Discriminating Tastes

Today I went to AAA to renew our AAA membership. I could've opted to just renew our membership online or over the phone, but then we would still be members of AAA South instead of AAA Michigan. Not a real big difference except that then we would get the monthly MI magazine instead of the FL one. Well... the MI AAA doesn't recognize Vickie as my family member which means that she would need her own membership which would cost us an additional $35! After I told the guy to go screw himself, I came home and renewed over the phone with AAA South which doesn't care how Vickie is related to me ~ they're just happy to have the money! I was really quite pissed (understatement) and I wonder if this could be considered discrimination? I would think that if something is okay with one AAA it should be okay with every AAA ~ dontcha think? I mean come on, it's 2006 for god's sake! This will be interesting to look into...

Feast One Hundred!
Woohoo! One Hundred Feasts!
Appetizer
On average, approximately how many times per day do you yawn?
I yawn a ton when I'm riding in the car. But if I'm not passenging, I usually yawn around 20 times a day.

Soup
What was your most memorable school field trip?
When I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade we took a field trip to Amish country and saw cheese being made and syrup being tapped from the Maple trees. I'd like to make a return trip there in the Autumn to show Vic.

Salad
Fill in the blank: I was extremely __________________ this week.
I was extremely time-challenged this week. It seems like I've had a list of things to do for every day this past week and was rushing to get everything done. I'm really looking forward to sitting in our backyard this weekend.

Main Course
Which color do you think of when you hear the word "soothing"?
Blue.

Dessert
What is something that, if you had to, you could save up the money to buy within one month?
Tigers tickets. Going to a Tigers game is a very expensive night out ~ not only do you have to buy the tickets (at about $35 a piece), you also have to pay to park ($20), and buy ball game food/beers (about $50). And now that the Tigers are winning all their games, good tickets are getting harder to find.

Backyard View

Backyard View
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

This is the lovely view of my back yard I have while sitting on my equally lovely patio chair...when it's not pouring rain like it is right now. Vic & I have been discussing what to do landscape-wise with the long stretch of grass you see before you. On one hand, it gives Shannon a big playground in which to play ball and roll around on the grass, but we're thinking it could really use some color. There's also a big grassy area behind the garage that I think Vic has earmarked for a veggie garden for next Spring. If we had an unlimited amount of funds I was thinking that maybe a nice little stone path starting at the patio and winding thru the length of the yard to a quaint little sitting area at the rear of the yard would be nice. Along the way there would be treees and bushes and maybe a water feature of some sort. But we don't have an unlimited amount of funds, so I'm going to have to scale it down a bit. I think we definitely need some color along the garage and fence area on the right of the photo, but I need some ideas for the middle part of the yard. I don't want to junk it up, but it just looks so empty right now. Any suggestions?

Nopa!

BalloonFest
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

Vic & I had a wonderful weekend! We couldn't manage to squeeze in the Opa! Festival, but I'm pretty confident there will be another Greek-themed festival in the Detroit area sometime before Summer is over. Saturday we spent the day with Vic's mom at the St. Clair Art Fair. The art part was pretty much like every other art fair I've ever been to ~ a lot of claybowls, yard ornaments made out of various types of wire & assorted bolts, paintings, and homemade jewelry. The best part of the fair was the location. It was held along the bank of Lake St. Clair, which separates Michigan from Canada. We saw all kinds of boats, a couple lighthouses and some Canadians! Actually the Canadians weren't that big a deal, but I really enjoyed the boats & lighthouses! And the weather was perfect. Not too hot and a wonderful breeze blowing in off the lake.

Sunday, after sleeping in, Vic & I headed out to the balloonfest ~ my first one! What a treat! The balloons were just gorgeous. They took off just before dusk, which explains why my picture isn't a little brighter. While waiting for them to take flight, Vic & I checked out the various craft booths they had set up, ate some balloon food (popcorn & candy apples!) and people-watched. It was very relaxing and since we probably would've just sat around outside at the house anyway, the balloons were a bonus! It's supposed to rain all the week, so I'm not sure what our plans are for the upcoming weekend. I'm hoping we can squeeze a fireworks show at the park on Sunday. Hopefully the rain will be gone by then!

