Jenny Teague

Jinky

2012-01-25T09:33:00.000-08:00

After we lost Lulu, we agreed no more dogs for a while. But after she was gone for two days, we knew it was time to search for another pug and fast. We thought, maybe a black male pug. That way its another pug but totally opposite of Lulu. Well, Pug Watch 2012 wasn't going very well. I came across dozens of scams or fawn pugs and eventually we thought we'd just take whatever we could get. My mom and Lori were looking in CA in the meantime to see if they had any pug leads. Just as I was about to spend $600 with a breeder two hours from here, Lori called to tell me about this pug she found in Reseda, CA by my mom's house. I told her if she wants to see it she can, at this point I trust her judgement.

Lori was going to check out the pug Monday night and I don't hear back from her for a while. I texted to see if she was going or not and she calls back completely excited and says she's at the house of the pug and it is super cute. OK. I told Jesse and asked what he thinks and he said it's my call, so I tell Lori, without even sleeping on it or anything, if she wants to get the pug, she can, but we need to figure out a way to get it out to Georgia. So Lori went to the ATM and I talked to my mom and told her I'd get her a plane ticket. She said she'd pay for half of it since we had just spent close to $600 on Lulu's cremation and vet costs. So we waited anxiously from Monday night till Thursday afternoon when my mom came out with Jinky.

I kept hearing everyone say what a cute pug she was in California. My mom and sis both thought she was super cute, a ball of energy and a good girl and Lori kept sending me pictures at random. The pug's name was Jinky. We weren't sure about the name and thought of changing it to Bebe, but in the end, Jinky was somehow a better fit. Plus, Charlie couldn't remember her name and called her Stinky and that worked too.

Thursday afternoon I met the Jinkster and she was so happy to see me. I think she must have thought I was Lori at first, but I didn't mind. I had a curly-cute tail smushy face pug eye baby who wanted to jump into my arms in front of my work and I was ready to take her to see her new forever home.

The first few days with Jinky were definitely an adjustment period. She hung out with my mom and Charlie constantly. They went to the park and Charlie and Jinky napped together while Jesse and I were at work. We thought, "OK, she's gonna be Charlie's dog." She also kept having accidents in the house, but I attribute that to the plane trip, being on a new time zone schedule, and being in a new home away from her old one. I also think she's younger than the people told my sister. They said she was 8 months but she seems younger than that. We all agree.

Anyway, yesterday I took my mom home and it was our first night with Jink-a-link and she was so excited and happy to see us when we came home. She was a very good girl and didn't have any accidents or anything while we were gone. She slept in our bed with us, but did wake up to check on Charlie, and barked twice last night at the neighbor's TV. This morning, she was hanging out in bed with Charlie and Jesse and then came to hang out with me in the bathroom while I got ready, something Lulu did all the time. It made me feel a little better to know this new little pug was following in the footsteps of Lulu. I don't want to compare the two because they're totally different pugs, but it's nice to know both had/have similarities in behaviors.

Jinky is a pretty cool little pug, though. She's a bag of bones and needs to put on weight but she's got a good attitude. I think in a few years when she grows up and pugs out a bit, she'll be a top notch pug. I love how she looks unamused and like she's judging you when you take pictures of her. It's so far from what she's really like in person, but every pug has their look. Lulu's look was either guilty, sad, or happy. Jinky so far is unamused and judgemental. We all love Jinky and look forward to a long and happy life with her.

Lulu Pug

2012-01-13T16:29:00.000-08:00

People who don't understand the impact of animals on people will never get it. I've heard it said time and time again, "It's just a dog." Lulu was not just a dog. Lulu was my golden child. No matter what horrible things she ever did, she was never capable of doing wrong. She was my baby and I even joked calling her my first born. I love my son, but I had never asked to get pregnant. I was happy when I had him. But Lulu, oh my baby pug, I had wanted a pug so much. I had never loved another four legged furry baby as much as I loved my Lulu.

In 2007, Lori got her papillon, Izzy. I wanted to get a dog as I was planning on moving out soon too and I wanted my pug. I had always wanted a pug. I loved their curly tails and big ol' pug dog eyes, how they'd snort and fart and I wanted a fawn pug. I spent months looking through the Pennysaver and classifieds, rescues and shelters, and even the pet stores. I had no luck with pugs. Finally, I found a listing on Craigslist out in Alhambra, CA for Lulu. Not much was said about her other than she was bought as a friend for the other pug, Obie. Obie was an alpha pug and had nothing of Lulu coming into his home, so her owners thought it would be best if she go somewhere that she could be an only child and loved the way she deserved. That's where I come in.

I emailed the gal about my misfortunes of trying to get a pug. A breeder in Lancaster, CA had one who was ready to adopt, but then they weren't ready. He had an eye infection. They were going camping. I spent almost two months hearing their excuses and my heart was breaking thinking I would never get a pug. I just wanted to come take Lulu and if she loved me, I would promise to be the best forever home she could dream of. The next day, I heard back from my email and the lady was completely touched by my story and wanted to meet me. So my mom drove me out to Alhambra (in the rare event I wound up getting Lulu, I had no way to take her home other than in my arms.) When I got out to her house, I saw a tiny little pug. This was Lulu. I learned her original name was something like Wuffie and the lady thought Lulu was a much better name for a pug. I couldn't help but agree. Lulu was far cuter in person than she was online. She was a scrawny little mutt when I saw her photos on Craigslist, but in person, she was a lot thicker and spunkier. She looked at me, growled, the hair on her back stood up and she barked like a mad dog and then ran away to hide. The lady was embarrassed and swore Lulu wasn't normally like this. She was a sweet dog. I looked at her and told the lady, "I have a feeling, despite her freaking out at me, that she will love me and we'll get along great." I gave her $300 which basically was a reimbursement for vet fees and we drove home. She said if Lulu didn't work out I could bring her back and she'd give me my money back, but I told her I don't think that will be happening. On April 30, 2007, Lulu was officially my baby.

On the car ride home, she cried. Not a dog whimper but a cry. It sounded like a hysterical infant. She was only 7.5 months old and going to her third owner now, me. I would be her last. I got her a little pug bed and some toys and food that night at Petco and set up her spot in my room to sleep. She sniffed around the house and laid in her bed moping. Or at least she looked that way. Because Lulu always had an expression of looking either sad or guilty, unless she was hot and panting and then she looked like she had a big grin. Anyway, that night, I tucked Lulu into her bed. I got into my bed and turned on the TV and watched South Park. Next thing I know, I feel a THUMP! and a little pug walks up beside me and curls up on my pillow. We look at each other and I though, "OK, so these are gonna be the sleeping arrangements?"

Within a month, I would be moving up to Reno, NV with Jesse, who was at the time my boyfriend. He hadn't met Lulu yet, but a month later, he met Lulu and we moved up to Reno. I brought half my things up one weekend and then the following weekend, Jesse was out of school and he drove back up with me and Lulu. He did most of the driving as Lulu got spayed earlier in the week and still had her stitches and was taking her post-op medications. Fortunately, we made it up in one piece.

Lulu wasn't very sure of Jesse at first, but he grew on her. I think she was still kind of torn over the moving from one owner to another to me at my parent's house to me with Jesse and she went through some really bad separation anxiety the first six months I had her. She would destroy shoes, tear the trash out and place it at various places around the apartment, share my used tampon applicators with the couch. But even still, no matter how awful she could be, she was my baby pug. She could do no wrong. No matter what she did, all she had to do was look at me with her big pug dog eyes and I could just imagine her saying, "I LOVE YOU MOMMY! LOOK WHAT I DID!" She didn't know better. I could never be angry with her.

When I got pregnant, Lulu knew something was up. No matter how pregnant I was, a few weeks to ready to pop, she was always very careful around my belly. I'll never forget when Charlie started kicking and Lulu and I were laying down on the couch watching TV one evening. Jesse was working nights at that time, so Lulu and I spent a lot of evenings watching TV or laying in bed together. She was laying parallel to my belly when Charlie kicked. She jumped and turned around to see what happened and couldn't see anything. Then she sniffed my belly to see just what the heck was going on in there.

I always wondered what would happen when Charlie was born how it would affect Lulu. I had never been away from her and when I had to stay in the hospital for three days with my c-section, it tore her heart up. I came home and she was so happy to see me. She was jumping and her tail was wagging and it was the best day of her life to have Mommy home again. And I won't lie, I wanted to be around her more than I wanted to be around Charlie. She didn't cry constantly. She wasn't so needy. She was a provider of unconditional pug dog love and I could cuddle her all day if you let me. She was curious as to what Charlie was all about. She knew he was that thing that was growing in my belly that would kick her when she laid at my side.

We all had our own special relationships with Lulu. I was Mommy. I was the unconditional love to her that she was to me. We were partners in crime. She was with me all day long. My first nights home from the hospital she laid on the floor all night staring at me as I tried frustrated to get Charlie to eat. I called her to my side and her little tail wagged that she was allowed to sit with me by the thing we called a Charlie. Instead of a Boppy pillow, she offered her pudgy pug dog services. When I would sit rocking Charlie, she would curl up into the little crevices between me and the glider. I couldn't help but question all the time how uncomfortable she must have been squished up like that, but she didn't care. She was with Mommy.

When I lost my job after Charlie was born, Lulu helped keep me sane. No matter how frustrated I got sometimes, she would look at me as if to tell me, "It's going to be OK." When Charlie took naps, I sat with Lulu on my lap, petting her till she would fall asleep and start snoring. Sometimes, she would snore so hard, she would scare herself and wake up.

Lulu and I were very close. I always considered her my dog. Yes, the whole family loved her and she loved them too, but I always felt I was the one she loved most. Jesse was the fun one. He was Daddy and Lulu loved Daddy. He did all the crazy fun play and rough housing I didn't do. Charlie was Lulu's baby. She was so proud and protective of him. But as he got older, she started to realize she was no longer the alpha pug and had to listen to him and it confused her a bit as to why she now had to listen to the child she had spent the last three years protecting.

I have never felt the pain and heartbreak for anyone or anything ever that I felt this morning when we had to say goodbye to my beloved baby pug. I had never wanted anything more in my life than to have my darling little Lulu. She was my pride and joy and in an instant, she was injured beyond recovery. It tore me apart to have to say goodbye to her, but it would break my heart even more to have to see her spend the rest of her life in pain, agony, and miserable. I wish I could go back in time and protect her. I failed her as her Mommy. It was a freak accident, but it was an accident and could have been prevented. I'm at a loss for words and wish I could do anything to have my Lulu back.

I'm sorry you had to go Lulu. I love you more than your little pug heart could ever know. You're my baby and my heart aches that you are gone. I PUG LU!

One last kiss. Goodbye, baby pug. I'll see you at the rainbow bridge.

Ding ding ding bonk! 2012 edition

2011-12-31T19:47:00.001-08:00

Predictions for 2012:

- voting numbers will reach an all time high for the us presidential election.
- Katy Perry will fall into a wild streak substance abuse rampage after her divorce with Russel brand is finalized. She will also release her highest grossing album to date and her first hot single from the new album will be a hate song about Russell.
- a destructive hurricane will hit Florida causing millions of dollars in damages
-Lindsey lohan will be involved in a near fatal car crash that will result in her choosing to take control of her substance abuse problems.
-

Ding! Ding! Bonk! 2011 Wrap Up

2011-12-31T18:28:00.000-08:00

Every New Years, Jesse and I have a tradition of listening to Coast To Coast AM's New Years Prediction show. In honor of that, last year I compiled my own list of predictions. Here's the follow up:

DING DING DING!
- There will be a mass meat recall due to some form of tainted beef.

DING DING DING!
- There will be a big fire in the central valleys of California.

DING DING DING!
- A new species of dinosaur will be discovered Utah.

BONK!
Well, while there WAS a new species of bird discovered, it wasn't in the Amazon, but surprisingly in the US. This is the first in over 37 years apparently. However, there was a new species of primate found in the Amazon.
- A new species of bird will be discovered in the Amazon.

BONK!
Well, there was a pretty devastating earthquake in India this year, but I can't find any info pertaining to outbreaks of diseases, looting or rioting, or the US throwing more troops there to civilize things.
- There will be a disasterous earthquake in India and it will be felt throughout many neighboring countries causing a massive outbreak of diseases, looting and rioting and the US will throw more soldiers to Afghanistan to try and stabilize things there.

DING DING DING!
- The economy will start to show signs of recovery (not stabilization yet.)

BONK!
Well, TSA did change a few rules in terms of security check equipment, but it looks like body scanners are here for a while longer.
- TSA is going to become stricter on their regulations on what you can and can't take on planes, however, the full body scanners are going to start to phase out due to costs.

BONK!
There were a few different lawsuits regarding privacy rights and cookies, but it appears there have not been any closed cases yet, but ones that have happened in the past have been thrown out or over ruled because plantiff's can't prove any harm done.
- Facebook will be at the center of a large class action suit over privacy rights (they will win under the pretense people can opt how much information they choose to share on the internet about themselves.)

Looks like any generalized prediction can come true or not. Just like horoscopes, if we look for it, we can find something in nothing.

WINNING!!!

2011-12-27T18:12:00.000-08:00

Did a short 3.75 mile tonight. After that, I went to Publix and saw fireworks. Oh yeah! When I was paying, the bag boy was talking to me about zombies. That was fun. I got home and took a shower and followed up by making an unintentionally healthy dinner. I made salmon for me since Jesse and Charlie already ate and found it to be a little on the bland side. I was really hoping for tuna, but they didn't have any tuna steaks. It was still nice to have fish since I haven't had fish in forever and a day. After dinner, Jesse rubbed my feet, which was the best thing ever because my feet were totally having flashback aches from Saturday's run tonight. Anyway, it was a good night. Gonna crash for the evening.

Point of Uncertainty

2011-12-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

Today we took my ring in to discuss the issue of another diamond falling out in the 6 months since I've had it. The manager wasn't in to authorize anything, but at this point we were given the options of they could send the ring out for repair (however, according to my insurance plan, my diamond isn't under warranty because I already used my one replacement option already a few months ago when it had the lost diamond after resizing.) Option two was exchange it for a new version of my ring, which, of course, would have to be resized, and even then they can't guarantee that the same thing wouldn't happen again. Finally, option three would be to exchange for something else. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I love my ring tremendously, but I also enjoy wearing it and I can't wear it if every time I turn around, it needs to be gone for a week here or there to get a resize, repair, cleaning, repair, etc. It's like buying a new car that turns out to be a piece of crap and constantly gets recalls and has to go in to get repaired. It's like, what's the point of owning something if you don't get to use it? I'm almost at the point of seeing if they'll just refund me my money and I go somewhere else. I'm kind of fed up and on the verge of throwing my hands up in defeat and saying screw it. I'm not gonna lie, this whole ring fiasco breaks my heart. Ever since the original was lost, trying to replace it with something permanent that won't get lost, destroyed, or break is almost like asking for an act of God. It's jewelery, not rocket science! What gives!?

