and cured my hankering. The noodle choice was definately not the best though. As you can see, I added my customary red pepper flakes too. I seem to add them to everything lately. And if it’s not pepper flakes, it’s salsa, or chili. Gotta have that kick apparently.

I will probably have burnt off every taste bud on my tongue by the time I’m thirty.

Made enough for three servings. Now I can go watch some movies. Maybe Snakes on a Plane or just some Dark Angel episodes. I dunno.

The girls got a new edition to their wardrobe - and for the first time ever - they match!

Denali and Isis now both have a cute black t-shirt with two rhinestone stars on the back. As you can probably see, there’s no worry about mixing their shirts up either. I had to get Isis and Denali’s shirts in two different sizes. Extra small (XS) for Isis and (S) for Denali. The t-shirts are actually from a clothing line that is made for dogs but they also have recommendations for cats on their size-charts as well.

Why is it that there are more clothes and styles available for dogs instead of cats? In any case, both Denali and Isis look very adorable in their new outfits. They seem to like them too:

I know it looks like Denali is in need of a kitty diet pill, but I swear she’s not overweight. The reason I typically have to get Denali’s outfits in small or medium is because she’s got a lot of fur. She’s a long-haired cat, and to top it off, her fur is pretty thick too. She has a different build than Isis too. Isis is very trim-line and sleek; she couldn’t get fa if she tried. Denali has a much stockier build and a longer body to boot. That, with her fur, makes buying clothes for her a trial. It’s got to be big enough to take into consideration her build and fur, but at the same time, it can’t be so big that she slides out of it either.

I found this meme at Flitting Through Canadian Fiction and just had to answer it myself.

1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down?
I use a bookmark to mark my page. If I can’t find one I might stick something else in the book to mark it briefly, like a pen, or a piece of paper. I am guilty of leaving a book open face down, mostly with textbooks though.

2. Do you lend your books?
Once upon a time I used to be very generous and trusting and would lend my books out. After not receiving them back, even after years on end, or getting them back in poor condition I learned my lesson. I will still, occasionally lend a book out to someone who has proven trustworthy time and again. But I’m very hesitant to. And no matter the person, if it’s an autographed copy I never lend them out now. For me, my autographed copies are as precious as New York Yankees tickets in the world series are to die-hard fans. No one touches ‘em. I don’t even really lend my books to my own mother anymore! Mostly because it takes her a very long time to get to them, on account of her schedule. When she’s absolutely ready to read a book though, as in walks up and asks for a certain book that she plans to start reading that day, then I’m happy to lend a book to her.

3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS!
Ugh. Major pet peeve of mine - no writing in books. When I was taking Japanese I used to write little notes or phrases that I felt were needed for reference, but really, even that irked me. I much prefer using stickies if I absolutely must write something down about a passage.

4. Dust jackets - leave it on or take it off?
I take the dust jacket off while I’m reading so that it doesn’t get messed up and put it back on when finished.

5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book?
I prefer paperbacks myself. They take up a lot less room, more comfortable to hold and easier to cuddle up with. I really dislike it when an author who has been releasing heir books in paperback first switches to hardback first. It means that, unless I check the book out from the library or get it from a swap, I’m not likely to read it for another year. Of course, with some books and series, I’ll get the hardback regardless. The HP series is a perfect example there.

6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines?
My shelving method is a bit odd. I have a low bookcase that sits next to my bed and under my window. The top shelf is crammed with favorite books so that they’re within easy reach when I’m curled up on my throw pillows or in bed. Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, Carrie Vaughn, and some of Mercedes Lackey’s books can be found there. The bottom shelf holds some comics and larger books that don’t quite fit on the other bookcases due to book height. The other book cases however are grouped by book size and genre. I have all of my hardback books taking up the bottom shelves of the presswood book cases and paperbacks on the top shelves.

7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later?
I prefer to buy books, as I tend to keep them; however I do make good use of bookswaps and book stores. If I’m collecting a series in paperback (for example Kim Harrison’s Hollows series) then I’ll check out the hardback copy and wait until the paperback is released to buy.

