A Thousand Words

I only have 5 more gruelling hours of work to endure and then I am off to the airport and then, what will go down in the history books as, “California Adventure ’06, WHOOP WHOOP!” begins.

The always wonderful Beckster has provided Homedog and I with a brief list of things we should do while in the Golden State. Beacause I know everyone around here (including myself) loves lists…here we go (in Beckster’s own words):

The Hometown newspaper — where I always wind up finding a at least one former classmate in the Court Report. This batch of newspapers proved even MORE entertaining, because not only was my cousin pictured with her husband for her wedding…

AND…on the very next page — my former elementary school gym teacher (who would scratch himself openly while we were skipping, galloping and fluffing the parachute about) as well as my high school gym teacher who would make us students walk a mile in the frigid Minnesota winters to the bowling alley while she would drive her fat ace there.

And last but not least…three rolls of nursing tape. Because, you can never have enough — that’s my motto.

And that is why I love my mom — and by this point, you should too.

You know, I’m not really high class. I’m sure this comes as a shock to most of you. So, since moving in to our latest digs, I haven’t really let the state of our dishwasher bother me. Until recently.

If I had to venture a guess, I’d say our dishwasher is circa 1980. Tough to say. Anyway, I’m used to having silverwear bust, disintegrate, melt, start on fire in the dishwasher – so I wasn’t really bothered by the fact that our latest apartment’s dishwasher continued to do this. Now, occasionally after doing dishes, I’d notice a faint smell of something burning. I knew this wasn’t because we lost another spoon to the heat cycle — it was something more. Sure enough, the actual sealant of our dishwasher had come undone and the heat sensor had actually burned a whole COMPLETEY through the seal. We kept using it though. Do you think either Heids and I would actually break down and do the dishes by hand? Fools! Anyway, last week as Heids was unloading it, I hear a crash, faint mumblings, perhaps even a curse word or two…and I wonder what the heck could be happening. So, I yell in from the living room (obviously too lazy to get off the couch and venture 5 feet into the next room) “HEIDS — what is going ON?!” Turns out the entire top rack fell OUT of the dishwasher because the bolts had finally given way after 20+ years of use. Nice.

So, we go ahead and place a call to our land lady, who I affectionately call Shirls…cause that’s her name. As I’m talking to her, I tell her about the rack, and she says that that can’t be good… and then I can not keep it to myself any longer… Visions of the apartment burning down are dancing in my head and I decide to go ahead and mention the burnt smell after every wash and the charred sealant. I casually mention my concerns to her, and her exact response is, “Oh, shit.” Yes, this is hilarious because she’s probably 65 and comes up to my navel — I SWEAR. She’s the cutest.

Anyway, long story short — we’re getting a new dishwasher. High class HERE I COME!

Happy 21st Birthday Homedog!!!!

I’m in the process of re-designing ATW — nothing special, just time for a change. It was a little frustrating because I could just use the same modified template I’ve been using – and modify it once again — but the header font is KILLING me. Anyway, I’ve tried pretty much everything to change it and have had no luck. So, I just started with an entirely NEW template and have been going through the process of ripping it apart and modifying it to my hearts content (with a font that makes me happy).

It made me think about how when my fellow bloggers and I started blogging and we were only using the standard templates they provide with no alterations what-so-ever. We were so young and innocent and naive to the world of blogging — and now look at us, we’ve spread our wings! Custom headers, backgrounds, sidebars….the list goes on and on! We’ve come so far! Doesn’t it feel good?

Side note: In one of the codes of the current template I’m modifying, they had an html link for some fancy graphic and part of it was “tic tac tile.” This made me chuckle because that is TOTALLY the name of Ronald Miller’s (the future Dr. McDreamy) dad’s company in Can’t Buy Me Love…completely one of my all time favorite movies!

Heids made baby Angel Food cakes last night. It was really cute and oh so tasty. I got really excited about them, actually. My mom used to make me angel food cake for my birthday — before I knew the goodness of 4 Layered Torte. Anyway, the first batch was a bit sketch because they started overflowing in the oven. They even looked a little rugged coming out of the pan. But, you know, in the words of Joey… Angel food cake, GOOD. Strawberries, GOOD. Whip Cream, GOOOOD.

I think from now on, I only want to eat things that are miniature in size because it’s just so fun.

Okay, I know I’m not having as bad of a day (or weeks) as others….but, really this whole car thing has gotten out of hand.

My lovable mechanic called me on Friday and gave me the great news that it would cost $900 to fix Ness. Okay, this is really super because I have all of this excess money laying around that I have NO idea what to do with. And, then it was kind of cute because he says, “Have your dad call me and we’ll talk about what’s wrong with it.” So, Pops calls him up and confirms that it would probably be better to fix the car than to get a whole new one and inherit someone else’s problems. Okay, great.