Aches, Pains, and Complains

2011-12-24T15:22:00.000-08:00

5:20 AM - Wake up. Nose is full of thick yellow brown snot from week long sinus ruckus. Spend the next 10 minutes sitting on the toilet blowing it out, going pee, and spitting run off into the toilet between my legs. Multitasking at it's finest.

5:48 AM - Hop on the computer and look up directions to Shelly's house. Follow up by making coffee. Note to self: put water in coffee maker before turning on.

6:00 AM - Get dressed. Search frantically in the dark for leg warmers. I know I'll find them because I know they feel significantly different from the rest of the stuff in my sock/bra/underwear/tights drawer. OK, maybe not. Mistakenly found various pairs of socks before finding leg warmers.

6:15 AM - Brushing teeth and what not. Still haven't found my black do'rag. Not sure where it is, maybe in a clothing item or hunting gear? Haven't found it in a few weeks and I've been looking for it. Maybe it's time to give up looking for it.

6:50 AM - Finished getting ready. Mix up coffee. I look like a walking ad for H&K. I'm rocking leg warmers. I feel awesome. Today is gonna be a good day.

6:58 AM - Leave house. Google maps tells me it'll take 20 minutes to get to Shelly's house.

7:13 AM - Parking out front from Shelly's. Looks like Google lied. Rummage through car to get stuff situated for the day's run.

7:35 AM - Waiting for someone to show up for run. We should have left 5 minutes ago. She shows up eventually. Start running.

8:00 AM - Where the f are we?

8:15 AM - I hate you hills.

8:20 AM - I really like these houses. OOH! Horses!

8:25 AM - That sounds like a gun shot. If I'm out near these woods all sweaty and hearing guns in this morning cold, I'd rather be hunting. I'm half waiting for a deer to pop out in front of me any minute now.

8:50 AM - Stop. Dogs. They're barking at us. We have to stop or they'll chase us. Or so we're told.

9:00 AM - Halfway point. Surprise brownies. Oh yeah.

10:00 AM - Almost done. Lost our fearless leader, but we keep going. Says a lot about our characters. Oh look! A siren!

10:30 AM - Back at Shelly's house. Fudge and cider up. Good times.

11:00 AM - Log miles. Take a bath. Loaf briefly.

12:00 PM - Get dressed and what not.

12:50 PM - Take Charlie to see the new Chipmunks movie.

2:30 PM - Head home. Feeling guilty for being amused by Chipmunks movie.

3:00 PM - Home. Headache from lack of sugar and caffeine. Feeling pains of run. Achy. Tired. Gotta get ready for church.

3:40 PM - Leaving for church. Charlie is being a butt. Jesse stays home because he has a caffeine headache and is watching TV.

3:52 PM - Get to church. Charlie is asleep. Dammit.

4:00 PM - We're early for church but it's already packed. Charlie and I stand in the back. My knees are seriously killing me now.

4:10 PM - Charlie has to pee. We leave.

4:12 PM - We return. Someone lets me sit down. Thank God!

4:30 PM - Charlie is restless. He starts making a hand gun and shooting at Jesus. I grab his hand mortified before anyone notices and tell him, "NO!"

4:35 PM - Charlie is continuing to be a butt. The childrens' choir is singing Silent Night. Charlie throws up the metal sign. Mortified, again, I put his hand down and say, "NOT HERE!"

4:55 PM - Leave church aching and frustrated my husband and child are heathens, but I love them. Frustrated that even though I'm in pain and tired from being up all day, I still go to church. Charlie, who fell asleep in the car, managed to be OK for the most part at church. Thinking people must think I'm some horrible person because I'm at church by myself with my child who is trying to shoot Jesus and throw up the metal sign. Further proof this child is the devil child. ::facepalm::

5:15 PM - Home. Jesse didn't take out the trash. I hobble down the stairs and to the trash to take out the trash and boxes.

5:30 PM - Hobble back up the stairs.

5:45 PM - Open one present each.

6:12 PM - Done for the night. Finished blogging about my day. Ready to hang up dress, throw on jammies, throw my arms up in defeat and crash. Just gotta add pictures.

6:18 PM - Charlie spilled OJ on the carpet. Why does he have a drink on the carpet? So much for having a clean house for Christmas. So much for the carpets being cleaned. OK, NOW I'M DONE.

Blood, Sweat, Tears, & Lightning

2011-12-22T17:39:00.000-08:00

I was lacking one of my 30 minute runs this week due to the fact something on my leg has been hurting again. A few weeks back it was hurting at the start of the 7 miler, but after some ice and rest, it got better. Well, last week during the magic mile, it started to act up again, same spot. I iced it again and did the same treatment I did last time, only this time it's still hurting. It's not anything major, just a dull ache. Anyway, because of that I've been trying to rest it a bit in hopes it'll go away again.

So after I got off work today, I figured I'd go for a quick run before Charlie and Jesse got home because I know if I did it then, I wouldn't get comfortable and not go out. My leg has been feeling better and I thought I'd give it a whirl. I got out and it was unseasonably warm outside so I was in shorts and a singlet and ready to enjoy a nice little run. Not too long after I got out, it started to rain and I thought, "No biggie, this can be nice." I've ran in the rain several times and love it, especially when it's warm outside. It's like nature providing you with a cooling system. What's not to like?

So I'm running along doing my thing, feeling good and then I hear some thunder over my music. I take my earbud out for a second and listen and sure enough, it's thunder. "No biggie," I think, "It's just thunder. You can do this. Just keep on keepin' on..." and I continue to run.

I'm about 3/4 the way done when I see a streak of lighting cross above me and hear thunder crackle. I think, "OH SHIT!" and go into panic mode and speed my ass up and run a shortcut home as fast as I could. I still haven't been out here long enough to know when the lightning isn't a big deal or not, but I'm not really in the mood to figure out via trial and error either. In my hauling ass home, I got home in one piece, just completely out of breath because I must have ran a mile or so as fast as I possibly could and stressed my leg more and so it hurt again by the time I got home.

Later that night, I sat in the living room on the floor with Jesse and Charlie in the dark with ice on my leg watching the lightning show. It was a good time. And in other news, I managed to accomplish some tiny victories completing some of my Daily Mile challenges for the month. Yay. It was a good time other than aching and getting scared. All I can say is this is some craziness training for a marathon. Oh, and I have officially registered for the LA Marathon. That means I have to do it now. No excuses.

Do as you're told

2011-12-18T17:38:00.001-08:00

A long time ago I told Jesse to cut me off if I eat anything bad and to remind me I'm gonna get fat if I keep it up. He said no because it would give me a complex. I reminded him he's not insulting me by doing so but pro riding a reality check and that this dose of blatant honesty is sometimes needed especially since I can easily go into goldfish eating mode. Anyway tonight I was eating chocolate covered pretzels and Jesse took the bag and said I'm cut off or I'll get fat. Kudos to a man who does what he's told in the name of trying to help his wife help herself.

Random Optimism

2011-12-17T08:34:00.000-08:00

In a day and age where too many people focus too much on negative things about themselves I'm going to take a minute to focus on things I like. Hooray random list!

I have pretty good marksmanship, but not so good penmanship. But if you saw my handwriting, you'd think I were a doctor so I like it.

I like the way my bangs look right now and find it funny I always hated having bangs as a kid, but really like them now. A great hair stylist makes all the difference.

I never liked my boobs, but I think they look pretty good in push up bras and I never have problems finding shirts that fit because they're too big or too small. Sometimes being average isn't such a bad thing.

I hate going on diets and I hate exercise. But I like training for a marathon because it allows me to eat a lot and look great. I'm pretty sure after I'm done with my marathons in the spring, I'll probably keep up this same routine because I like eating and I like running places. I also love that I'm accomplishing a lot of my Daily Mile challenges.

I love my imagination. It is capable of so many incredible feats that make every day of my life ridiculously amazing and I never regret any days because they're all fantastic, even the crappy ones.

I have this ability to draw parallels between anything. I call it my Rainman ability. But really, its just my imagination and the gift of bullshit. This is the way I get through crappy days by trying to find some connection between negativity and positivity and flipping it into something not so bad. Optimism. It works.

I like that after so many years I've managed to create a budget and stick to it. Some days I really hate it because I'd like to get things, but I also know that it is savings with a purpose. I'm not denying myself of small material things at the time being but saving for a bigger, better material something later.

I have awesome people in my life. I'm a believer of staying where its warm. I have no problem weeding out negative people. They're like weeds in a garden and if you have one of them, you will soon have many and none of your flowers will grow. Pluck them while they're still small and your garden will thrive. I have a pretty bitchin' garden, just sayin'...

Anyway, maybe its my runners high still, or the fact I'm going hunting tomorrow, but I'm in a darned good mood right now. I'm excited about the holidays and just about running a half marathon soon. Life is pretty good right now. I'd like to stay that way. What are you happy about today?

Primaries

2011-12-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

Soon before you know it the primary election will be coming up and to be honest, I am really excited about this year's race. Anyway, I am an extremely firm believer people should vote based on policy and do their research on candidates they believe best fit true to your own personal beliefs and not the sports team style voting where you go for the "popular" candidate and get all crazy and riot in the streets when your person "wins". It's our country's future, not the Laker Parade. And let's hope there's no THREEPETE with any of our presidents... ever hahah. I was researching my presidential primary choices and I have to say I was rather surprised with my outcomes. I have a system. I read all the candidates takes on issues. I also have a charting system. Basically I pick the most important issues to me after going over each candidates stances on all issues they list and then give them a mark on my chart of + (worth 3 points) x (worth 2 points) - (worth 1 point) or 0 for no response on a given topic. 0's do not count towards the final score and if there are only 5 answers out of a possible 9 sections, the average is given out of the 5. Interestingly enough, the one candidate I have always liked and was thinking I would be voting for, came in a surprising 6TH PLACE on my system! That shocked me. Especially since he was my first choice in the primaries for the 2008 election. Interesting how things change over time. Either his views have or mine have, or there's candidates who strike my belief system closer that weren't in the running in the past. Either way, there are some interesting people in the race this year. I can't wait till the actual candidates are picked for the 2012 election. That'll be round two of policy check to see if anyone changed their minds on issues after getting elected. Because that happens. And I gotta make sure I get the right choice in. For the records, my number one choice came in with a shining 96%, while runners up came in with 87% and 85%. I could easily say I do like my first and second choices, the third kind of surprised me a bit there as did fourth and fifth. Again I was surprised my past first choice was down at 6th place, and surprised my 7th place person wasn't higher up. As for the bottom two, they didn't really strike me as anything impressive, and one didn't even have any information of his policies available. Scores ranged from 96% to 75% (and 0% if you count the candidate who had nothing to say.)

Weekend Recap

2011-12-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a pretty nice little weekend. Friday night I did grocery shopping and picked up a few last minute presents. Saturday morning I cleaned 90% of the house and did laundry while Jesse met with his boss for some work stuff. Afterward, we went out to have lunch at the Cantina, where we heard the sirens go off (yay!) and then trekked out to the Riverwalk. Jesse rented a bike again and a kid trailer for Charlie and played coach along my side as I did my running. We went down 4.5 miles and headed back up again. I'm not sure how long we were out but I'll make sure to time it next time. Charlie fell asleep in the coach and Jesse and I had a nice talk about random stuff as we always do. We also caught in some neat sights along the way. I didn't know but apparently there's some alligator habitats around here we have to look out for. I had to do one of those "Look, ma!" pictures for my mom because she always worries about gators with us living in the south and all and I keep telling her we're not far enough down to have to worry about that. Oops. Heh. I think I'd be a little more concerned if I actually saw an alligator...

Sunday was supposed to be my relax day as I finished all my work on Saturday and was feeling a little achy after running 9 miles. Instead, I went to the 8 am mass at church, then stopped by Publix for a few things, and headed to Walmart for some more stuff and dropped my wedding ring off for it's cleaning and maintenance. Jesse and Charlie went off in search of a gun show that turned out to be a bit of a flop. Instead they came home and Jesse made me some chicken to go on my lunch salad. I find it interesting that I've lost 4 lbs and feel a lot happier and stress free since I've managed to rid myself of certain people. I guess when all people do is talk about what restaurants serve certain foods in between complaining, I can't help but think of the website This Is Why You're Fat. Looks like my super awesome salads are doing the trick. Tangent aside, later in the evening, we went to Logans for dinner with my department. That was fun and the food was pretty good but I think the waiters were flustered with the large group and kept messing up orders, giving people who wanted shrimp lobsters, and forgetting to give one of the guys his ribs, and when he did get them, they were cold. They took them back to bring out hot ribs and when they came back they were still cold, but his potato was hot. Hahah. Dang it.

Anyway, the weekend was good. One thing I forgot to mention was that I had a really awesome run on Thursday night. I'm going to do that same route again this week on my Tuesday/Thursday run because it was so nice and, as I kept telling myself as I got out there and was almost done "this last mile is the difference between losing that extra pound." Seriously it is. I still need to get my permit to use the gym facility. I gotta work my arms and abs for June. It's free, so I might as well, right?

Shit or Get Off The Pot

2011-12-08T12:25:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite rules of life quotes comes from play write Maria Irene Fornes and she wrote, "I have to live with my decisions, whether you like them or not." That being said, in life, people do things that upset others, but you can't go around living your life in fear of whether you'll hurt peoples feelings or not because then you compromise your own happiness. There has to be some give and take. And in my case I need to start living my life for me. I have given so much that I am now left empty handed.

First off, I want to be in shape. I want to do my marathon. I want to lose weight. It's not gonna happen by going out to lunch every day. I gained a lot of weight moving out to Georgia from living off fast food all week. I started to lose that weight when I'd sit down every day and eat my same old lunch on the Plaza and read my books and go walking. Then I got stuck in the "going out" trap. Where it seemed like every day I would be going out to eat or hang out for lunch and start spending money I didn't need to waste or eating crap that was sticking with me. I'm a compulsive person. I can't be around the fast food or the snacks. I do have to shut myself out from being social if that's what it takes. That's just the way it is.