8. Do you put your name on your books - scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp?
Absolutely not. I had to suffer through that in elementary and middle school where marking our belongings in bold black permanent marker was mandatory. I’m not in those institutions anymore so I refuse to mark up and vandalize my books.

9. Most of the books you own are rare and out of print books or recent publications?
A little bit of both actually. I have several out of print editions and a few autographed books as well. However, I also have plenty of recent publications as well. Editions and rarity doesn’t matter, it’s the content.

10. Page edges - deckled or straight?
I prefer straight, as they don’t collect dust as much, but really, it’s the content that matters.

11. How many books do you read at one time?
Now that I am no longer in school and reading all of my required reading plus leisure reading at the same time I prefer to handle one or two books at a time. However, if a book is particularly gripping or it’s one I’ve been anticipating for a while then I’m likely to devote my sole attention to it.

12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book?
Maybe, probably, when I was a little kid. But after I had grown to read and love books? No! Magazines and newspapers? Sure. But never books.

I’ve been wanting to buy a few new books, mainly the latest editions to some of my favorite series that I still haven’t gotten around to buying yet. I’ve been scrounging around trying to find the Amazon, B&N, and Hastings cards that I should still have. I thought, maybe, one of them might be out in the car somewhere, and sadly it wasn’t. I did finally take notice of the flowers blooming in our garden though.

These irises are pretty resilient; they’ve been uprooted and moved multiple times in their lives. First they were uprooted from my grandmother’s garden in Texas when they moved to New Mexico. Then the plants had to be dug up and moved when we moved the hedges and widened the driveway. Every season they grow back stronger and more beautiful than the last. I loved this shot so much, I even uploaded the full size to my DeviantART account. It’s very originally named White Iris.

This one was also uploaded to my DeviantART account. It’s called Baby Bird Eggshell. I shouldn’t be allowed to name art and photo submissions. Not a flower, true, but I did find it next to the hedges bordering the flowers.

I took quite a few shots of the other irises, roses, and morning glories found in our garden. Most of them I didnt like though, they just looked so ‘blah’. Definitely nothing to write about. Now these two came out…okay. Nothing really interesting about them, but I did like them.

I honestly don’t know how I didn’t notice that the flowers were already blooming. Goes to show how observant I am around our house. Sadly my gift cards are still AWOL. I guess I’ll just have to wait some more or pay for them with cash. The second option bites because I can’t buy as many that way!

I’m a big fan of Pepperidge Farm’s Goldfish crackers. Anyone who has met me personally knows of my addiction to these yummy cheese flavored crackers. Heck, even those who have never meet me have probably come to that conclusion as well. I mean I only run a fanlisting for Goldfish crackers after all.

While shopping at the Dollar Tree on University Avenue in Las Cruces I spied a product on their shelves that I had never noticed before - Staufer’s Whales, baked snack crackers made with real cheddar cheese. In other words, an alternative to Pepperidge Farm’s Goldfish crackers.

I was leery of giving them a shot, as I’ve tried other brand’s equivalents of Cheez-it before and I found them wanting. Frankly, I didn’t want to see (or would that be taste?) my beloved goldfish tarnished in a similar fashion.

I am pleased to report that my fears were completely unfounded. In fact, I think I might just like these crackers better than Goldfish. They have a great taste, and for those counting calories, they’re not that bad either.

• 0g trans fat
• 0mg cholesterol per serving
• no artificial flavors or colors
• 23 crackers only 100 calories

As I mentioned, I found these at the Dollar Tree so you know what that means. They’re a heck of a lot cheaper than Goldfish. The average bag of Goldfish runs between $3 and $5 dollars depending on what store you frequent. A box of Stauffer’s Whales is only $1. That is one sweet deal.

You’ve been hearing me gripe over and over about the subdivision that they wanted to build here in La Mesa for roughly two years now. At long last, all of the hard work protesting this travesty has paid off. The plan to build a subdivision in La Mesa, which was to be called Peyton’s Place, has been denied by the Dona Ana County Commission.

