I'm so tired of this crap

Every year around Christmas you get a thousand posts on Facebook from "friends" saying how they hate when people say "Happy Holidays" or write "Merry Xmas" and how we need to "keep the Christ in Christmas". And every year I want to throttle people.

So Proud of my Hubby!!!

Our car died last week. Hubby was pretty sure it was the starter. We were advised, however, that it could be electrical (like a dead battery) so on Saturday he borrowed Banshee's car and took the battery to get tested. It was completely dead. So he purchased a new one - but it didn't make the car start. Which led to plan B - replacing the starter. It was priced $130 at the local auto store, so we checked online and found one listed for $71 with free shipping. When we called to order it, it was even cheaper!!! And altho it was gonna take 3-5 business days to get to us, we figured it was totally worth it. So order it we did, and hubby took the bus to work every day and rode a (borrowed) bike every night home. For a week. The starter was delivered today. At first we thought it was the wrong part cuz it was labelled 2002 starter, but after some googling i discovered that starter fits the 1998 - 2002 version of our car. hubby went outside and took the old starter off (after much cussing, buying an extender for the rachet and a blood sacrifice). That was obviously the hard part cuz it took him a couple hours to get it off, but only about 30 minutes to put the new one on. AND THE CAR STARTED!!!!!! I am so proud of him!!!! And for once we were able to save money on a fix for our car!!! Even with the new battery (at almost $100) it was way cheaper than taking it in to get fixed!! And we still have money to be able to finish our Xmas shopping this weekend :-) xoxox

Too frigging early

Testing out my new app

Just downloaded a blogger app so I can blog on the go and stuff. Hoping to use it a lot for my crafty business blog and who knows. Maybe it will give me my voice.

Xoxox

P.s. attaching a pic of sleepy kitty

I prefer it cold

This evening I wasn't feeling so well - constant coughing and runny nose (even AFTER taking some cold and cough medicine) - so i went to sleep earlier than normal (around midnight). I made hubby promise he would turn down the thermostat before he went to sleep because he was staying up a little later and didn't want "to freeze" if i turned it down.

Usually, as soon as he heads to sleep, I turn the thermostat down from 70 to around 55 - 60.

Well, he didn't turn it down. And I can't sleep when it's too warm. Especially since I got used to sleeping in super cold in our old apt (in the winter - in the summer it was sleeping in the warm - which i don't do so well). So I woke up 3 hours later sweating and haven't been able to get back to sleep since. I have turned the heat down tho, so hopefully I will be able to sleep soon as it cools down enough.

Can't Sleep

Days and nights are all screwed up - again. Plus I'm a little stressed out (as usual) mostly about money and living and stuff like that.

I must say tho, I am so in love with our new place. I really miss the old one. Being downtown was so nice, especially during the holiday season cuz it's so pretty,  but this place isn't too shabby in terms of location. I have a 7-11 right around the corner from me, as well as a deli, and the bus stop is less than half a block from my door (and it runs to downtown).

this is moving week

we rented a truck yesterday and spent most of the day packing it and unpacking - and once everyone left we still ran 3 loads of car to our new place .... and we still aren't completely moved out!!!! I have spent most of the day in the apt today but i am pretty much useless cuz i'm so tired and sore from yesterday. Mostly I've washed clothes and bagged them up to take to the new place tonight. Also boxed up some electronic stuff. Will finish the bedroom by the time hubby gets here tonight after work (hopefully).

Tomorrow I'm spending the day at the new place to try and get some things unpacked and organized there so it looks and feels livable. Right now we have our loveseat set up and our bed and the tv in the living room - OH! and the coffee maker in the kitchen lol. you know - the necessities ;)

When hubby gets off work tomorrow it's back here to pack up the rest of the kitchen and the craft room. Wednesday is gonna be the living room and dining room and Thursday will be minor cleaning (if all goes according to plan) and giving the keys back to Leon (in exchange for our vacuum cleaner)

I'm so frigging tired. The only thing keeping me from taking a nap is the fact that we don't have a bed or a couch or anything for me to lay on lol.