Second, I put others above my family all too often. I'll go out at night with friends or whatever. I do my running. I go hunting. In Reno I had the gym and softball. I need to do things with the family more. If I want to stay home with my family, it really irks me when people try to guilt me or pressure me into going out. Making people have to choose over their family isn't a good thing, especially if your family is getting frustrated with you because you don't choose them. Granted, life is a giant balancing act and you make time for family, friends, work, yourself, etc. But it's even more insulting when I do make arrangements to go out and when the time comes to go where we are destined to go, the plan suddenly changes and I find myself lounging around waiting to figure out what the hell everyone wants to do. OK, if I wanted to sit around, I could do that at home. I'm going on GOING OUT strike. I'm not going out.

Misery loves company. There's the people who have things to bitch about, and I'm not talking about once in a while, because that happens, but you know the people who complain about EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. If you're a world-is-out-to-get-me'er, or a perpetual pitty party animal, or someone who feels the need to have self-inflicted drama, or complain about situations in which YOU HAVE CONTROL TO CHANGE, do me a favor and just don't talk about it with me because I don't care. Really, I don't. I can understand why some people aren't very popular, usually its because they make everything in life some sort of ordeal and the world is down on them constantly. I'll be nice for nice sake, but after a while, it just gets to become a burden that isn't my problem and I'll just ignore it and the person for that matter. I hate when people complain about things that they can fix. Look, obviously if people offer suggestions on how to fix it and you ignore them, that makes me as someone suggesting help, feel as if you do not value my opinion and that what I have to say isn't important enough, or that you thrive on drama and at that point, I can see where this is going and I'm not in the mood to deal with it. It's frustrating to hear the same shit over and over again. I was told once that you can only worry about things which you have control over and that anything else you should just sweat it off. It's not your problem, you can't change it, don't let it bother you. Anyway, things have become such an annoyance to me lately that I'm just dealing with life as it hands things down to me. See how I did that? Pretty nifty, huh?

Finally, I'm gonna say it: I am not single. Don't try to make me act like a single person. I have a husband. I have a child. Don't expect me to flail my arms and jump all excited like to hang out whenever and stay out all hours of the night. I CANNOT DO THAT. Period. This goes back to issue #2 and I've done this time and time again here and in Reno. If I can't go out with my beloved husband, don't expect me to just up and jump out and go out. It's not fair to Jesse that he has to stay home with Charlie all the time. He should be able to go out too. Additionally, I don't feel like having my marriage fall apart to cater to the lives of my single friends. I worked very hard to have a wonderful marriage and I'm not about to throw it away to hang out with friends who can easily ask any number of their other friends out. And I especially do not feel like being around divorced people. Lord keep them away from me! I am going to judge and say maybe your ex was a douche, but after seeing how some single parents or divorced people act in public when drunk, I have to question just how much of their failed marriages are their fault. An old coworker once said there's 3 types of people in the world: single people, married people, and divorced people. Four if you want to count people with children. They all tend to hang out with their peers. I do not want to be a divorced single mom, so just keep that in mind. I'm not gonna be out dancing on table tops or trying to be anyone's wing man. And yes, I will totally be a cock block and say someone is being too slutty or the guy you are talking to is a douche bag and you'll regret it later. Hate me for it, at least when I drink I still have a voice of reason in me.

No one and I repeat NO ONE is worthy of more than 5 - 10% of my time on any given day. I'm not a people person. In fact, I hate people for the most part. Anyway, long story short, I just feel like I refuse to spend so much time and effort into trying to please others. I've tried to be the nice guy for far too long and quite frankly too many straws have been placed on this camel's broken back. If I'm busy, I'm busy. If I want to be at home, go out with other friends, family, call, email, text anyone else, I don't need to justify to anyone other than my HUSBAND the who, what, where, why, when, or hows. Additionally, I also don't want to know details of everyone's life stories at EVERY given moment of the day. I have work to do. I have a family. And I have a life of my own. I don't have every second of my day to devote to others. Not to mention, I'm not getting paid by the hour to play psychiatrist.

No one is going to rain on my parade. I just think its really shitty that people who are constantly negative try to bring others down. Whatever. I spent a lot of time and effort into making my parade awesome. No one is going to ruin it. Misery loves company and this is me RSVP'ing that I won't be going to Misery's pitty party.

3 Days In The Woods

2011-11-06T05:35:00.000-08:00

For the past three days, I was in the beautiful Blanton Creek WMA in Georgia living without modern conveniences and loving every minute of it. Jesse and I were selected to participate in two deer hunts at Blanton Creek WMA for their opening and closing weekends. I had been looking forward to going on this trip since I found out we were selected a few months back. It was going to be great. We would camp out, I got us set up to camp and we'd rough it for a few days, go out and hunt for deer, come back to our campsite and bbq and make s'mores and it would be awesome.

Then, last week Jesse found out he wouldn't be able to get off work. My plans of us in nature went a-foul. But that's ok, I wasn't about to let Jesse's absence ruin my hunt. Because after all, I was far more excited about this than he could ever imagine. I spent weeks working on zeroing in my rifle and practicing my marksmanship, reading up on deer info, even getting a book on how to field dress, quarter, and prepare venison. No one was thrilled that I was going alone, but as it got closer to the time coming, I was. It would be me all alone in the woods, camping out. Being at one with the world around me, exploring the woods, chilling back at camp and quietly reflecting upon life. My coworkers, somewhat concerned at the thought of me alone in the woods, offered me wise words of wisdom, "If you hear a banjo, RUN!" to which I was laughing hysterically.

Jesse and my mom were more of the school of thought I should be careful and it probably wasn't the best idea. But what can I say? I'm definitely an outdoorsy person and I hadn't been camping since I went with Lori, Craig and Rene at Leo Carillo when we did the night fishing and had all kinds of fun.

Anyway, I left straight from work on Wednesday night. I had to stop off at Wynnton Hardware to get a Hatchet, who I later named Molly... and it is a boy. Har har. When I got to Blanton Creek WMA, there weren't any rangers around so I drove around in search of a place to camp. The back campground was completely full, so I wound up pitching my tent under a little tree between the ranger station and the dove field. It was just me out there so everything I had to do was done alone. This included pitching the tent, cooking, making fires, you name it! And it wasn't none of that pansy trailer camping, either. Long story short, once my tent was pitched, dinner was made and I went to bed to get a start on an early morning hunt.

In the morning, I met up with the ranger to find out if there were any good leads. If I had more time, I would have done some scouting, but I didn't, so I just had to go wherever. He gave me a map with some random pencil scribble notes about places to check out so at that, I ventured off in ye old Ford Focus up hills and off into the wilderness (and looking back I have to say my car is a pretty hearty little guy as he trekked through the woods like a champ!) Pretty much every spot the ranger told me of was taken. To make matters worse, I was thrown off as to when I could go because of the fact I wasn't sure what time zone I was in. (I'm dead serious, parts of the park travel back in time to Central time, but because it's all on Georgia land, we're Eastern time. So I kept going back to the future and past at various points in my trip. Yes, time travel was involved! That makes it even more of an adventure!)

I'm not sure what this skull was from but it felt somewhat promising to see a dead animal body part somewhere.

The location was pretty but there just wasn't any luck there despite sitting there for a long time, so I moved on to another location. I found a nice little cover behind some trees and sat...and sat...and sat. Alas, nothing. But after some wandering I found a neat little stream.

I felt like I was in a Bob Ross painting. "Here's a little stream... I wonder where it goes...?" Hehe. On my way back out, I found some really neat ruins and according to the Rangers people used to live in the area and there's a bunch of ruins from old homes. Here I thought I was leaving my ghost town ruins behind when we left Nevada. I was wrong. This made my day. On a tangent about rangers, they were super helpful and I got the feeling they were looking out for me because they were telling me how a guy brought in a 10 point buck near where I was hunting. Dang. That should have been my buck!

Walking around the woods that day I found all kinds of interesting things. I found a cross in the woods that was made of some sort of shadow and a piece of tree bark...

Some really cute looking toadstools...

I broke for lunch when I got back and headed to my favorite BBQ place about 15 or 20 minutes away in West Point, Rogers BBQ. I was in a very happy place because I had a Super Que bbq sandwich plate with a side of turnip greens in front of me.

I went back out and was trying to find more places to hunt. It was unsuccessful again. I came back to camp early as it was starting to rain. I wasn't so concerned about it as it was just a light drizzle, but when you're in the woods when there's rain, and it happens to be in Georgia, where rain is usually paired with thunder and lightning, and you just walked by a tree that was knocked over by lightning at some point in it's lifetime, you kinda want to go back to camp, deer or no deer. I'm still green to the state so sometimes storms can scare me.

On my way back into camp, I saw two does running across the road. I decided to try going out and waiting to see if they came back, but there was no luck. Driving back for real this time, I saw a swarm of buzzards. I never knew how hideous they are nor how huge they are. I was fascinated by them!

When I got back to camp, I started to make dinner in case the rain got too heavy. And it did. Fortunately, by that time, I had a new neighbor, Brian, who invited me to hang out during the storm under the cover of his Easy Up, or as he called it, "The best purchase of the day." I definitely foresee one of those in my "camp supplies" in the future. His girlfriend, Jennifer, was on the way with pizza and beers. No one wanted to be out during the storm. It's a little hard to find Blanton Creek if you've never been there before, but throw in a monsoon, the sun setting, and that's just a good time. She made it safely and the rain let up. By that time, I was hiding out in my car trying to defrost, put on warm clothes, and dry my sleeping bag and clothes which got wet due to the wind literally pushing pools of water through the walls of my tent. For whatever unknown reason, I brought several towels with me and they all were soaked and came in very handy.

Brian and his girlfriend invite me back to their camp as they have a fire going and the rain stopped. I drove over and we were all hanging out talking and what not. Meanwhile, we notice a car pull up in front of his camp and next to mine and they got some head lights on their hats and look like they're excavating for something, but we notice just like magic, they start a fire. These were our other neighbors, John, Benny, and a few other guys I can't for the life of me remember their names because it's enough that I was able to remember 4 names. I had to be a little snarky at first because they were all ex-Marines and one of them who I will not mention missed the shot on a 10 point buck and was kicking himself in the ass for it. I asked how in the world a marine missed a shot since every Marine I ever knew prided themselves on their excellent marksmanship. Several beers and a bottle of alcohol passed around later, we were all joking around the campfire about everything and anything you could imagine. Not sure when it was, but around the point I was peeing every 5 minutes like clockwork, I called it a night. Actually, everyone did.

I was also super happy I was the only one in my tent and I brought my red bucket that doubled as a toilet. I kept it in my tent and peed in there at night instead of having to get out of my sleeping bag, out of my tent and pee outside. It was a life saver considering it was 10 degrees colder from the humidity and felt like it was 30 degrees outside that night. Granted I came from cold Reno, but I also didn't sleep outside in Reno when it was cold. My sleeping bag held up really well and would have been a lot warmer if the top of it wasn't wet, but I was able to squish into the middle and was just fine.

Day two we all woke up. John's camp was making breakfast. They cooked up eggs and sausage with biscuits and cheese and invited everyone over. This was way better than the oatmeal I was planning on having. I kid you not when I say I ate 3 sausage egg biscuits. By the morning, John's dad came in because they always hunt together and camp at the same spot. I told him if we draw again next year we'll return there too. It was a good spot and they're great neighbors. We sat around devising a plan of attack for the day and after breakfast, Benny and John went one way, Brian and I went another and we had plans for deer. There were a few location changes here and there and I came back for lunch to find Benny and John each shot a doe. At this point, I had to sit and watch them quartering them as I had never seen it done before and wanted to learn badly. It looked easy enough. A book can tell you all you want to know, but having someone doing it in front of you is a lot more helpful. Add to this equation the fact another neighbor down also had a deer, so for the total of 5 different tents in that area, 3 had deer, we were looking rather successful. I thought, "OK, I'm next!" Everyone else did, too. They were all hoping I'd get a deer because it was my first big game hunt and first deer hunt and it would have been really cool, but, it was what it is. SPOILER ALERT: I don't get a deer.

After hunting some more, I came back in for a bite to eat only to notice the heavy winds blew my tent completely over. The stakes the tent came with didn't keep it down quite as well as I was hoping they would have. That was fun to deal with. I added some aftermarket stakes and made sure everything was held down securely. After all of that, hunter fever got worse and I headed back out. I don't remember eating lunch because of the tent ordeal and add to that I was still tired from staying up late the night before, I zonked out in the woods. I'm not sure what was around me, I kept thinking there must have been squirrels or something but now I'm certain it was chipmunks.

A cold front woke me up around 5 pm and I headed back to camp to meet Jesse, who was on his way. Before that, I did the inevitable pooping in the woods, in front of my car. I kept worrying the trucker next to me was going to come out and it's not like I could just go in the trees because it was pretty thick at the front of that trail and I'd totally poke my butt with a pine needle or something! So it happened to be one of those poops that doesn't want to come out all the way, or does come out but feels like it didn't. I said, to hell with this, wiped and left. I wasn't about to get a hemerhoid out in nature over some turd. It would come out when it was ready.

Jesse let me know he was running a little late and that was fine. When I got my campfire going, Jennifer came back with her daughter. They also got some firewood, a tent, and s'mores supplies. They were going to spend the night too, but go home the next day because spontaneous camping adventures are awesome. Jennifer's daughter kept following Jesse around and probably driving him crazy but he didn't seem to mind. He put her to work and made her pick up pine needles and small sticks for the fire and she liked having a job to do. Meanwhile, I was at John and Benny's camp oogling over Benny's 8 point buck and getting some hands-on experience on how to quarter meat. Probably one of the most valuable lessons I'll take home from this trip because it's a lesson that will save me $65 at a meat processor! Despite swearing I'd go to bed earlier, I still went to sleep fairly late and didn't go down till after 10.

Finally, Saturday morning was the big day. It was the day I'd get my deer. Plus Jesse was hunting too, only he had with him his M1 Garand and the whole forest could hear when he chambered a round. He didn't seem to care.

We tried out one spot and had no luck so we moved on to the place near where I saw the house remains two days earlier. I found a cute little tree stump covered in moss around three trees and a branch that fell that would make the perfect bench rest. I set up the blind and hunted from there, which was the most comfortable seat of the trip. Not sure if you've ever sat motionless on your butt on the ground for hours but it hurts bad.