As you may or may not know, depending on how long you’ve been following my blog, the farmland that borders our home was sold when the owner fell into massive debt. The price was rather steep, and as a result, not many of the local farmers considered buying the land. In time a developer bought the land and initially planned to build 80 housing units on it for low income families. In short; bring on the ghettos. You can see some pictures I took of the land in this post if you’re curious.

Naturally the community, especially those who would be living right alongside the subdivision, fought this. There was much hullabaloo and the developer decided it would be best to change his plan and propose only 60 units before trying again.

Clearly he missed our point.

The fact of the matter is, not only was this subdivision unwanted, but the local area could not sustain it. There is hardly a “job market” in this area, be it skilled or unskilled labor. Keep in mind, despite the fact that I often say “the town of La Mesa”, the reality is that La Mesa is not a town. Its proper classification is a village; that’s how small this community is. To top it off, the surrounding roadways would have been adversely affected with the surplus of traffic. Then there’s the issue of water tables and lines to support the 60 units, not to mention the large irrigation canal bisecting the property.¹ And what of the schools? La Mesa elementary was changed and now only handles the preschool and kindergarten classes while the new Vado elementary school handles the rest of the grades. A plan I still don’t fully comprehend since, when the new elementary first opened, it was already at capacity. With a new subdivision already going up in Vado there is no place for one in La Mesa. Period.

But the developer tried regardless. To show you how long this battle has been going on, last season the developer decided to have a crop of cotton planted on the land so that the land wasn’t just sitting there and not making money in the meantime.

The developer can, unfortunately, appeal this decision and take this to another level. I sincerely hope he doesn’t and just accepts the fact that his subdivision is not wanted in our community. May the long battle finally be at an end.

1. The land in question sits behind our house and is separated from our property by a concrete ditch. Another segment of the land is also located on the opposite bank of the irrigation canal that runs alongside (parallel) to our house.

It’s a very good thing that I had already planned to get up early today to do some much needed laundry, otherwise Denali would so be toast right now. Isis is the one who wakes me up whenever she wants something. Denali lets me be, or so I thought. Cat woke me up at 3 o’clock this morning running up and down the bed, jumping off and meowing her head off, then hopping back on and batting at my hands and nose. I got the hint, I got up.

I planned to hit the 24hr laundromat early in the morning anyway so I started trying to strip the sheets and blankets from my bed, round up my pillows, then load them in the truck. Denali wasn’t having any of it and the food in the kitchen was ignored. I realized she wanted to play and decided to give her the “Easter” present I bought for her - a cute purple plush fish on a string. She loved the thing and was going to with it. I let her have at it and continued trying to strip the bed. As you can see, Denali was not amused by the disappearing bed things and jumped up to prevent me from snatching the last blanket:

That’s the only “light” colored blanket I had that was dirty so it was getting washed on it’s own, hence why I had left it on the bed while I got the dark sheets, comforter, and throw squared away. She really was adorable playing on the bed like a baby kitten. Denali, in her playful mood, even mistook my camera for a toy and attempted to yank it out of my hand by the camera strap.

And where was Isis during all of this? Sleeping in the bottom of the clothes hamper, and subsequently buried under the linens when I didn’t realize she was in there. Not that she minded; the silly kitty just purred away.

But hey, thanks to Denali I did get my laundry done before any weirdos or families got to the laundromat! Pity I forgot my power cord for my laptop though. When the battery went kaput I was forced to read those annoying vacation and realty magazines. Ya know, the ones that talk about the attractions and benefits for, say, Orlando vacations and the deals you’ll get for booking now. I would have much rather had a two year old Cosmopolitan magazine to read instead. Even one of those teeny bopper mags. Anything but magazines about homes and traveling. Nothing drives home the fact that you’re broke better than those things.