Upcoming Weekend

I'm really looking forward to this weekend starting. Not just because of the obvious "no work" part, but also because there are a lot of events going on and the weather guy is predicting beautiful weather! In addition to the Balloonfest there's also an art fair and the Opa! Greek Fest we want to go to. I'm not a big fan of Greek food, but I'd like to check out the music and dancing. Pensacola had a yearly Greek festival, but something always prevented me from going. Hopefully Vic & I can work all three events into the next two days!

After reading Shawn's latest blog entry regarding books, I decided to order the first in James Patterson's "Women's Murder Club" series. It was only a penny online (and $3.49 shipping), so if I don't really care for it I won't have invested too much money. It sounds pretty good, though, so I'm looking forward to starting it. That also got me to thinking about all the books I've read that were eventually made into movies. Almost everybody says "the book was better than the movie", myself included, but there have been a few instances where I actually thought the movie outdid the book. A few of my picks, in no order, are Under the Tuscan Sun, The Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump and the whole Lord of the Rings series. Of those listed, I can honestly say that Under The Tuscan Sun and Forrest Gump were terrible reads. But still, the number of books that were better than their movies still outweighs the opposite.

Feast Ninety-Nine
Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you like your job?
I'm really over being a dispatcher, but as far as dispatching jobs go, Hazel Park is a great place to work. So I'd have to say career~2 and place of employment~8.

Soup
When was the last time you think you were lied to?
I'm lied to on a daily basis at work. It's amazing, really truly amazing, the number of people who call the police for help and then lie about why they need it.

Salad
Share some lyrics from own of your favorite songs.
"The incense of my soul is burned by the fire in my blood." Strangefire, Indigo Girls I just always liked that line for some unknown reason.

Main Course
What do you do/take when you are in pain?
Lortab or Motrin.

Dessert
Fill in the blanks: My __________ is very __________.
My butt is very large. I think Shannon & I will go for a walk now.

Doctor Doctor

I had my first doctor's appointment today since moving to MI a year ago. My new doctor is very nice...and young. I'd be surprised if she's older than 30. She's very friendly and I think I'm going to like her. I'm usually pretty good about staying up to date with my doctor's visits, but since I needed to wait for my insurance to start, I've gotten behind in my trips to the dentist & eye doctor. I think the next few weeks will be spent catching up on health-related stuff.

Not Saturday, tho. Saturday, if it doesn't rain, Vic & I are going to the Michigan Challenge Balloonfest in Howell, about an hour away. I've never been to a hot air balloon event before and I'm really looking forward to it! I've got something planned for almost every weekend this Summer. We may not actually get to do everything I've got listed on my calendar, but we're sure going to try. Especially since Vic may have to have surgery towards the end of Summer. She can't get in to see the neurosurgeon until September, so we won't know for sure until then.

Fleurs & Ivan

Fleurs & Ivan
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265.

Voila! I finally finished my cross-stitch project and have already started trying to get back in the scrapbook mode. Right now I'm working on a small album dedicated to Hurricane Ivan. That was in September 2004, so I'm quite a bit behind. I'm really looking forward to working on our trip to London, but I promised myself I would work in order, so it looks like London will have to wait for a bit. I've put all our pictures in chronological order and I'm not going to start a new cross-stitch project (maybe) until I get at least as far as London. I'd also like to clear the last few remaining pieces of crap out of the craft room and decorate it in a style conducive to scrapbook creativity. I think I've got a lot of work ahead of me!

MRI

I finally got all my uniforms in & tonight will be the first time wearing one to work. I have a feeling I'm going to look like a dork! I'll see what I look like tonight when I get all gussied up for work and if it's not too terribly bad I'll add a pic to an upcoming blog. Don't hold your breath, tho.