After no luck there for a few hours, we broke for lunch at Rogers again and upon returning to camp, Brian had left, and John and Benny's camp were breaking down to leave. We said our goodbyes to them and swapped numbers so we could meet up again one day if we ever did another deer hunt in the future there. Then Jesse suggested we pack camp which was fine. I helped him break down and then he wanted to go home. I told him it wasn't over until it was over. If I left with him now, I would forever wonder if I'd ever see a deer and miss out because I wasn't there. If I stayed till it was over and left after I don't see any deer, I'd feel better knowing I tried, but just got skunked. After explaining this to Jesse, he said OK and went home and I went back out hunting.

I ventured to where Benny and John got their deer but had no luck and thought I'd give the South Loop another go. Again, I had no luck. I finally came back in and called it a trip. So even though I didn't see any deer while out on the field, I got stuck in a monsoon, my tent leaked and blew over the next day, I still had an extremely fun time, made new friends, and got some valuable information about hunting, field dressing and quartering meat. We may go with our camp neighbors on another hunt down the road some time. So in the end, I enjoyed my time in the woods and probably think as much as I love Jesse, hunting for me may be very much like hunting with the guys at camp: one of those things where the better half stays home. Hahaha!!!

I'M TURNING 30 AND RUNNING THE LA MARATHON

2011-10-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

IF YOU SET REASONABLE GOALS, YOU CAN ACHIEVE THEM.

My goal is to run the LA Marathon when I turn 30. I start training November 5 with Big Dog Running Company. Despite the fact your feet cost you nothing, running a marathon is expensive, especially since most of my costs are for travel to get me out from Georgia to my home turf in California. I am asking that instead of getting me birthday or Christmas presents this year, you donate to my race funds.

I have lots of friends. Even if you can donate $1 that brings me $1 closer to my goal. I’m kicking off this fund raising party with $150 from my own pockets to pay for my training costs. Help make my ridiculous dream come true! Thanks in advanced and I hope you guys will wait for me in Santa Monica at the finish line on March 18, 2012!

Take me back

2011-10-23T11:30:00.001-07:00

Today is one of those days where I hate my life and where I'm at and want to go home. I want to have my old friends around. I don't want to be here I want to be anywhere else. I can't explain the feeling of the good old boys network and hating everyone knowing you and worrying about what you say to who and where and when. I hate having to walk on eggshells because everyone talks. I want to be a faceless ghost in a nameless city. Take me there. Take me to that place.

Friday Random

2011-10-14T18:57:00.001-07:00

This has been a miserable week. I can feel a gnar gnar sore throat cough sinus hybrid cold brewing. I'm hoping it passes it's course quickly but I missed out on running Thursday and now I just feel stir crazy and want to go out and run. I'm hoping to have more energy so I can run rails to trails tomorrow for my weekend long run. I did super good Tuesday and felt like I blazed past a bunch of people during the middle spurt. The middle is definitely my strong part where I'm in the zone and do my most efficient running.

Today I got my Benelli Nova. And as I say hello to one gun I say goodbye to another. My. 357 will most likely be going to a coworker who is a fan of revolvers, so I know the gun will be going to a loving home. I'm very particular about where my guns go when I grow bored of them.

Anyway back to the funk. I'm not feeling so great and in turn I'm going into hybrination avoiding people and spending alone time sleeping and eating crap. In otherwords destructive behaviors. I'm not a fan of the eating part particularly. I'm OK with being alone and running or sleeping. So Jesse if you're reading this can you crack down on me to not eat crap? And make me run on my days off. I need to. Help me help myself.

I think we're gonna sight my rifle this weekend and hone in on skills for our hunt in November. All our gear has been purchased and all that's left to do is buy food and firewood. I'm still kinda looking around for processors and taxidermists to compare rates, options and availability. I'd also like to get a guided quail hunt in November too if we can.

Anyway its time to call it a night.

I Can't Live On Chili Dogs

2011-09-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

Today I realized a flaw in our marriage. The flaw is really something more out of our control. The flaw you ask? Metabolism. Jesse's works way faster than mine. Even when he turned 30 and it slowed down and as he aged it's still far faster than mine will ever be. Just as he could probably effortlessly outrun me with my feeble squat legs next to his, his metabolism will process and digest food far faster than mine ever will and he'll poop it out daily while my body will want to hold onto it for dear life in my gut and thighs.

That being said, I've been desperately trying to lose weight for a long time now. I try to eat healthy. I try to exercise. Even when I was running 5 miles a day I didn't seem to be able to lose weight and why? One word: dinner. Breakfast and lunch are fine. They are the two meals a day I eat alone. Oatmeal from the privacy of my desk and my typical lunch consisting of a sandwich on whole wheat bread with two slices of thin sliced turkey or chicken, mustard, 1 cup grapes, 1/4 cup almonds, and 1/2 cup carrot sticks. People ask if I get bored eating the same thing every day to which I say, "No." Strangely, when it comes to lunch and breakfast, I really like routine. I like the same crap every day. Maybe it's wrong or bad and holding me down, I'm not sure. But when it comes to dinner, that is my downfall.

I try to make healthy dinners. But that's pretty much pointless. When I do make something healthy, either I wind up being the only one who eats it, or it gets eaten, but then a second dinner or snack gets made. Fail. I'm more a fan of the latter, the second dinner, because at least then the first dinner isn't being wasted. I'm not a fan of wasting food. But then comes in the laziness, my second worst enemy. When I get lazy, I fail. I get lazy by not wanting to cook two different meals. I just try to make something for everyone. Usually this goes beyond what works for my diet. You know, the Hamburger Helpers and Chili Dogs and Macaroni and Cheeses. All the stuff that likes to stay with my body for 10 years before leaving me. Those foods are like diapers in a landfill, stenching up my system, making me miserable and lazy. I love them, but they do not love me. Additionally, Jesse loves them. In fact, he probably was raised and grazed off of that stuff and all throughout his single man bachelorhood. He can process it no problem. I can't. The worst part about it is I can feel these foods taking a toll on my health. I can feel my blood thickening and slowing as I fall asleep at night as it lub-dubs through my heart ever so lazily. I'm constantly exhausted. I'm depressed from being overweight and tired and to make matters worse, I just want to sleep, eat, or be alone. I don't want to go anywhere or do anything and I especially don't want to be touched.

In an effort to eat better, I have tried just about everything under the sun and I feel as if I am lacking the support I need to be healthy. Granted I'd like to lose some weight but at this point, I don't want to be one of those people who dies in their 30s from a heart attack. I'm not morbidly obese but I've seen friends and neighbors have heart attacks who weren't morbidly obese, just slightly overweight and living off of all the wrong things. Fast food. Fatty foods. Things high in cholesterol. I don't want to be that person.

So in light of all that is wrong with foods, I decide to make a healthy bean stew for dinner. It sounds good. And of course slightly before dinner, Jesse announces he's just going to make something else because he doesn't feel like bean stew. Well what then? He's not sure but he knows he doesn't want bean stew. OK, granted I can make other stuff that can be healthy that's not a bean stew, so our options aren't totally limited. About 10 minutes later it is suggested: Buffalo Wild Wings. Maybe I should just cave and get that because it gives me diarrhea every time I eat it and it'll flush my system and then I can go cry in the corner somewhere feeling guilty for eating crap. I don't mind it once in a while but after we have Waffle House in the morning, I can't have buffalo wings for dinner. And I can't have junk food every day. And neither should Jesse.

Importance of Closure

2011-09-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

I've been in a funk lately. It's pretty much the same place I left off at around 8 years ago where I was expected to come up with something great and just drew a blank. I've been sitting around a lot wondering if I could have done things differently the first time around (pertaining to education) if I would have done it differently. Like instead of paint (and stay in my comfort zone), jump head first into design (new and unfamiliar then.) I realize as much as I want to be a comfort zone person, that I thrive on the adreneline rush of the new and unfamiliar. As much as we all want to be creatures of comfort, I think we all secretly long for the unfamiliar and unknown and the adventures that lie within. Anyway, I guess my depression is lurking from the fact I wish I went one way instead of the other. Instead I keep looming back to wondering why I ever stopped painting and allowed myself to become bitter and unhappy and after years and years of trying to figure out what I could have done differently, I find myself going back to the same spot as if I'll someday be able to change it to make things right and life will be ok. You know, how people like to put closure on things as a way of feeling better? I guess I feel if I'm not going to paint anymore, I want to put closure on it. And if I do not put closure on it, I want to keep doing it but where to begin? I keep going to that dark place (where, in the right conditions can catapult excellence, and if left unattended, well, just keeps me in a funk) and I feel like I want to do something great but I just feel stuck. It's depressing. I feel as if I'm stuck between a failure and mediocrity and it's a disappointing feeling.

Fontnoxious

2011-09-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my boss asked me if I blogged lately and I told him not since two weeks ago. I just haven't had much time or things on my mind. Anyway, while working on some newsletter updates, I had to do a mandatory mental time out to break away from some atrocities of fonts I couldn't bear looking at any longer. I decided to do something long overdue and complain about some fonts I really would love see die and or never have been invented. I mean, we all grew a hatred for Comic Sans and I think that one goes beyond speaking because everyone and their mother minus administrative assistants and school teachers hate Comic Sans. If you live under a rock and have never seen Comic Sans, I strongly urge you stay under your rock and don't expose yourself to it. Lord knows I wanna punch it in the face!

Algerian
It's simple, decorative, yet just enough to be slightly annoying. Plus, it seems people use it a lot and I can never remember what it's called. I want to call it Allegra or something with an A that I can't remember. Algerian. I think part of my discontent for it is the fact I can never recall what it's called but now that I'm acknowledging it in writing, I'll never forget... or I will. We'll see.

Rockwell
Sometimes I feel like, somebody's watching meee. Not that Rockwell. Rockwell the font, which I think has potential to be a nice font but it seems to be used and abused and just so in your face that it becomes annoying. I dunno what I'd use it for. Maybe like a word or no more than five. But people seem to like to use it for paragraphs upon paragraphs of text and they like to smush it in to fit and it feels like you're reading something that's been blobbed together. Agh my eyes hurt thinking about the blob with occasional negative space that just barely help me remember I am in fact looking at text and not some weird Mondrianesque piece! Don't forget to make it bold and red!

Jokerman
Seems like Comic Sans totally sold out. It was no longer good enough for bold eye-catching headers because it lost some of it's effect when people started using it religiously for body copy. Dang! Fortunately, someone managed to create an even more secretary-friendly more-obnoxious font: JOKERMAN! Even it's name alludes to it's playful (read: over the top annoying) nature! I can just imagine the gleeful smile some admin assistant has on her face as she drafts some sort of Happy Labor Day message to mass email all her coworkers and just for fun she'll make the letters alternate in red, white, and blue because that's how patriotic she is. Nothing celebrates the joyous day off for those of us who work or go to school as national holiday recognizing all those who died in Labor Union strikes against US Marshalls and the military in 1882. And said note is not complete without some sort of horrendous spelling error. It's like this font and gratuitous spelling mistakes go hand-in-hand. Oh and while you're at it, put it on a hard to read background, huh?

Matisse ITC
Here's another gem of an annoying font. It's a playful font that seems to be inspired by French Post-Impressionist Henry Matisse and his flat form paper cut out style paintings. Because after all, can't you just see this font being the creation of numerous scraps of paper? Instead of just trashing them, let's make an annoying font as an homage to a great painter! And if you ever notice when this font is used, it's often in really horrible color combinations that pain the eyes but somehow they touch the heart of the bright colors of Post-Impressionists. Ugh. Poor Henry must be rolling over in his grave over this one.

Papayrus
Wow. You wanna make something really awesome that feels all non-Western-tropical-like-ancient-Egypt-luau-ish? Because people seem to love this font for everything, especially menus and wedding invites. You know, because you're getting married on the beach? And you can't imagine seeing Falaffel in any other font? Maybe throw it along side some cutting edge clip art. That'd be sweet.Can you feel it all coming together?

Anyway, for the sake of mankind, I think we'd all be a lot better off if these fonts didn't exist. I really hate them and yet they seem to be standard fonts with most Windows systems for the most part. They drive me bat shit crazy and don't even get me started on Word Art. Just because you use Microsoft Word Art or MS Publisher, does not mean you are a designer. Hell, I've been doing design stuff for years and even I'm not sure I consider myself a designer (I know my strengths and weaknesses.) But I can tell you this much: I know when the Font Police should be called for crimes against typography.

Garands, Turkeys and BBQ

2011-08-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

Today Jesse and I went out on a day trip with Charlie to Anniston, AL to visit the CMP store to finally get his M1 Garand back. He used to have one a long time ago but it got stolen from the trunk of his car a few years ago. They went up in price a lot over the years and he never was able to get one again until now. The drive was nice. We enjoyed a beautiful two hour drive to Anniston that included seeing several rivers, driving past Blanton Creek Park (where we will be dove hunting in a few weeks). For me, the highlight of the trip was seeing a turkey hen on the side of the road in some grass just hanging out enjoying a nice morning.

At the CMP store, there were rows upon rows of M1 Garands and Jesse wound up getting the last Springfield that was on the shelves. We browsed the store for a good while and wound up coming home with a M1 Garand, a certificate of authenticity, a shnazzy gun case, some targets, and a sling, and I bought Jesse a bayonet for his M1 .30 Carbine.

After that, we drove back home, enjoying the sights again. We stopped in this cool little hunting store along the roadside. Then, we saw on the side of the road a hog being picked apart by two huge vultures. It was awesome. Speaking of pig, we pulled over into this place Roger's BBQ in West Point, GA, and had some really awesome pulled pork bbq sandwiches. I got giddy for the second time in the day at that and then having some turnip greens.

All in all, it was a nice little day. Jesse got to drive my new Focus for the first time since I bought it last weekend and the consensus is he likes it. Oh yeah, in case you didn't hear, I got a 2009 Ford Focus last weekend. Woo! We're home now. Jesse's fondling his Garand, and I'm thinking of breaking out my new toy, a Presto Kitchen Kettle multi-cooker that steams, slow cooks, and deep fries and making some donuts. Ooooh yeah!