Gonna play some bingo blitz - then it's back to packing and cleaning.

xoxox

not really any better

this is moving weekend. got most of our stuff packed - mostly cuz we never really unpacked here since we didn't have alot of storage - got the truck rented for sunday noon to 6 - and we have until thursday to be completely moved out, so whatever we don't move tomorrow we'll work on the rest of the week.

really sad. i loved this place so much. i planned on staying here for many years. now the new apt looks like the place we'll be staying at for awhile.

it's hard to believe that just 6 years ago we were in such a different place than we are now. Back then we didn't know how good we had it really. Now I'm lucky if we have extra money to treat myself to a coffee from the local coffee house.

the sister situation isn't any better. She sent me a message basically telling me my lack of answering her is stress she doesn't need and so i don't need to bother responding at all. I'm not expounding on anything i'm feeling right now other than to say it makes me sad. (which apparently is my word today)

maybe after the move i'll be better.

wow it's been awhile

I've had alot going on in my life - which should mean I should blog more - but instead I've been keeping it inside me - i really need a blog with a password protect option so that not everyone can read my thoughts.

Yeah - sometimes i miss the days when no one read this thing.

Family Dynamics

Let's just say my family is fucked in the head. There's so much going on right now that pisses me off it's not funny.

Long Stories short:

 My sister got mad at our mom a couple months back and consequently mad at me (cuz apparently i chose the wrong side) and now is not talking to me and blocked me from seeing her facebook activity except the very basics (which at least means i get to see pics of my niece).

That in turn caused my dad and stepmom to stop communicating with me. I don't have absolute proof of that, but yesterday was labor day and usually involves a BBQ invitation at dad's house, which i didn't receive this year. I could be wrong and they could have just passed it up, which i am hoping, but I'm not holding my breath.

And of course there's the whole cousin drama going on. One cousin is back in jail and as a result another cousin is getting shit on by those in the family that blame cousin #2 for cousin #1 being back in jail. Both C1 and C2 live with our grandfather (well C1 will when jailtime is served) which means that, for example, during the recent heatwave, C1 supporters went into C2's room (on the 2nd floor - you know, where heat rises to) and unplugged the A/C and hid the adapter so C2 couldn't turn it back on.

Petty bullshit. I'm sick of it. I don't tolerate it from hubby's family and i sure as hell don't tolerate it from mine. And don't tell me that their my family and i HAVE to put up with it and love them anyway. I don't.

Time for a short walk.

hahahaha

so i lasted 2 whole days - that'll teach me to start blogging on a holiday weekend when i'm preparing for an art fair.

to finish the story - another friend posted that his gf's car's a/c went out and he had to get it fixed because not having a/c is"bad for the kids" (his gf's kids)

REALLY!?!?!

(his explanation to me was the son and his gf both have breathing "issues" and the hot humid air isn't good for them.

GAH!!!!!

(of course i type this from my air conditioned living room - but if i didn't have a/c i'd be outside or sitting in front of a fan"

xoxox

learn to swim

well, today there were HUGE storms that snuck in during the evening. They actually freaked me out a little bit. They definitely freaked out my cats.

 We have 2 doors into our apt - an outside door downstairs and another lockable one upstairs. Hubby left the downstairs one unlocked, and consequently it blew open in the storm. I ran down the stairs to close and lock it up and my calico followed (cuz she loves going where she shouldn't). I couldn't lure her back upstairs right away. Usually she lays on the cement next to the door until she gets tired or bored - which could be hours. Well a huge crash of thunder came shortly after i got upstairs and all of the sudden she came STREAKING into the dining room. And ever since then she creeps up on the door (upstairs) cautiously like it's gonna reach out and attack her.