About 5 years ago Vic had surgery on her neck to correct a problem she was having; her left arm would go numb for no reason. The doctor replaced a couple of her vertabrae and she ended up being out of work for about 3 months! He also said that whatever this condition is may come back again. We think it may have come back. Now her right arm is giving her the same trouble and she's in constant pain. We went for an MRI yesterday, so hopefully the doctor will get the results today or tomorrow and can let us know if the same problem has popped up again or if it's something more managable this time. Either way, Vic is in a lot of pain and needs to get whatever is wrong fixed soon. I'd hate to think of her being miserable for the whole Summer.

Porch

Yea! Vic & I finally completed the back porch renovations. The before & after photos show the huge improvement. We're both really proud of our little home improvement project. We even threw a little sand on the steps so they won't be slippery in the Winter! Yea for us!

















I've also included Friday's Feast...

Feast Ninety-Eight

Appetizer
What is a word that you use that would not be considered common?
Geez, the list is endless...beedie-house for bedtime, feeties, sockies. I could go on for hours.

Soup
What theme of calendar do you have on your wall this year?
Ireland, both in the kitchen & by the computer desk.

Salad
Name 3 people you speak with by telephone a regular basis.
Vic, Frank the firefighter guy & Dave the radio news guy.

Main Course
If you could buy a new outfit for someone you know - who would it be and what would you purchase for them?
I would buy Vic some nice theatre clothes and then have her take me to some shows in town.

Dessert
What is the last beverage you drank?
Diet Pepsi with plenty of ice.

Insurance Venting

This coming weekend Vic & I plan on putting the finishing touches on our newly renovated back porch, after which we were going to call the insurance company so they could send out their guy to take a picture and approve of it. Well...today we got a letter from the insurance company fools saying they were still going to drop us because they don't approve of the type of heating we have inside our house. What?!?! We already found another company which has no problems (that we know of) with how we plan on staying warm 6 months from now and we can only hope that they'll be okay with the way we set our dinner table and the way we brush our teeth (up & down and in little circles is said to be best). All this insurance crap just got me to thinking ~ when did insurance providers come into being? Who was the first crook who said, "If you pay me every month, I'll make sure I'll help you out when something bad happens. But only after you pay the first $500 and only if the inside wiring is compatible with the SJ/54 blah blah standard coupling comficturation... and then we're going to drop you if you drive too close to someone who might've gotten a parking ticket within the last 25 years." And then wouldn't you like to know what body of legislation agreed to all this and made it a law? Was there donkey insurance back in the Jesus days? Apparently Joseph wasn't a member of the Nazareth Donkey Association (NDA) or else he and Mary might've had better luck getting a tow to an inn with a vacancy. Or maybe he just didn't have the right kind of donkey ~ older donkeys are usually harder to insure. Stupid-head insurance people!!

Wednesday Afternoon In The Park With Baboo

The sweet Baboo & I took a wonderful walk in the park today. She has been kind've in the dumps lately and I wanted to do something different from her everyday routine, so we drove out to Dodge Park, about 10 miles from the house. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a walk in the park! We saw duckies and other dogs with their people and we peed on different types of nature all along the trail...she had a blast! Afterward, we rested under a shady tree and had a bowl of water and some dog cookies while we worked on the crossword puzzle. It was a nice afternoon out & hopefully she'll perk up a little now.

House Year In Review

Exactly one year ago today Vic & I moved into our new house. Actually, we were still on the road ~ we pulled into our driveway right about at sunset. The thing I remember most about that trip north was that it was LONG! What should have been about an 18 hour trip turned out to be 24 hours spread evenly over 2 days. Still, even that wouldn't have been so bad, but we were both packed liked sardines into our Jeeps. I guess I actually had the better part of the deal because although my Jeep was crammed full of stuff, we still had to leave a little room for Shannon to move around. Vic was traveling with 13 cats, 1 gecko and pulling a small UHaul trailer. Ewww! We had purposely left out our mattress so we would have something to sleep on the night before the trip and the plan was to cram it into the trailer before we left. We didn't count on Tropical Storm Cindy dropping buckets of rain on us, nor did we think we'd have any trouble actually jamming the thing into the little UHaul. Surprise! After finally getting the damn mattress in the trailer and changing out of our dripping wet clothes, I got Vickie some much needed coffee and we hit the road. The trip was mad tolerable with our newly purchased walkie-talkies ~ handy for letting the other driver know what radio station to turn to and to coordinate potty breaks. Somehow we managed to stay just ahead of the rain until we got to Nashville, our layover spot. We spent the night with Vic's brother and then awoke to terrible rains for the completion of our journey.