Surviving The Cut

2011-08-07T16:17:00.000-07:00

Has anyone seen that show Surviving The Cut where they basically follow guys trying to become special forces officers and go through all these crazy ass obstacles to test their physical and mental strengths? I swear I feel like I've just been on that show. Since we moved out here, I have been longing to jog around Cooper Creek park. I've tried to do so on many occasions and just haven't been able to because the weather out here is totally different and I have a hard time hanging with the humidity. Anyway, after a month and a half or so, I'm finally adjusting to the place. Yes, its hot and wet and sticky and gross. Yes, I still hate it, but I'll take that in trade for the greenery and being able to pretend I live in Vietfrickinnam and pretend I'm running from Charlie... ok, so that's a little ridiculous but it's definitely one "imagery driven" running situation I like to pretend when I run. (Yes, I am that nutty, I pretend to be running for my life. It's like those dudes who do tactical training with guns. Train like you perform, perform like you train. I also pretend other fun things too like I'm running from zombies, running to save someone's life, running to go to something awesome, running like I'm Forrest Gump and I'm gonna run from one end of the country to the other and back again...)

Back to the point at hand, though. Since I haven't been able to run, I've gained a significant amount of weight. About 15 lbs to be precise. And because I also believe the humiliation diet works, I don't mind sharing that. I'm pretty sure that once it got to the point I went up a pant size and none of my clothes were fitting me right anymore, it was high time to do something about it. I've been trying to watch what I eat for weeks now and it hasn't been doing much. I need that extra boost. I need exercise. I also need to flush my body of all the toxic crap (a week worth of nothing but fast food three times a day, residual fast food build up, soda, ice cream, and ungodly amounts of sodium and mayo, which are my new devils and I believe I may need to completely rid my house of all traces of salt and mayo in order to kick that habit.) But more than anything, I need exercise. You see, I am the kind of person if I get good exercise I can pretty much eat whatever I want and it'll even out in the end and I'm happy and fine. Unfortunately, I'm also the kind of person who eats when I'm bored, eats when I'm sad, and gets sad when I get fat and eat to make it better (I believe my friend Allyssa knows about these vicious cycles waaay better than I do as she's a therapist who specializes in eating disorders. I should probably give her a call sometime for a "session".)

Anyway, eating issues aside, I finally got to the point I needed to run. I got a hair up my butt to go out. It felt very much like surviving the cut. Cooper Creek is a totally different run than Virginia Lake. Virginia Lake for one has a gravel trail and a separate paved concrete trail. I always run on the concrete. It's also hot out in NV, but dry. For the most part, with the exception of the southern end, it is flat with one small hill. Cooper Creek is way harder. For starters, it is longer. Virginia Lake was at the most 1.25 miles around (from our place and back), Cooper Creek is 2.25 miles around (from our place around all the way and back). Cooper Creek also has a clustercuss of different surfaces to run on. The flat areas are either paved concrete or a dirt trail. Not too bad. It's the hills that suck. There are more hills and they are steeper, longer, and the worst one is a rocky terrain, the other is grass near marshy areas and you need to watch out for snakes, or at least I watch out for snakes because I have seen snakes out there and when I'm running, I don't have the time to look if it's venomous or not. Oh and then there is finally the issue of its hot as a sauna out here. It was around 92º out here with a heat index of 97º when I went out, but whatever. People pay money to do that sweaty yoga stuff, I could do it for free on my patio if I wasn't so worried about the damned mosquitos. But literally, after I ran my normal steady pace of 5 mph around the stupid lake and cooled down once I reached the yellow gate and creek behind our place, I was dripping in sweat, and felt like I had the shit kicked out of me. I would be a liar if I said I didn't.

When I got home, I sat out on the patio with a glass of water with ice and played "sauna" to relax my muscles but came inside after about 3 minutes and 3 mosquito bites later. In good news, there are now 3 dead mosquitoes in the world... Long story short, I survived the cut. I'm not gonna join special ops, but I finally achieved a personal goal of being able to run around the lake all the way. I need to work on some diet type stuff the next few days and then I'm thinking Wednesday or Thursday I'll go back out again and try to jog. Oh and this is all a bit of preparation for hunting season. I need to get in shape for that. Plus I'd like to still fit my clothes. I love shopping, but I'd rather it be because I saw something cute I liked, not because I outgrew things I need. Yeaahhh... awkward...

"ZOMBIES AND CARS AND GUNS, OH MY!!!"

2011-08-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the my first gun show in GA. I went alone because Jesse was at home with the dreaded Man-Cold. For those of you who aren't aware of what the Man-Cold is, it is the dreaded "illness" that brings a man to his knees and has him quivering in bed like a little baby. Even the roughest, toughest of men crumble under the Man-Cold. (Ladies, you know the Man-Cold as the common cold aka the one you get where you go to work and just rough it through the day till you can get home, make some dinner, wash dishes, do laundry, watch some bad prime-time reality show and zonk out in bed till the next day.)

Long before going to the gun show, however, I was looking at cars. My search for a car starts long and far before that. You see, before we moved, we could only take one car with us. Our choices were Jesse's truck or my Focus. The Focus, while a good around-town car, had 180,000+ miles on it, needed a new catalytic converter, new brake shoes and pads, a driver side window regulator, and a significant amount of other work that would cost us a pretty penny to fix up in town. And with Jesse's logic, I wouldn't be working right away so I didn't need a car. Anyway, I saw some nice cheapie cars I wanted to look at this weekend and when I inquired about one, I learned it was sold. I went to go look at another, though and when I got to the dealership later that night, I learned they sold that one literally like an hour before I got there. Bummer.

So the next day, I went to look at used car dealers in town. I learned that they won't finance us right now because we haven't lived here long enough, but if we were military, they would. Huh? What's the difference of financing someone who just moved to town vs. someone who just moved to town that's military? I don't get it, but whatever. I wound up driving out to Alabama to look at cars out there and was told the same story: I didn't live in town long enough. Come back in 6 months. Uggghhhh... So, no car for me for a while. Not like it's anything new. For half the people in Reno who knew me I pretty much never had a car. All the cars I did have were total crap boxes that would die after a few months of ownership, so, yeah.

Later in the day, I stopped off at the gun show. It was a nice change of pace to get inside the nice AC'd convention center instead of being outside where I was sweating (my balls off, if I had any.) I saw this booth selling awesome zombie shirts and got a Zombie Apocalypse Response Team shirt to wear just so people know in the event of a zombie apocalypse I am qualified to take out zombies. Just sayin'... While paying I was addressed by a snarky comment to mark my price up and it was by none other than the guys at All American Firearms Training. They joked if I was doing anything the next few hours if I wanted to work with them. So my choices were go home and deal with the Man-Cold and cranky child, or hang out with gun lovers and a zombie loving girl. The decision was not a difficult one to make. So I hung out there, we chatted. I got to meet Pat's wife and son who were both also very awesome people. I bought Charlie a little toy AR and he loves it. At one point, there was a thunder storm and the power went out briefly. It was pretty cool. All in all, it was a good day, but something bizarre happened where when I got home I felt exhausted like the kind of tired I get when I have a sunburn or have been in the sun too long. Weird. Anyway, that's all I got.

Random Thickness

2011-07-09T19:08:00.000-07:00

Jesse had a craving for Panda Express, so I googled it and found the location and we drove down there. On our way out, we saw some sort of cop action, so we went the scenic route to be lookie-loos and it wasn't anything huge. We then continued down the road toward Macon, blasting Michael Jackson's BAD, on our way to get some Panda. When we got close to the location of Panda, we started looking for it, Jesse did a turn into a parking lot and laughed and I asked him what was so funny and he said, "You'll see." As we continued through the lot to the street, he continued, "It's a Panda Express, just not Panda Express." Yes, we were suckered by a fake Panda local sit-down restaurant. I suggested we go to the Macon Road BBQ House. After all, if I've learned nothing from loving food and watching Diners, Drive-In's and Dives, it's that the best food comes from little hole in the wall places that are locally owned. We were right. Jesse said to me that he wished I had a sense of smell because the food smelled so awesome. I told him while I couldn't smell, I could sense it and my tongue was picking up on the spices in the sauce and I was salivating like a mad man.

On the drive home, there was what appeared to be a rather large storm on it's way near, over, or through town. Not sure quite what's happening with the weather quite yet at this point. I was telling Jesse the best I could explain the atmosphere was "thickness". It was so humid it felt dense out. Like you could sense the heaviness in the air. It's so strange to describe, but there is so much moisture in the air, that without there being actual rain, clouds, mist, or anything, you can sense a heaviness in the atmosphere and just feel it.

Anyway, back to BBQ, it was fantastic. Best decision ever. I do believe this will become a regular place and one of those little local places you'll take people to when they visit. You know, like, if my sis comes out, we'll go there for sure. It's pretty awesome. The sauce is nomz, not too sweet, not too spicy, has a hard to describe flavor that taste like hints of mustard and garlic, but it is awesome. So the night winds down with enjoying the patio and my fancy pants citronella candle (and a mosquito still managed to bite me!) and a glass of my Covey Run Reisling. Which, I'm not a fan of white wines, but I do love quail and I had to buy it for the bottle alone. Oh, and I saw a huge frog in the tree and thought it was a snake or a lizard because there's no way the frogs out here could go up that high in the trees, but apparently they do.

Oh and one final thought: Charlie really likes Georgia. He makes a point of saying so every day, but it's more like, "Hey, guess what? I'm going to GEORGIA!" He is 100% potty trained (yay!) and has been sleeping in his own bed all night since we moved here pretty much. Oh, and once in a while he says he wants to go to a hotel because he liked staying at the hotels when we moved. Apparently they must have made quite an impression on him. He goes back to school full time starting this Monday because I'm going back to work full time (yay!)

Long story short, Jesse and I have agreed Georgia is good stuff for all of us. While we're not near any of our friends or family anymore, it's a good decision for our little family of us three and we're happy. Good times, good times...

Saturday Random

2011-07-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

I went out fishing today as usual and tried to get a bass. All I got were the babies following my lure in and nibbling on the rubber tail. Hopefully one day they'll tell their bigger siblings and I'll finally get me a bass. I wound up realizing that it was too hot of a day and the water I did have wasn't enough, and it was hot. I felt completely lame in calling Jesse to pick me up, but I did so anyway because I figured I'd rather be lame and lay out on the grass waiting for him to get me with some water and Brawndo than to try to make my way back and pass out or something along the way. Still trying to adjust to the weather...

When we got home, I took a shower and then we fared off to the mall because Jesse wanted some Chick-fil-a. I'm not sure how many times he can eat that in one week, I know for a fact he's up to 3 times so far. It's good, but nothing I'd write home over. When we left to go to the mall, there was some thunder and lightning and when we were inside, the sirens went off. I was pretty jazzed this morning to hear the tester siren, but I was kinda bummed to be in the mall in the food court at the time they were going off for real. Nerdy li'l ol' me actually went online to see what the different sound patterns mean and it was on the thunder/lightning storm warning. The all clear siren went off after a while, too. I've kinda learned to love those things and not get so weirded out by them so whenever they go off for real, I'm always interested in why.

Oh, apparently, the power went out at some point today while I was out fishing. Doesn't surprise me. Probably weather related. It did rain today, too. I also have a pretty reliable rain predictor and maybe it's just a coincidence, or maybe there's more to it, I dunno. I've noticed whenever the water level looks low at the lake, it rains that day. My theory: it gets evaporated and becomes low, then it all dumps back in place. Makes sense. Anyway, whenever it rains, our house frog comes out and either hangs out outside or comes into the hallway. We get lots of odd critters in our hall because people leave the door open and I'm ok with finding frogs and our lizard friends. Anyway, I'll end it on the house frog. He fits right in the palm of your hand. This time, I caught him and brought him upstairs and put him in Charlie's bucket so he could see him.

Mommy's Little Monster

2011-06-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Today, Charlie and I were at Dick's Sporting Goods checking the place out when Bad Romance came on the radio over head. Charlie stopped in his tracks and screamed out, "MAMA!!! IT'S LADY GAGA!!!" I'm not sure why, but somehow, my 3 year old son has become completely enamored with Lady Gaga. Granted, she's got some super catchy songs that even my husband has learned to love the Gaga, but I think it's hilarious that he makes such a big deal whenever one of her songs comes on. He's such a little monster, it's awesome. Anyway, when we were on our road trip out here, Jesse decided that he would like to listen to Lady Gaga on multiple occasions as she was "pick me up" music that helped make the trip go along faster. The funny part were the stories we would tell Charlie to the songs. Like when the songs stopped, he'd ask where Lady Gaga went and I told him she was going to the Monster Ball and she'd be back. Charlie also liked how she sang about monsters because, hey, 3 year old boys love monsters, and what's greater than Lady Gaga singing about them to a catchy beat, right? Anyway, it never gets old.

The Pug Dog And The Frog

2011-06-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

Last night was raining. We had a storm watch that was supposed to end at 9:00 pm, instead, it kept raining. I took Lulu out to go potty and as we got downstairs in the hall, Lulu started to jet at something I thought was a mouse. When we got down, I realized it wasn't a mouse, but a frog that had got lost inside our hallway. Lulu was chasing it and managed to get it cornered. In an effort to help the lost little amphibian and keep up with my "catch a frog or critter a day" tradition, I scooped him up and took him outside. He was quite a pretty frog. A vibrant sage green with forest green and black stripes and splotchy spots. When we got out, he hopped out of my hands into the grass. Lulu went potty and went back to her frog. The two stared at each other for a while. The frog was either in shock or knew we helped it, because it sat there while Lulu sniffed him. The best part was when the two were nose to nose with each other trying to figure out just what the heck the other one was. What I'd do for a picture of that! Oh well. Anyway, Lulu loved this frog and hopefully she'll see many more like it in the future.

One Week In Georgia...

2011-06-25T05:41:00.000-07:00

First things first, I have noticed since coming to Georgia, I have not had any allergy issues. That is a plus. My horrendous cough is obsolete. I'm assuming the humidity makes it too heavy for pollen to be present or there's less of it, either way, I'm glad to have all of that be done and over with.

I've found myself starting to figure out town, much to the thanks of the grand tour from Jesse's boss last Sunday. If it weren't for that, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten royally lost on more than one occasion while trying to find my way around. On the plus side, I'm starting to get a feel for the streets around here, which ones are the important ones to know, which ones are the ones I don't want to go down, heck, I'm even starting to get the gist of the grid system downtown! And I sure do hate one way streets! But it reminds me very much of the way downtown Reno was, not downtown LA, which was a horrible scary place I never wish to go to unless absolutely necessary.