So, all weekend I was without a car, unless of course you count my chauffeur, Heids – who drove us around everywhere (thanks heids). I was planning on getting my car back this evening and also getting Heids’ headlight fixed while I was there. (I was informed that this would mean I had to buy my mechanic a beer.) Annnnyway. This morning I get a call from my guy. He says, “I’ve got some news for you.” I think…oh DEAR GOD, what else could possibly be wrong with my car?

He says that my window was smashed over the weekend. Great. I ask if my CD player is still there, he says…”of course not.” I say, great. He says, “hahaha just kidding, it is. I just thought it might lighten the blow a little.” Then I ask if my boots are still in the back seat and he’s not sure whether I’m joking or not – so I tell him to go check. And, sure enough they are there. And, really there is nothing else in the car that I care about. And he says there’s a detective on the case and I have a case number, so I suppose that’s kind of cool. So, I guess that they’ll be taking care of the window today and he’s going to try to have it finished today, but there’s a possibility that it may be tomorrow before I get Ness back. Agggh.

I told him not to call me again until he had some good news to share.

I am grateful today. One of my big fears living out here is having car issues and having no one (other than AAA) to really come to my rescue. Another one of my fears is having car problems while going across one of the floating bridges.

Well, let me tell you — it was an interesting morning. As I was mid-span on I-90, my “Check Engine” light came on and the gauges on Ness started freaking OUT. This then made me FREAK OUT. I just had to tell myself “make it across the bridge, make it across the bridge.” Once I successfully crossed the bridge I called my dad – 2000 miles away. As soon as he finished his crazy loud mouthed greeting “HEY SHELL…bloah alhbalke” I blurted out “DAD – I think I’m having car problems.” So I tell him my temperature gauge is way past hot and he calmly tells me I should exit ASAP because it could blow up my car. Grrrrrreat. No less than 7 phone calls to him later, raw finger tips, him telling me to touch the cap that says “DO NOT TOUCH – EXTREMELY HOT” and $20 in radiator coolant later — Ness is back in action. She’s also got an appointment at her mechanic for tomorrow morning.

I’m so thankful that I can depend on my Pops for things like this. I am also thankful that when I have to wait 15 minutes for my car to cool down, I can call home and Homedog can talk my ear off and make me laugh and help me relax. This is why I love my family.

I’m also thankful for my coworker who gave me a chart of the decimal equivalents of feet & inches. He must have secretly known I suck at all things mathematical.

That is my day today – it is crazy and I wish I were in bed, and I spilled coffee down my pants, but I shall press on. ‘Cause that’s just the kind of girl I am.

Much love to you all.

So, this is weird. I just got a voicemail from some lady who said, “Hi….this is Margaret from Westminster Chapel.” And, so right away I think, why the crap would someone from Westminster be calling me? I haven’t gone to that church in nearly 3 years. I’m straight up First Pres, yo. Anyway, she goes on to say that she found my Bible, and it’s been in the lost & found for “quite some time.” Talk about random! The Bible she mentions — it’s been gone for seriously almost 4 years! (I had gotten a new one since. I’m not that much of a heathen.) Anyway, I thought that I had left it at school, or that my car had mysteriously gobbled it up, or that it got misplaced during one of my many moves. Aparrently Madge had mistakenly taken it home with her one Sunday and now she’d really like to get it off her hands. Haha…whaaaat?

It’s Friday, I’m in love.

Here’s something that made me happy this morning. Not only is it a beautiful day and the view from my desk is incredible (see above), but I spotted trees begining to bud! And they were the pretty trees (I really know crap about horticulture) – with the the pink and white flowers. Spring really must be right around the corner.

I’m going to the doctor today and I’m a little scared. I haven’t been to a doctor in yearrrrs. I didn’t even go when I smashed my 2nd biggest toe against a piece of metal. And, really I should have because it hurt so bad and I couldn’t really walk and I had to wear the boot. (Don’t make the same mistake Krysten!) And now, 2 years later it’s still crooked. I think the last time I was actually at the doctor was when I got a mole removed 6 years ago and had to get 3 stitches. And, then I had to take the stitches out MYSELF! Move over Jack! I mean, I guess I’m just generally healthy as a horse, what can I say? Ahhh anyway – hopefully I’ll come out of the appointment the same Shellster that went in. *fingers crossed*

This weekend I am going to chill and it will be most wonderful. I may even pick up on that scrapbook project I started several weeks ago. I will also be savoring all the beauty that is Joaquin and his scar. Also, if you are male and you could pass as Dr. McDreamy’s twin and would like to come over and make out, please leave a comment. Thank you.