Just to make things interesting, the brake light on the UHaul stopped working so I had to stay behind Vic the entire rest of the trip so nobody would run into her. This was my lovely view for 12 solid mind numbing hours.


Needless to say, I never want to move ourselves that far again. Now that we've been here a year, we're finally making all the changes to the house we wanted to make and it's starting to feel more and more like our home. We've planted flowers and small trees, repaired the back porch (finally!) and created a very relaxing space on our patio.

Unless it's raining, both Vic & I spend alot of time out here. Since this picture was taken, we've planted more fowers and added a few other nice touches. It's really great sitting out here on cool Summer evenings!


The biggest change for me has definitely been the weather. Obviously the snow was a big change, but the most pleasant change is with the beautiful weather we have in Spring, Summer and Fall. The days have been warm and the evenings cool. We had a few really hot days a couple of weeks ago, but this past week was definitely sweatpants weather.

To wrap up, I think we're both really pleased with the events of the last year. There have been a few rough moments, but eventually everything has smoothed itself out and the past year can be considered a success. We're now planning new projects for the house and upcoming vacations we'd like to start planning for and are really looking forward to the next year's adventures!

Porch

Most of our weekend was spent working on the back porch...and it looks great! Vic patched the missing chunk of concrete on the front end of the porch Saturday afternoon. We gave it overnight to dry and when she took off the board that was holding it on it looked great! She really did a nice job for never having done any concrete work before. In addition to handing her any needed tools and running to the store for stair stringers, I also moved the big heavy paving stones and aligned them to make a nice walkway from the porch to the patio. We're going to give the new concrete a week to dry before we paint it and after we do I'll include a few pictures of our new addition. The porch and walkway really took up most of our weekend. We had a little time left, however, for some backyard grilling and planting of some new front yard plants. The yard is really coming along nicely and with the cool weather we've been having lately, sitting outside has been a joy. I'm almost finished with The DaVinci Code and just have a very small section left on the cross stitch, so hopefully I can start dedicating some much needed time to scrapbooking soon. Not really sure what our next project will be, but I suspect it will probably be something indoors. Maybe we can finally get around to painting the bathroom. It's the most hideous shade of yellow I've ever seen. I can't believe we've lived with it for a year, but I guess you can get used to just about anything after a while.

Weekend Plans

Wow, I haven't blogged since Monday. I must lead an incredibly full & fun-filled life... or absolutely nothing's been going on all week. You choose. This upcoming weekend Vic & I will be busy trying to fix our back porch steps & going to a party. The steps have to be repaired (at least temporarily) or else the stupid insurance company will cancel our policy. And the party is for a friend of Vic's she knew way back when she used to live here a lifetime ago. I'm a little nervous about it. I always worry (just a little) about what Vic's friends think of her girlfriend. Then after about the first hour I figure "Aww, screw 'em" and don't worry about it the rest of the night. I'm really trying hard to finish The Da Vinci Code, too, so I hope I can squeeze in a little reading time. Maybe I should just take Monday off!

Feast Ninety-Seven

Appetizer
About how much money did you spend on gas this week?
Exactly $35. I just got gas two days ago.

Soup
What is your favortite brand of toilet paper?
Cottonelle double roll. The lines on it are soft.

Salad
When was the last time you discovered something that you thought was pure genius?
Totino's Pizza Rolls really impressed the heck outta me. Good & good for you!

Main Course
What is the least amount of sleep you can get by on per night?
At least 6 hours or I get pretty cranky.