As for Georgia, everyone out here is really nice. I'm definitely getting that southern hospitality feeling from people. This is probably the only place I've ever lived where I feel comfortable driving. I'm not an aggressive driver. I don't like to make rash split second decisions with transportation, and I definitely hate the LA driving of 90 mph on someone's tail, weaving in and out of lanes. In my mind, that accomplishes nothing other than really horrible accidents. Again, out here, people are all very courteous and it is reflected in their driving. I like it.

One of my favorite things about Georgia so far, however, is the nature! Everything is so green no matter where you look. I can't quite find the right words to describe the trees, but there are places where we live that look completely wooded. Like the western side of the park is full of pine trees clustered together and when you walk under them, you are completely shaded during even the sunniest time of the day. It's crazy! I absolutely love the birds out here. We have cardinals that are so vibrantly red with little crests on the tops of their heads, there's no mistaking what they are. Our woodpeckers are the same. Black and white with bright red heads. There's some really cool geese we call Dinosaur Ducks because they have these feathers that rise on their heads to look like some weird dinosaur crest, but their faces and parts of their necks are covered with fleshy boil looking skin (like turkey faces). The best we can describe them, since we have no idea what they're really called, hence, are Dinosaur Ducks. And actually, Charlie is credited for that name, one we are all rather fond of. Finally, we have a bunch of really cool cranes that fly around our place to the lake. Other fascinating wildlife include the frogs, which I like to catch whenever I see them, and release to the lake. On any given day you can find a dozen turtles or so sunning themselves down by the lake. We have yet to see them, but deer are rumored to come around our place in the very early evenings and mornings. Even the bugs are interesting out here. I don't like them, but I appreciate them. This morning I saw a bug that looked like a walnut and sounded like a buzz saw, charge at our apartment, crash into the roof and fly off in another direction. I have yet to see them, but we have a bunch of snakes out here. Where, I'm not sure, but included in our over 30 something species are 6 venomous species, which, hopefully, I'll get to see one because I am a super lover of herps (and I'm excited to hopefully see a corn or king in the wild like my old pets The Herp and Beetlejuice.)

Anyway, I'm still learning a lot about this town and love it. I mean, what's not to love? It's green, people are nice, they drive nice, there's lots of cool animals, and it's so much cheaper out here than everywhere else I've lived, not to mention the economy is booming because of Ft. Benning and soon to be transfers from Ft. Knox (because that just closed down.) It's just nice to live somewhere that people aren't all stressing out over companies closing, losing jobs, etc. like back in Nevada.

Oh, and before I forget, one last cool thing: the storms! Really intense thunderstorms with lightning and dumping down rain, even a crazy air raid alert system when it gets super bad. Although, that freaks me out a tad bit and I'll need to adjust to that one. I'm getting there thanks to the weekly Saturday noon testing they do.

The Big Move

2011-06-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

It seemed as if everything with the move has been going too smoothly and I had been anticipating disaster. But, much to our luck, we got anything but that. We got purple mountains majesty. We got deer and antelope playing. We got cheesy roadside stops and an awesome lightning show. Details? Sure, we got those too!

We were supposed to leave Monday morning, but that turned into leaving Monday at 4:30. The truck was packed and loaded and we were good to go. Jesse wanted to wait a day, but I strongly suggested that we had to leave because we had a timeline to stick to. So I took one for the team and after waking up at 5:30 and working with Jesse to move that day, and drove us out.

Highlights of Nevada included seeing a big horn sheep on a mountainside near Battle Mountain, a crazy indian historic ground, also near Battle Mountain, and a man we wanted to call Repo Man, because we were certain he was going UFO hunting due to the excessive amount of radio antennas and tin foil he had on his car.

At 7:30 am, I got us into Salt Lake City, UT. We were now back on schedule. I also had to pee really bad and found that I am not a fan of Utah for multiple reasons: including the fact they assume people don't have to pee before 6:00 am, Mormons don't approve of booze or caffeine, and apparently, I discovered the hard way that cloud reflections on salt lakes give me motion sickness. Not cool. Oh, and the freeway offramps downtown only give you the weird alpha-numeric streets you get off on and don't have any of those handy-dandy "gas", "food", "lodging" blue signs every other state we drove through had. Utah... a world of it's own, to which I say, not going back and glad we never moved there. I would have have gone bat shit crazy if I had to live there, I'm sure.

Next up was Wyoming. All I know of Wyoming is that is where Brokeback Mountain is from. So I could only think of gay cowboys and how I'm still traumatized at the fact Jen from Dawson's Creek and The Princess Diaries showed their boobs. Aaaah! OK, I also know that not once, but on multiple occasions, several different people have asked me if I was either from Wyoming or mentioned something along the likes of that I would fit in well there. Let me tell you what! I loved Wyoming! It was so gorgeous out there. The biggest disappointment was that Jesse didn't stop to let me take a picture with the giant bronze Davy Crockett or go to the Davy Crockett historical site/park area. We saw herds upon herds of antelope (lope lope as I call them.) Wyoming was nothing but beautiful. From the rolling green hills with ginormous wind turbines, to the grazing antelope and cattle. It was probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The lyrics to Home on the Range and My Country Tis of Thee make sense now that I have been to Wyoming. I can truly say I understand...

After Wyoming was Nebraska. The only thing that pops into my head when I think of Nebraska is this creepy detective cartoon from my old job for a Nebraska client, which I happened to see so much of over the course of my time there as I was bogged down with the Nebraska stuff. I just remembered all these odd sounding towns for various programs and I was now driving through them thinking, "Yeah, I remember their logo..." Nebraska is one of those places, though, that I have never been to, and after going I think I want to go back. Who says that? Who says, "I want to visit Nebraska!" Me, I guess. We stayed at a Motel 6 in Big Spring and it felt like staying at a resort. They had HBO, a pool, and a steak house right next door. All I can say is Motel 6 is really steppin' it up. We got dinner at the steak house and it was good stuff, but the decor was what made the place. It was basically my gun theme restaurant idea I always wanted to do. Guns were everywhere. The chandeliers were made of antlers. And they had the best bread and butter I ever had. True story.

Our stay in Nebraska had set us back severely on our time line. Now we had to make up another 8 hours. The next day, we had breakfast and watched the Weather Channel and talked about how it was a good idea we went the way we did since the southwest was on fire and there was some huge flood in Hamburg, Iowa. We got back on the road and drove some more, stopping at Fort Cody, NE and doing cheesy tourist photos and things of the sort. Then, it was back on the road and we made it through to Iowa. Iowa pretty much looked what we were expecting Nebraska to look like. Funny how that happens. Well, wouldn't you know it, just as we were getting close to HWY 59, we saw the sign: HWY 59 CLOSED FROM FLOODING, USE ALTERNATE ROUTE. Fanfreakintastic. So we kept driving along the 2 till we got to the 71. At one point, the alternate route was nothing more than a single freeway lane as the other lane was submerged in water. The drive on the 71 seemed like forever and we were almost certain we were lost, but in the end, we were able to get back on course. We saw some coyotes in corn fields as well as deer, one of which was a buck with fresh antlers, still covered in fur! Neato. Finally, we wound up in Missouri which was OK until we hit Kansas City. That was supposed to be our destination stop for the second night. Instead, we passed it up as the city reminded Jesse and myself too much of the really bad parts of downtown LA and we were on the road far too long and agitated from poorly marked freeway signs and bad drivers. But, we got past Kansas City and spent the night in Springfield, MO.

Our final day of driving was out of Missouri, into Arkansas, which was another place I had never been to and all I think of when I think of Arkansas is Bill Clinton, specifically of him playing a saxaphone. Again, I'd like to add Mammoth Spring, AK to my list of places I'd like to visit. We bought a watermelon from some kids at a gas station and I tore that thing apart last night and it was fabulous. Anyway, after Arkansas, the trip gets dull and tiresome. I was looking forward to going through Tennessee, but it was kinda a drag. Maybe it was the weather, who knows? Mississippi was the next state and the only interesting thing there was the river of the same name, which is massive. Alabama was the last state we had to travel through and it was dull. I fell asleep the last part until we were nearly to Phenix City and close to our destination.

On Friday, at 4:30 am eastern time, we made it to Columbus, GA. We checked into a motel for the night and crashed till just about close to check out. We were lucky to even get a room as there was a graduation at Fort Benning and half the motels in town were completely booked.

Long story short, it was a very long drive. If I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't want to simply because moving is a lot of work, especially in the heat, and driving a moving truck towing another truck up steep mountain passes sucks, especially when you're floorin' it and only going 20 mph and the engine sounds like it's gonna die. Heh. Good times. Anyway, while I have no desire to drive cross country again, I do still have the desire to see more of our beautiful country. It is truly amazing and there are so many wonderful places that aren't large metropolitan cities that deserve to be seen and could only be discovered through a great American road trip. One of my dreams was to go on a cross country road trip and I am happy to say I did just that! Only, this time, I won't be coming back. We're here to stay and it's a pretty interesting place.

The End.

Oh, and more pics from the trip are on my facebook.

Christmas In May

2011-05-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here's some neat stuff I have got in the past two weeks because we're moving and I need to do this stuff now:

New single shot NEF 12 gauge shotgun for turkey
New camo (pants, shirt, jacket)
New Savage Axis XP scoped hunting rifle in .308 (tomorrow, provided the freight comes in)
Refurbished iMac and setting it up with CS5 Master Suite and Office 2011 for Mac (zang!)
New wedding band (10k band with overall .25 ct diamonds - 18 round and 8 baguette cut)

We will be getting rid of our couch and buying a new one in Georgia (as in brand new! brand new!)

Other exciting stuff:
Jesse will at some point take his hunter's ed and we'll go hunting this fall.

Oh, and of course I drew a mule deer tag out here in my first pick area because no one ever gets tags their first draw in their #1 choice area, except for me because I'm moving... duh. Hopefully NDOW will let me turn it in and not charge me and hopefully one of my friends will get it in the second draw.

Headless Chickens

2011-05-30T17:37:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have a million headless chickens flapping around in my brain. Feathers, blood and frantic chaos running amok! So a bit of a back story: around the beginning of May, Jesse did a phone interview with a major gun manufacturer who shall be anonymous for a gunsmith repair tech position. Well, on May 16th, they flew him back east to do the in-person interview and two days later, he was given a job offer. He accepted and they gave him a start date of June 20th, assuming this would be enough time for us to get a new place, put in a 2 week notice, and drive across the country. Since then, I have been on stress overload. My weight goes back and forth up and down 10 lbs from stressing out over situating bills, making moving arrangements, and everything else. I wasn't the one who got the job. Everything was honky dory at my job and I love where I work, yet I'm the one who has to sacrifice that because I can "find a job anywhere". Sadly, that is true. But since this job offer, I have been the one doing everything and I mean EVERYTHING. I, having never been to Georgia, found our apartment. I called all of our utility companies and scheduled the shut off dates at the current apartment and turn on dates at the new one. I booked the rental truck, plotted our course, and have done everything in between short of actually getting us there. Today, finally, Jesse has started to help and is assisting with boxing stuff up because I think it's finally hit him that we're leaving in two weeks. Yes, two weeks! I'm still waiting frantically on the relocation check as I've already spent $300 out of pocket for a move I never asked for. Granted, I am finally looking forward to moving to Georgia because it has a lot of recreation to offer me, but I'm not thrilled that I am paying for thing when it should more rest on Jesse as it's his job we're chasing. I'll be without an income once he gets there and I'm not looking forward to that. On the plus side, I did buy myself a new "work from home" set up. I'm finally going to be on a Mac and am waiting for it to get shipped out to me. Got all my software situated and I'm greatly looking forward to this. Anyway, I'll be glad once we're out there and I can just relax. I have been feeling so stressed out this past month because I work full time 40 hours a week and when I get home, I am expected to watch the boy, cook dinner and clean the house, AND organize a move across country? Yeah, I'm just highly looking forward to relaxing for a week or so after we move out there. And hopefully I'll find a job easily and soon. I greatly dislike being out of work.

All Completely New To Me

2011-05-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

People say you can tell someone may be having suicidal thoughts because they start to give away a lot of their possessions. The same can be said for long distance moving.

I've finally convinced myself after all these years that the record collection is going bye-bye.

My coffee table, once one of my favorite pieces of furniture, will also more than likely go away. I think I'm more open to getting rid of things than Jesse is/will be. He has a bunch of clutter and crap still in boxes that he has yet to get rid of for whatever weird reasons. My logic: if it's not part of household decor and you don't use it often, trash it. I see us getting rid of all of our holiday decorations and things of the sorts.

I have been doing research and found that Uhaul is astronomical in it's rates. Like $700 more than Budget. That $700 can fuel us for a good part of our trip!

It's going to take us about 3 days to get to Georgia. That means 3 days of nothing but driving and hopefully not hitting any rush hour traffic. It also means 2 nights and maybe 3 depending on how late we get in, staying in motels. Yeah, Mo, not Ho. We're going cheap. 3 days of nothing but fast food, and sitting. Feeling like a trucker. Jesse driving the rental, me following in the Focus. We'll be like Smoky and the Bandit!

All I can say is I got Georgia on my mind.

"Things are gonna change, I can feel it..."

2011-05-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you heard it from me directly, or you heard it from the grapevine, but long story short, the rumors are true: the Teagues are moving to Georgia. On Monday morning, Jesse flew out to Atlanta, then hopped on a shuttle to Columbus where he had an interview Tuesday morning with Heckler & Koch for what is basically his dream gunsmithing job. Some 24 hours later, he got the call with the official job offer and to my knowledge, the moving packet with all the info is due in today.

Granted, at first, before he even did the interview, like the day before the phone interview, I was pretty upset. Like in tears on my lunchbreak upset. I didn't want to pick up and move to the other side of the country away from our family back in California, and our new friends and life we established out here in Reno. But, over the course of time, Jesse had to talk me into some key points of why it was a good thing.

I didn't have to work (but, after having been there, done that, I want to work. I hate being home. I like being business busy, not family busy.)

It has great hunting and fishing opportunities.

That was basically all he could come up with and as much as I liked the hunting/fishing part, it wasn't enough to make me say, "Sure, let's move!" It was just an idea that I had to take in stride. Over time I thought about it more and told Jesse if he wanted to do this, he would get his hunting license and he would hunt and love it and he would go fishing and love it too, even though his past experiences he hated every single one of them.

Long story short, I found my own reasons to like Georgia.

The apartment we're applying to live at has a lake behind it. This lake is stocked with bass, crappie, catfish, and bream.

The same apartment has a washer/dryer hookup inside. No more laundry rooms.

It also has a patio and is an upstairs unit. Need I say more?