The other cat just crawled under the bed until the worst passed.

Funnily tho, when it was all over, a friend of mine on fb (from HS) posted a pic of her hubby on a raft floating down their street - just a few blocks from where i live. their entire street was like a river (learn to swim) Luckily we didn't get any flooding - altho the utility room is a little damp.

life in general

i'm getting ready to head over to hubby's new job so we can walk home together. i love that he's working so close. He told me yesterday that in 2 weeks he's spent less than $20 in gas (cuz he can walk to work) contrast that with $40 every 4 days at his former job. so eventually - when we get the bank to get their head out of their azz - we will be saving money.

Also gonna try and do NaBloPoMo for the month of July. The official theme is "swim" but we're free to write about whatever we want. Plus with a couple art fairs coming up i'm sure i'll have some stories to tell.

kk - on my way. catch you on the flipside.

frickin banks!!!!!

so currently we are fighting with our bank. first of all they signed us up for overdraft protection without us opting into it. Then they charged us an overdraft fee FOR AN OVERDRAFT FEE!!!! WTF!!!!!

hubby is going in to the bank tomorrow to fight with them - this is just ridiculous. Seriously if we didn't need a bank to handle payments and the like we would just close this damn account and walk away.

hello

today i realized that I have been ignoring myself. this is going to stop. I am going to make a change. baby steps.

Sorry for not posting

not that anyone actually reads this thing anymore, but life's been pretty odd lately and i just haven't really been able to collect my thoughts as well as I've wanted. I'm planning a big blog post (or a series of smaller ones) over this week to catch myself up on what's been going on.

In the meantime, my newest creative endeavour - mini bottlecap charm bracelets

some pics i found

Just some random pics that i had on my camera's SD card that I never uploaded.

Scotch Brite Fur Fighter

We purchased this today. I've wanted it or awhile. We have 2 cats and 1 of them is a long hair and nothing seems to work to get rid of the hair very well. And I don't usually like using lint rollers cuz i got thru so many sheets a week. 

This thing is amazing! Each sheet attaches to the holder with a super sticky velcro type fastening. And each sheet has these tiny little teeth that grab the pet hair. I'm sure if you used it on fragile fabric it would snag, but on our heavy duty couch fabric it's amazing!!! It seriously picked up hair i didn't realize was there! I've had allergy issues when sitting on the couch - the hair on the back of the seat irritated my back and i was constantly itchy - right now I'm sitting in that spot after wiping it a couple times with the fur fighter and I am completely comfortable.

Seriously, if anyone out there has pet hair issues - you should get this!! I can't recommend it enough!!!

hanging out

Had a show today at St. Linus. Went well. Usually does. They seem to like me over there. Got a couple potential future sales so i'm happy. And my bottlecap supplies were delivered today so I'll have a bunch for my next show on the 9th, including some earrings and bracelets hopefully. As much as I wanna kinda phase those out, people love them.

Learned today banshee is also talking about applying to Ann Arbor and Cleveland. Trying not to stress. Just taking it one day at a time.

Killing Time before Dart League

I forgot my laptop power cord, so i only have about 20 minutes left before my puter dies. *le sigh* Which means I'm actually gonna have to interact with the "lovely" people in the bar right now. Sometimes they really make me want to start drinking at noon. But I won't. 

And thankfully there's only about 6 weeks left of dart league. Cuz I'm pretty sure that I can't last much longer. And we had a week off last week so I was able to slightly recharge. (still didn't completely clean the apt like i planned to tho - altho yesterday i did get a couple big things accomplished so i feel good about that)

Week (more or less) in review

Friday was a horrible day for my family. Both my grandfather and my step-mom ended up in the hospital (for multiple days) and we also found out a longtime family friend (and former neighbor for many years) lost their dad. It was devastating.

St. Patty's Tomorrow!!!