Dessert
June is a popular month for weddings. Do you know anyone who is getting married this month?
Nope, but I know somebody that got married last month.

Day Off

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day and except for Jeannine leaving, it would've been a perfect day! I really enjoyed her visit and loved spending time with her again, even if it was just for a little while. I wish we lived near each other again, but I don't think we'll be moving any further south than we already are and I'm pretty sure she's never moving north again. Well, there's always vacations I guess. Speaking of vacations, I'm still on mine. I took tonight off from work so I could catch up on the daily house things I knew would get cast aside during Jeannine's visit. And I'm glad I did! I had to get up early to take her back to the airport and then spent most of the rest of the day doing outside stuff (cuz it was so nice). I took a short nap and then spent the early evening sitting outside reading and watching the sun go down. Now I'm going to take a nice relaxing bath and work on the old cross-stitch a bit before Vic comes home from work. Not a very energetic kind of day, but I actually managed to get a lot done today. Cutting the back yard was the biggie and I'm counting that as my exercise for the day. (I'm not sure lounging about & reading burns off too many calories.) And, bonus!, I got some sun! Not a bad day off from work at all.

Frankenmuth

Today the girls & I took a ride to Frankenmuth, about an hour north of here. We got off to kind've a late start (I always sleep too late!), but still managed to have a great time. It's a little town with everything German and lots of stores filled with stuff I don't need but must have! We had a beautiful sunny day to walk around town in and the rain held off until we were in the car on the way home. We got home in time to watch both the Tigers and the Pistons lose. Not a good night for Detroit sports. At least now Vic doesn't have to watch any more basketball. But of course this frees up more nights for baseball!

Feast Ninety-Six

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how funny do you think you are?
I think I'm probably a 9ish.

Soup
Name a local restaurant would you recommend to a visitor to your town or city.
Don Pablo's ~ they have great Mexican food!

Salad
What's a lesson you were lucky enough to learn the easy way?
How to be a dog mom. When Shannon found us she was already potty trained and had a wonderful personality. I was lucky enough to avoid the pitfalls of puppyhood and to have a dog that was patient with me while I was learning how to be a good mom.

Main Course
Where would you like to be 5 years from now?
Debt free & living in a house with a wrap-around front porch.

Dessert
If you could see the front page of a newspaper from June 2, 2106, what would you imagine the headline might be?
"The USA's Tenth Lesbian President Gets Married!"

Happenings

Vic & I put the air conditioner in the the living room window today. We hooked up the bedroom one last weekend, but I was really hoping to get thru at least the middle of June before putting in the living room one. I know that now that it's hooked up Vickie will run that thing 24/7 whether there is a nice cool refreshing breeze blowing outside or not! I miss having central air, but I definitely don't miss the Vic setting the temp to freezing all Summer long. I'm hoping there will be plenty of breezy evenings and cool nights to look forward to in the coming months.

Jeannine is in town thru the weekend, so I took a few days off to hang out with her. (I think she brought the hot weather with her from FL.) We've got tickets to the Tigers game tomorrow night and hopefully the rain will pass us by for the next few days. Whether it rains or not, I'm just looking forward to not having to go to work until next week!

The Pistons won tonight! This means that they now go to Miami on Friday for game 6 of the series. If they win, the two teams come back to Detroit on Sunday for the final game. If they lose Friday, the season will be over. Go Pistons!

My six-month probation period at work expired yesterday, so now I'm officially part of the police dept. What this means is that now I've got to go buy uniforms to wear to work. It's not the wearing of the uniform that I mind, it's the paying of the uniform that sucks. I'm sure that just one shirt, pants & accessories will cost over $100! I get a clothing allowance, but it still sucks.

I'm really enjoying reading The Da Vinci Code. The book is filled with interesting facts ~ most of which I had heard something about previously, but never really paid any attention to. The Rose Line in Paris for example. I think if I was a Parisian I would be pissed about the whole Greenwich Mean Time thing, too! So far, this has been one of the better newer books I've read in quite a while. Two thumbs up!