As for Georgia, the place we're applying to live at is close to the mall, restaurants, shopping, entertainment, the post office, pretty much everything and anything I'll need to be content in the city.

There also is an indoor shooting range about a quarter mile away from where we hope to live. Monday night is ladie's night from 6 - 9 pm. That means I get to shoot for free.

Additionally there is a Waffle House out there, and though I've never had it, a Chick-fil-a. Jesse says it's the best chicken ever. We'll see when I get there.

I'm having a hard time finding reasons to not go to Georgia at this point other than it's far from friends and family and the job market for me sucks, but we'll deal with that later.

Anyway, that's pretty much the deal. There's not a tentative moving date yet although I have heard there may be rumors of Jesse starting June 20th or sometime around then. So until then we will have a pretty rushed trip out there. Our biggest issue will be getting rid of clutter out here, but that's not that hard. We don't have a lot of furniture so we'll easily get away with a 16 foot truck. Budget is looking promising as they have the best rates so far. So yes, that's the lowdown.

The end.

Wedding Band Failure

2011-05-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

Back in October, Charlie had this temper tantrum at the mall and was kicking and screaming and hating life and somehow managed to pull off my wedding band and it was lost forever. A few weeks later, I got a replacement at Walmart because it was in my budget (Note: Walmart jewelry sucks. Gold prices constantly go up like crazy – 300% since our rings were bought in 2007 - and it costs less to buy a ring with diamonds now than a solid gold band!)

Some six or seven months later, the replacement broke.

But it's ok, it is being held together as we speak by some Scotch tape.

And as soon as I get home I'll just JB Weld that thing together again. How or why it split on two sides is beyond me. I just figure JB Weld can fix a hole in my radiator, it can fix a wedding band… I think. At least long enough that we can save up and get a new, better, shiny one. On my way to ring #3… this is ridiculous. My marriage better last because my rings sure the heck don't!

Cheap Ass Ring

2011-05-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

As you recall a few months back I lost my wedding ring, more than likely while Charlie was having some sort of break down at the mall. A few weeks later when I had the money to buy a new one, I discovered the costs of gold went up so much, I could no longer afford what was closest to the ring I originally had, so to prevent feeling naked on my finger, I just bought a ring at Walmart. Long story short, some six or seven months later, my Walmart ring is breaking. That's right, splitting up the seams. See, this cheap ass ring was made and assembled at some joining spot and the connection is coming apart. Piece of shit. I'm mad. I guess that's what happens when I have a shitty cheap ring. Note the complete anger and disappointment.

On other annoyances, I'm pretty sure we're not going to do a vow renewal next year. There's a lot of circumstances that come into play here, mostly involving money, extensive traveling and the reality of it is I don't think we will ever have a conventional life. The fact this ring is falling apart makes me feel pretty irked like icing on the cake. Whenever people talk weddings or engagements/proposals ours goes like: we had money and we got married. There was no "will you marry me?" It just happened. As for the wedding, there was no white dress or church, flowers or cake. There was a line at the court house we waited in, paid someone, filled out some forms, and we were done. Just like that. I think the fact the stupid royal wedding was this weekend just makes me more bitter at the fact we got married young and broke. We can't change that. We're just getting older now, but we're still broke. Lame.

Mother's Day Wish List

2011-05-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

Things I'd like for Mother's Day if you ask:

A week of not having to do housework

A week of someone else doing the housework

A week of someone else doing the laundry, dishes, etc.

Flowers

Shiny stuff

Complete set of Allen gun cases in that sunrise/dawn pink camo like my shotgun case for a scoped rifle, pistol, and small pistol

New clothes and or shoes

A full tank of gas

A surprise trip somewhere fun

A date night

To sleep in on both Saturday AND Sunday

Just some ideas in case you need some.

Plumes Make Awesome

2011-04-26T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today this horrible thing happened where I felt like if I didn't eat I'd pass out. Fabulous. Never felt that way before, but it was mostly due to the need (or at least my body thought it needed) of salt. Fortunately I was able to get something to snack on and it was a choice between goldfish or trail mix. I went with goldfish because, while trail mix did have nuts AND chocolate, goldfish are happy and a fun color and cheesy and salty. Anyway, somewhere along the lines of snacking I was looking for inspirational patterns and things to download and I kept noticing birds in a lot of the patterns. You know, birds for the sake of birds? Like that Portlandia skit Put A Bird On It! We have birds with cupcakes. OK, cupcakes! That's over kill! Some of the birds looked like quail, or at least I thought they were of the quail family because they had plumes. It made me think how much cooler things would be if they had plumes. You know? Like zombie quail or goldfish crackers or bacon? Naturally I got to doodling...

Anyway, I think I want to be a quail for Halloween. I don't know how I'll do it, but I'll have a plume and maybe be a ravenous zombie quail. Yeaaaaahhh... awesome...

Good People Do Exist

2011-04-23T16:46:00.001-07:00

This morning I took Charlie to an Easter Egg hunt at the Caulighn Ranch and sadly, after we found parking and got there, all the eggs had been discovered and there were no more left. Charlie and I walked around with his empty basket and decided to make the best of our time there. We looked at the animals and were going to head home when a little boy in front of us dropped an egg and a lolly pop on the grass and told Charlie, "What's that?" as he pointed to the goodies. Charlie picked them up and put them in his basket, excited that he found something. I told the boy thank you as he was probably no older than 9 or 10 and was not told by his dad to do this. It was just a genuinely nice thing of this kid. So I hope the Easter bunny brings him lots of awesome stuff because that was one nice kid and you just don't see kids like that anymore. I kinda gave his dad the nod of "you did something right raising that kid" and a Happy Easter and we went on our way. After a few photo ops and exploring a firetruck later, we called it a morning, came home and dyed Easter eggs. It was a good day. Can't wait till tomorrow.

Networked Blogs

2011-04-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

OK, so today while doing some virtual house cleaning, I figure I'd let you know, I used to have my blog fed through networked blogs on facebook, but after separating the GH and personal blog(s), you'll have to relink because I deleted the other one. So if you like my weird quirky stories, you'll probably want to subscribed to my personal blog. And if you like the GH stuff, you can subscribe to that one too.

<3 me

Separation of Church and State

2011-04-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

I finally decided to make my blog just my blog again and take my GH blog and make it solely for that purpose alone. I prefer my mess of doodle ruckus and comical ridiculousness that is me to be my blog 24/7 and my GH blog to have it's own feel. After all, I think I'm a collection of about 47 different personas, all worthy of their own blogs, but to keep things simple, we'll just stick with 2 for now.

April Showers E-Postal Match

2011-04-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

I will be uploading an e-postal match on Gunslinging Housewife next month. In the meantime, all my little blog readers and facebook friends can take advantage of the sneak peak, not to mention you can print them out and start doing them now if you want. Practice, practice, practice and submit your best score! Highest score(s) of each division gets bragging rights. But I'll put up a picture of your winning target and give you a shout out :)

Here's how it works:

Print the April Showers e-postal match target from www.gunslinginghousewife.com . If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader you can download it for free at www.adobe.com .

Rules:
This is an honor system.
Shooter has 10 rounds to hit all the targets.
Start with the drop at the bottom and work your way up to the top.
Break up the rain clouds to prevent any future rain drops from falling.
Tally up your points.
Take a photo of your score with your name, date, division and score written on it and email your photo along with your name, date, division and score written in your email (in case I can't read what your photo says.)
Email it to jenny@gunslinginghousewife.com .
This is not timed. Plan those shots carefully.
Highest scores of the division will be posted on GunslingingHousewife.com and the GH Facebook page.

Division 1: Rimfire Pistol - shoot at 15 feet
Division 2: Centerfire Pistol - shoot at 15 feet
Division 3: Open All - Any rimfire or centerfire pistol with optical and/or performance modifications - shoot at 21 feet
Division 4: Rimfire Rifle - shoot at 25 yards
Division 5: Centerfire Rifle - shoot at 25 yards
Division 6: Open All Rifles - any rimfire or centerfire rifle with optical and/or performance modifications - shoot at 50 yards

My silly little rain drop and rain cloud illustrations will not appreciate being shot at, but I'll appreciate seeing people go out and shoot as the weather gets nicer! Good luck and Happy Shooting!

Adventures in Potty Training

2011-04-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what I do wrong, but between the past few months, Charlie goes on and off with wanting to use the potty. The times I work with him, he pees all over the house. Yesterday, when Jesse got off work, Charlie magically goes in the potty on his own and pees in there 3 times. Yay. Today, he pees in there all day and only had two accidents. But by the evening, he told me he had to go potty and then proceeds to go to the potty and pees. Yay! OK, so he'll be 3 in a month, but technically he's still 2 and if I can get him using the toilet for good while he's 2, well, hey, I'll be a happy camper. But it seems like Jesse is the magic trick in this equation. Ever since Dadda was home to see him use the potty it was like the magical missing element. Anyway, I hope he keeps it up and I hope he's 100% potty trained by May.

Float-a-lay-hee-hoo!!!

2011-04-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

I always make a point to check the toilet after I flush because I don't trust a lot of toilets. I don't want to be that guy who goes and leaves "presents" behind. Like the other day, I went into the bathroom and for the same reason I check after I flush, I also check before I go. Well, let's just say I looked down and did a Hank Hill sounding, "Aaaahhh!" Someone went poop. Someone didn't flush. Somewhere in my mind I like to pretend I know "whodunnit". So I flush, then pee, then flush again. And of course I do what any American would do, I run and tell my friend, unable to tell the story completely because I'm laughing so hard and all she can say is that I'm beet red and she can barely understand me, which gets us both giggling like a bunch of baffoons. Good times, good times.

The Ghosts of Tonsils Past

2011-04-02T22:19:00.000-07:00

As a child my tonsils were so huge I would stop breathing at night and my mom used to have to wake me up to get me breathing again. Today this is linked to sleep apnea and doctors now take tonsils out for it. Of course, as a kid, the ENT I used to see would tell my parents it "wasn't a big deal" and that I'd "grow into" my tonsils. It wasn't until June 2005 and several episodes of tonsillitis and strep throat each year that I finally found a doctor who agreed that while it was "too dangerous" to remove them because of potential blood loss, they could burn part of them off and "shrink" them. So, for a few lovely gross photos, here was my pre-op adult tonsils, nice and full of pockets where food would get stuck no matter how much I gargled with Listerine and vexed me with perpetual "rotten egg" smelling breath.

And then, seven years later, THIS happens! What the hell is this!? For comparison sake, the right tonsil is pretty swollen, not to mention hard as a rock.

The bad breath is back. I'm pretty sure there's some sort of infection going on in there and for the love of all things sacred, I would like just ONE ENT say I can have them taken out. Take out all that crap. Tonsils. Adenoids. I'm sick of being sick for six months of the year that other doctors peg as "allergies". I'm not feeling any better from Claritin every day, it's just not shaking a common cold! It's not rocket science! The damned things are plaguing me every year and I'm done with them! You'll cut a baby out of me where there is blood loss involved but you can't cut and cauterize my tonsils off with a laser? Come on, docs, don't be stingy bastards, just take my f'ing tonsils out already. My right side of my face is swollen and I have pain radiating from my right tonsil (which feels like it's going to explode from pressure, just an FYI) that goes up along my face to the base of my sinuses below my right eye, to my right ear, down along my jaw and I'm starving and deal with the pain because I love food too damned much to settle for a liquid diet! AAAAAHHH!!!! Seriously, I'm so done with these things to the point I'd just get drunk as hell and take an exacto knife and a hot spoon and try to cut the damned things out and cauterize them myself. Awful, I know, right? It sucks how my eyes water up in pain every time I swallow or yawn and how my ear gets stuffed up from pressure and my hearing is sucking and I yell because I assume no one can hear me just like I can't hear them. AAAAAHHHH!!!! FAIL!!!

The Red Velvet Disaster of 2011

2011-01-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

Remember how I was saying I think 2011 is gonna be bad? Well, it is. It wasn't even here yet when things started to get bad. I know the car needed work and that's fine, I was anticipating that. But last night, Jesse spilled an entire Scentsy pot of wax on the bathroom counter when he went to turn it off. I spent a while cleaning that mess and eventually wrapped it up in 15 minutes or so thanks to the help of my blow dryer, which is also broken now and still works, but only for a matter of time. Last night we didn't go out. We were supposed to stay home and drink champagne and listen to Coast To Coast. Instead, after cleaning and reading for a bit, I found my way to the bedroom and watched Monster Fish and fell asleep. Yep. Pretty amazing night. One of the biggest problems last night, though, was not the fact we weren't doing anything or having to clean the bathroom. No, it was the fact I wanted cupcakes really bad. Particularly red velvet cupcakes. My friend Chrissy makes the best cupcakes ever. I dunno if she puts caffeine or niccotine or crack in them, but you literally can't have just one. I'm not a huge frosting fan so I usually like to eat naked cupcakes, but the rest of my family loves the decorated ones, and really, she does make them look rather pretty. Anyway, I was telling Jesse how I wanted cupcakes and his response, "Call Chrissy, she always has cupcakes." I like the fact that my husband knows my friend simply for her abundance of cupcakes at any given moment because of how often she likes to bake them. This is a good thing too, because she wants to start her own cupcake line and eventually have her own place. Her reputation precedes her. Of course, I haven't got any cupcakes in the past 2 days and I decided I would just make my own red velvet cupcakes.

If you know me, you know that I cannot bake a cake or cupcake to save my life. Part of it may be lack of proper equipment, part may be lack of proper skill, but whatever it is, it adds up to complete failure in the end. I found a recipe online and it looked easy enough. As I started to dye the cocoa powder, I realized I didn't have enough red dye, so I had to substitute with other colors. So I thought I'd add some yellow and make an orange, but there wasn't enough. So I added some blue in hopes of achieving a deep purple. Of course there wasn't enough, so I added green and the end result was a swamp monster green velvet. How I went from red to it's complimentary green, let alone a really horrendous shade of green, is beyond me. All I can say is, typical.

I barely had enough cupcake cups and I don't have anything to house the paper cups in, so my cupcakes always turn out really deformed. Today was no exception to the rule. Long before they even got into the oven, my Swamp Monster Green Velvet cupcakes looked a disaster.

Upon removal from the oven, I gave my deformed green beasts an oven mitt thumbs down. (Which, I must say I love my oven mitts I got for Christmas from my parents this year!)