I get a lot of different emails advertising various auction, wholesale, and resale places. In fact, my gmail and one of my hotmail accounts get so much of it that I seriously have to wonder how I got on some of these lists. Ironically, the other day I saw an email for Bidz.com nestled next to a bunch of emails for wholesale laptops and free blackberries, and as such, I wrote it off.

Well, as an InboxDollars member I sometimes get paid to try out certain offers and companies. A paid email from InboxDollars arrived on the 2nd for Bidz.com that offered to pay me $12 for signing up and purchasing something. On that same day Bidz.com was running a special promotion where you could sign up and get $18 to spend that day. Hard to beat that right? I honestly half expected the auctions to have stuff I wouldn’t want because Bidz.com has jewelery auctions, and as we all know, this tomboy is very picky about her jewelery. Check out what I managed to snag for myself:

Getting this lovely bracelet was quite the challenge, all of the gem bracelets are fought over tooth and nail it seems. In fact, there were two others that I really wanted, one of which was primarily Jade, Agates, and Aventurians and the other was Amethyst, Carnelians, and Quartz and I ended up getting beaten out in the last seconds of the auction. Anyway, this bracelet features genuine Agates, Amethysts and Tigers Eyes and set in 925 Sterling silver. Total item weight is 31.9g; length 8.25in. Certificate available, not that I really care about stuff like that. This sucker is valued at $89.00 and I got it for $7.

These earrings were surprisingly hard to win. Now, I’m not trying to say they’re ugly or something. Because, if they were, I sure as hell wouldn’t have bid for them. Rather, at the time that this auction was coming down to the wire there were ten or twelve gem bracelets up on auction with less than two minutes to bid. I know because when the ones that I was interested went over $10 I backed out and let the others duke it out. Plus there were a bunch of the popular rings that folks were really fighting over as well, as such, I expected no competition and looked forward to only paying $1 or $2. I ended up paying $9, but that’s not bad at all. These Thunderbird earrings are made in 925 sterling silver with Created Opals. Certificate Available.

And because I had the earrings, I thought it would be awesome to own a matching necklace. This Thunderbird necklace is also crafted in 925 sterling silver with Created Opals, length 16in. Certificate Available.

A lot of the jewelery starts off real cheap, we’re talking $1 bids here. And as you can see, most of the jewelery has $80, $90, $300, even $1,000 dollar values. Some of the bids get crazy, but for the most part you can snag some awesome deals.

I know some gals *cough*Julie*cough* who will really enjoy this website, even more than I have.

If you’re wondering whether or not this website can really save you some money, well just take a look at this:

Can you really beat that? Plus there is a category for engagement rings all on it’s own.

When my jewelery arrives I’ll be sure to take some pictures and share my thoughts on it.

I never did end up seeing Twilight in theaters; somehow something always interfered and any plans to see it got smashed to bits. While I was up at Wal-Mart last night I saw a display of Twilight dvds. Since I did enjoy the series and, in my opinion, the first book was definitely the best out of the series, I thought the movie would be worth picking up. Now granted, I heard some rather disparaging comments on the movie, but I’d also heard a lot of good too. I expected the movie would be pretty decent but with some flaws.

I really couldn’t have been more wrong.

The beginning started off dull and had me going “come on, get to the good stuff” for the most part. When Bella finally got to her new school I started cringing almost non-stop. Bella Swan’s (Kristen Stewart) performance was just bad, that’s all there is to it. It was embarrassing to watch such a performance! Robert Pattinson, who played Edward Cullen, wasn’t much better. I came to dread the scenes between Edward and Bella. They were just badly done, unbelievable, and stiff. Stewart had a particularly hard time conveying emotion in her performances. For example, when she sees Edward’s skin in the sunlight she was supposed to be amazed and impressed. I mean the guy’s skin is shinning like precious jewels after all! Instead her voice sounded so bland as she said “it looks like diamonds” almost like she was commenting on the weather. This was completely at odds with the expression on her face, which looked like a cross between surprise and bewilderment. Ironically though, Stewart’s performance did get better towards the end of the movie, almost as if it took the entire movie for her to get warmed up to it.