• Which means corned beef and cabbage tomorrow for me YAY!!!! Hubby makes the best!!! With some red potatoes and some horseradish!!! GOOD TIMES!!! He usually brings me like a double portion too.

This of course doesn't mean that I won't be going out in Wyandotte tomorrow on a hunt for quick cb&c before he gets home - maybe dinner with my mom. I only get it once a year so i kinda pig out lol

Tom Waits - I Wish I Was In New Orleans

playing around with my new toy

 I'm just showing my husband how to use our Dragon NaturallySpeaking software. He seems pretty impressed. I'm already impressed by it. I even taught it to say bad words. fuckstick fuckstick fuckstick fuckstick.

I'm done

trying Dragon again

For some reason, the microphone wasn't set up properly and so it was hearing my voice through the internal microphone on the computer. That explains why it did not understand me. It's working much better now and I don't have to speak like an idiot trying to speak English to someone who doesn't understand him or her.

And now for real I am going to work on my Irish scarves.

playing with my new toy again

this is our new computer. I am so in love with it. Yesterday we finally got software programs that were included  in the purchase.

Of course the selling point for me was that it came with Adobe Photoshop, which I use for my bottlecap business, but it also came with other software. specifically a program called Dragon naturally speaking which is a speech to text program and it came with a headset microphone.

GOT A NEW TOY!!!

Got a new computer Thursday via QVC!! so excited and happy with it! Still learning all the ropes, but I did just find WIndows Live Writer which gives me the ability to blog whenever I feel like it without heading to blogger.com – of course I also have blog this! but this is new and shiny lol

headed to sleep momentarily. Spending the day later with hubby watching the Oscars.

oh well

good game. the only thing good that comes out of this is that maybe it will make people forget about Brett "i have a small penis" Favre.

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!!!!!

GO STEELERS!!!!!!!

When will it stop?

I'm so f-ing tired of this shit. Just when a light starts to appear at the end of the tunnel, it get doused by some bullshit we can't seem to control.

Gearing up for the Snowpocolypse and stuff

Right now i should be cleaning and doing laundry - instead I'm watching "Anything But Love" from 2002 starring Isabel Rose and Andrew McCarthy. I thought I would really like it - plus i needed something to cleanse my palate after watching "Hounddog" starring Dakota Fanning. That movie totally creeped me out and made me think it brilliant at the same time.

"Harder Than Easy" - Jack Savoretti

This song touched my very soul.

My sister is in town!!!!!

YAY!!!! She and her family (hubby and daughter) are visiting from Austin, TX and I'm so excited!!! I can't wait to see them on Sunday. Our dad is having everyone over for dinner (prime rib). She's also gonna be staying a few days at our mom's which is only 3 blocks away from my place so I'll be able to see her and the pretty baby ANY TIME I WANT!!!!

I'm so glad we moved.

WE HAVE OUR CAR!!!!!

We finally got our car back last night. I'm so happy! hubby is ecstatic! Life is back to normal. Now to get our finances back in order.

Still don't have our car back!

We've been without a car since Dec 21st. It died when hubby was going into work. I don't really want to go into details until we have our car back, but I am NOT happy with the place we took it. At one point, after they had it for a week and STILL didn't know what was wrong with it, they told hubby (when he called for an update) "If you can't be patient then you can just come pick it up now and take it someplace else"

Hopefully it will be tomorrow.

New Year resolutions?

I don't have any. Resolutions don't work for me. However, I do have some things I want to accomplish this year that I've already started working on, like getting in better shape and becoming more serious about my jewelry/craft endeavours, and spending more quality adult time with my hubby. I've also working on being a better friend and staying in touch offline as well as online and getting together with friends more often.

But no resolutions for me. That's a sure set up for fail. I'm just gonna live life trying to be a good person and maybe become a better one.

Happy 2011.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

May your best day in 2010 be your worst day in 2011!!!!

p.s. check out my new craft blog at http://magikjazcreations.blogspot.com