The performances by the supporting actors, however, was awesome. Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper were just how I pictured them and their actors did a fantastic job of giving them life. I was glad to see that some of my favorite scenes weren’t badly mangled. Bella and Edward’s first meeting was completely destroyed by the bad performances and poor attempt at humor. The baseball scene, and subsequently the meeting between the Cullens and the wandering vamps, however was nicely done though.

There was one other thing that irked the hell out of me - Edward’s pale skin. Somehow, it looked alright on the other vamps, including James and Victoria. But Edward, along with Carlise and Emmet just looked like a couple of guys dressed for trick or treating. Not to mention the fact that Edward’s skin color wasn’t exactly consistent throughout the movie. There were times where it was blended nicely and he looked only a tad paler then Bella, there was the cakey-white look, then there were scenes where it looked like they forgot to apply his vampire-makeup period. Very poor makeup job there.

Considering the way the movie ended, I suspect that they’re going to make a sequel. I really hope they don’t. Frankly I feel as though they killed the story enough as it is. Despite some good moments in the film I definitely won’t be recommending this movie to anyone; let alone seeing the sequel [if they make one].

I have to wonder how this movie got such a huge following and why there was always a big crowd going to see it. I mean honestly, after watching the movie I noticed a quote on the dvd box from Hollywood.com that states: “The most epic romance since Titanic“, and the first thought in my mind was that comparing Twilight to Titanic is like comparing MD 20/20 to a $500 bottle of Chardonnay. That endorsement just totally boggled my mind.

I’m sure there will be some happy folks on Swap A DVD though, as I plan to swap this dvd out for something enjoyable.

I saw a horrific and frightening sight earlier this evening. I was driving up to town muttering obscenities at the radio for only giving me stations filled with commercials about bankruptcy lawyers and debt consolidation (really, how is it that all stations can be on commercial at the same time? What are the odds?!) when the head light beams of the truck picked up a furry little body in the middle of the road. I drove for a moment down my street before pulling over to the side and turning around and parking on the side of the road near the poor creature. My cause for alarm? I was still on the street I live on, there was a gray long-haired kitty in the middle of the road, and I had not seen Denali before I left the house.

I approached the cat with much fear while chanting in my head “please not Denali, please not Denali”. When I got close though I could see that the cat had long gray fur with other colors mixed in it just like Denali’s. The poor thing was cool to the touch, but judging by the freshness of …everything…. that was on the street and that rigor mortis hadn’t set in I suspected that the cat hadn’t been there more than an hour. I sincerely hoped that the poor thing was dead on impact and wasn’t laying there in pain. I honestly couldn’t tell, looking at the cat if it was Denali or not. She hasn’t been wearing her collar lately, the cat’s face was mangled, and all I could see was a green eye. I started cursing the fact that people treat this residential street as though it were a highway.

I ended up grabbing a shovel from the back of the truck and moving the cat out of the road then hopping in the truck and heading back home. It was late, Denali shouldn’t have been outside but she’s known for slipping outside when my grandfather comes in so it was possible she was outside. I pulled in our driveway and started calling, or rather yelling, for Denali. No answer. I opened the kitchen door and was about to start calling her again when I noticed Denali sitting in the middle of the floor looking up at me with the most confused face I’ve ever seen. She must have been thinking something along the lines of what have you been smoking/drinking mommy. I swear I made her even more confused when I scooped her up and just stood there hugging her. She didn’t even get fussy about being manhandled in such a way. Just gently purred and let me hug her.

Did Denali understand that I had been completely and utterly freaked out over her and was trying to comfort me as best as she could? Probably. My girls are very insightful to my moods at times.

I wonder if it makes me a bad person for feeling relieved that it wasn’t Denali and that the cat I saw belonged to someone else? I didn’t even think about what that person might be feeling tomorrow when they see their cat on the side of the road. All I could think about was that it wasn’t Denali.