A closer look at the green trainwreck shows how the batter was so disgusted with itself, even it tried to escape the paper cups, but was stopped by a baked death. What's going on here!?

In the end, I wound up with a plate full of hideous green cupcakes. If the Misfit Toys were real, this is probably what they would have for a Christmas desert or something. Because I'm communist and don't like frosting, I decorated them with a little bit of powdered sugar and some green sugar sprinkles. This just added to their moldy appearance and made them look like the ground when snow starts to melt and you can see the grass below dirty snow. Ugly. However, I must say they taste amazing and I credit the Best Cupcake Recipes blog for the red velvet recipe which I turned into The Red Velvet Disaster of 2011 otherwise known as Swamp Monster Green Velvet Cupcakes.

Ding Ding Ding! Bonk! New Year's Predictions and Resolutions for 2011

2010-12-31T11:05:00.000-08:00

Since marrying Jesse, it has become a bit of a New Years tradition for us to listen to Coast To Coast's New Year's Prediction show instead of going out. And just like the years before, we will be settling down on the couch or in bed with a bottle of champagne and a boy in bed (hopefully) listening to the Dings and Bonks of 2010 and hearing what 2011 has in store.

On that note, I have decided to make my own list of predictions for 2011. Personally, 2010 was a pretty epic year for me and a lot of great things happened, I met a lot of amazing new friends, learned some cool new skills, worked some interesting jobs, lost one car and gained another and just truly thought it was all in all, a great year. However, I can't say I am as hopeful for 2011. I think 2011 is going to be a little bit of a challenge, not so much a total suckfest, but there will definitely be some obstacles. That aside, time for my 2011 Predictions.

- There will be a mass meat recall due to some form of tainted beef.
- There will be a big fire in the central valleys of California.
- A new species of dinosaur will be discovered Utah.
- A new species of bird will be discovered in the Amazon.
- There will be a disasterous earthquake in India and it will be felt throughout many neighboring countries causing a massive outbreak of diseases, looting and rioting and the US will throw more soldiers to Afghanistan to try and stabilize things there.
- The economy will start to show signs of recovery (not stabilization yet.)
- TSA is going to become stricter on their regulations on what you can and can't take on planes, however, the full body scanners are going to start to phase out due to costs.
- Facebook will be at the center of a large class action suit over privacy rights (they will win under the pretense people can opt how much information they choose to share on the internet about themselves.)

OK, that's all I got for predictions. Now for resolutions.
- Get rid of the 10 lbs I gained over the holidays.
- Join a gym.
- Have all our cars running in decent shape.
- Buy my CZ-527 Carbine in 7.62x39.
- Put in for deer tags.
- Learn something new (anything?)
- Go out more often with Jesse on husband-wife dates.
- Try to do a family vacation somewhere fun.
- Find new places to go fishing.
- Brush up on my knitting skills.
- Take up archery.
- Hike all (or most of) the trails in the greater Reno/Sparks area.
- Go horseback riding.

And on that note, I say Happy New Year's to everyone. 2010 was great, but hopefully 2011 is even better. Be safe out there. The weather is kinda crappy in some places. Remember the busses are free tonight. Take advantage of them!

Failure Times Two

2010-12-28T20:08:00.000-08:00

An odd thing happened to me on Saturday. Out of the blue, my cell phone touch screen stopped working. Of course, an hour later, it worked again and all was great and fine in the world. Or so I thought. The very next day, the same thing happened and I treated the situation like the previous day and assumed all would be right again in an hour or so. Hours passed and I came to the conclusion my phone was helpless. I tried to file a report for a replacement with my phone insurance company, however, because there weren't any cracks or damage to the LCD screen, it would have to be dealt with, if applicable, through the warranty. Luckily for me, my warranty was still in effect because it turns out I only had the phone for some 9 months. After a little chat with Verizon, they had sent a replacement out next day, which in reality, was for Tuesday because the claim would be processed on Monday and so on. Now, I'm not one of those people who is attached to my phone at the hip. I use mine mostly for taking pictures, updating Facebook statuses and occasionally texting friends. Oh and calling my mom because of the whole free mobile to mobile thing. But I can tell you, when you are on a winter break of sorts and have plans to go out with friends and realize that all your phone is capable of doing is calling the last number dialed or receiving calls, well, its kinda crappy. And it only gets worse when all the phone numbers of people you know are listed in your phone and you can view them by scrolling and touching them on the screen, oh wait, the screen doesn't work! So much for that, right? All in all, everything worked out for the night and things went as planned.

Oh, but the gods of bad devices are cruel sons on bitches because it's not enough to them that my cell phone crap out on me; no, no, no... You see, yesterday, I had gone out in attempts of catching this big brown trout I lost on the shores of the Truckee River back in the spring. I had visions of grandeur that I would catch him on some cold winter morning, possibly even to find him larger. After a brief period of epic failure, I called it a day and drove home. I was going to make two stops on the way home. Wienershnitzel and the store. Well, stop one never happened because as I was leaving to get to the road, I noticed a big cloud behind me. At first I thought dust, but then I noticed it was white. I had seen this white cloud of death before. I glanced down at my thermostat and saw it jump from normal to hot in seconds. Not good. I managed to make my way to a gas station that was conveniently placed next to a Starbucks. I got out of the car and saw coolant leaking. If you know the story of my last car, the Oldsmobile, you will know that his death started with the cancer of a coolant leak that was masked by a busted heater core and by the time the heater core was fixed and the leak was discovered, it was too late and the engine was damaged. It was like some sort of bad deja vu. I walked into the gas station and asked the lady attendant if there was a payphone near by and she says near Rock or something and I ask if there's one closer, or if I can user her phone to call my husband and have him call my cell because my car died in her parking lot. She gives me the look she probably gives a bunch of druggies daily, but I was pretty frank and, come on, I don't look anything like a junkie. I just got back from fishing and was dressed like crap, but even when I'm outdoors dirty, I still have a pseudo polished look. I did just get my hair cut and it looks very awesome...

They let me call home and I left my message for Jesse. After he called back and nearly made me cry asking how I managed to ruin another car already when he's had his truck for years and I told him I have bad car juju. Because, really, I do have very horrible luck with cars. My first ever car, Li'l Truck had a timing belt break the month I bought him and cost me $500 and a month later I had to replace the engine and have the tranny rebuilt because the engine had knocking rods and the tranny was gonna fall apart. Then I got Jeepie, who was brand new from the dealership, and he was always having parts recalled then would have these weird issues where the car wouldn't start up and I think it had something to do with a faulty starter (apparently my current car had this problem too and had it fixed before I got it, whew!). After I got rid of Jeepie, I got City Truck, who was a Shitty Truck. He died a month after I bought him and I said to hell with that, I'm scrapping it and not even bothering with selling it. I then spent the next 18 months without a car before getting the Oldsmobile, who, despite argument from my mechanic, was the greatest car in the world. He died from overheating and engine damage and now I have Chrissy Car, the Ford Focus. I don't feel too horrible about Chrissy Car because he used to belong to my friend Chrissy, who took pretty good care of him. (What's that, you say? You thought Chrissy Car was a girl because it's named Chrissy? No, he's not. He's a boy. Just think of it like guys named Laurie or something. Yeah, I know Chrissy isn't an androgenous name, ask me if I care? My son named him.)

Back to the story, after an hour of plotting and what not, Jesse finally comes out with Charlie because of AAA issues and he fills the car up with water and cautiously drives home. I drive his truck home with Charlie and smile giddily because I know how to drive a stick shift now and I still haven't got over that feeling of "knowledge is power". (AUGH AUGH AUGH MORE POWER!!! Oh, Jesse told me I have to reference Jeremy Clarkson, "POWEEEEEERRRRRRRR!!!")

I'll fast forward some of the boring parts about the car sitting at home and my mom getting here and using her AAA to have the car towed to the mechanic who asked if I had a '76 Oldsmobile with a coolant leak problem a few months ago and then he did the facepalm action and the, "You sure have bad luck with coolant leaks." Yeah, I do. Blah. $340 later and some new hoses and other stuff, my car is OK for now. It needs $800 in repairs still for a water pump and timing belt (why am I drawn to cars with coolant leaks, bad timing belts, and engine problems!?) Plus it needs to have it's catalytic converter replaced, but I knew about that already. In fact, I kinda knew most of his problems when I got the car in the first place so I'm not super surprised.

Long story short, the present problem with the car has been resolved and the replacement phone is in. So, there is balance in the universe again... for the time being. I'll nervously smile till I can afford to get the other car problem fixed and until then, hope nothing else happens.

The Great Scheels Fiasco of 2010

2010-12-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

Normally I don't like to name drop in blogs but I'll do so today because I was asked to write this blog. My coworker/friend Nadia had to go to Scheels today to get a Christmas present for her son and fiance. So we drive down there on our lunch break. We find the present for her son and then go to their glasses section to get some sunglasses for her fiance. First off, no one is there and when we finally do get someone, the guy is from another department probably because he isn't sure about the product prices and if they even have the one Nadia wants. She ponders whether or not to get them so we go upstairs and play the shooting game to give her time to decide whether she wants it or not. She decides she will get them, so she goes downstairs and goes in line to pay while I look to see if they have my CZ 527 Carbine in 7.62x39 in yet. They don't. I don't even see the CZ 527 Carbines. Then, on a weird hodgepodge shelf I see the .223 one for sale now at $599. They really want to get rid of that thing. Normally it's $697, then they dropped it to $659 and well, now it's under $600 and that makes me think they won't carry them at all. The guy I asked said they're behind or something and winked at me. I guess that means they're either not paying their bills or not gonna carry it again or he's an old creep. This wasn't exactly the first time I went there and they didn't have what I was looking for in their hunting department without knowing/having a reasonable time frame of when they expected to get new merchandise. Whatever the case, I was sad. But it just got worse. When I found Nadia downstairs, she was in line, agitated because they didn't have the box for the glasses she was getting and they couldn't figure out that they could just give her the one box and make a new sku for it since all the glasses have the same exact box! Basically, we wasted 15 minutes in line dealing with poor Scheels customer service. Eventually we got everything we needed and went back to work, Nadia realized she left her keys at Scheels because of the whole fiasco involved. She called them and they told her she could come get them from their lost and found. Forget putting her name on them and holding them. They just have a big generic box and you pick whatever you want from there. So any shmuck can go and say they lost some keys and if there happen to be keys in there they can say, "Oh! Those are mine!" and score! Hope they find your car. Long story short, we're not very happy with Scheels today. The sad part, we were really looking forward to going.

Better Safe Than Sorry: Why It's A Good Thing To Own A Safe

2010-12-13T22:38:00.000-08:00

Every person who has anything important to them should consider investing in a good fireproof safe. Why? Why not? It only takes a few minutes for a criminal to steal or a fire to destroy valuables you spent your life gathering. Isn't it worth your money to invest in a device to protect these items?

Important Documents
Perhaps it's medical papers, car or house titles, stocks and bonds, birth certificates, social security information, loan papers; whatever it may be, everyone has their share of documents they do not want to lose. Prevent a burglar from the opportunity of cashing in on an identity theft by keeping your paperwork locked up. Avoid spending hours at various agencies and paying fees for copies of documents in the event of a fire.

Saving For A Rainy Day
There are people who have gold or cash stashed in their homes. Whether it be in the form of jewelery, coins, or bars, people still believe in collecting precious metals as an investment item to use when they need it. Some people like to keep their cash on hand instead of having it in a bank account where it is readily available to them when they need it.

Keepsakes
Some things are irreplaceable. A fire doesn't take sentimental value into consideration as it burns away old family photos, cards, and letters.

Firearms
Millions of Americans own guns. However, several criminals do too, most of which are obtained illegally via straw purchases or burglaries. It is a wise idea to have a safe to keep guns locked up in when you go out of town. It is also wise to have a safe to keep guns out of reach of people who shouldn't have access to them like children, whether they are your own or those of friends or family members. All gun owners should take personal responsibility for their firearms and consider those around them. While you may be a knowledgeable gun owner, others around you may know nothing and not have proper training or common sense to just "not touch".

You may not be able to stop a criminal or a fire, but you can protect your assets. Accidents can be prevented by taking precautions. Safeguard your valuables and invest in a good safe. There are many different kinds on the market from large vaults to small boxes, even James Bond-type "secret" safes like Secure Logic's Invisivault wall vault, which looks like a picture frame.

Picture Day

2010-12-03T21:33:00.000-08:00

Remember when you were a kid and they'd have picture day at school? Your parents would dress you up and you'd wait in line to have your picture taken. Then when you were in high school you'd either dress up in your favorite outfit or not even care and want it to be over with? So our work had a "new employee" picture day not too long ago. I was really sick and missed it. I went downstairs for a soda at lunch and as I walked through the break room to go to the hall to the upstairs break room, I noticed it: the employee photo collage. I snickered at not being on there. Ha ha I missed it! So you could only imagine my dismay when I got the email that three employees had to go and get pictures taken. Gah! It was one of those moments of thinking I wish I knew this yesterday so I could plan an outfit. Fortunately I think my hair, make up and outfit were photo-friendly so I wasn't totally distraught. Anyway, it made me have flashbacks of being a kid and photo day and the dread of having someone take your picture, especially when the photographer is another coworker and picture day now seems like getting a picture at the DMV by someone who is going to laugh at you while taking the picture making you feel like an asshole or something. It's all good.

I'm Going Somewhere With This, I Promise...

2010-12-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

There are serious flaws in the infrastructure design in Northern Nevada. Most freeways and roads loop you around or send you down unnecessary roundabouts. You can imagine how hand this is in the winter when it snows or when the roads are icy. Then there is always some sort of road work going on somewhere. I'm not sure if this has something to do with the wear and tear due to weather (cars driving with snow chains, cables, snow tires, plus snow and ice in winter and heat in summer) or if they just get hairs up their butts to redo the roads frequently to keep construction workers employed. Whatever the case, there are always either too many over sized construction signs practically in the middle of lanes or no signs or lights to direct you where to go and unless you're in the know, you'll get lost.

Parking lots are like mazes. If you make a wrong turn, you can't get out unless you drive five miles around one way and wind up somewhere completely different. I think some of the lots most notorious for this set up are by the Walmart and Borders on Kietzke and South Virginia, Shopper Square, Legends at Sparks Marina, and well, pretty much every parking lot for any outdoor strip mall or shopping center. Sometimes I feel like some stoner designed the parking lots and roadways in this town while high thinking how trippy it would be to have a swirling cement island blocking what could otherwise be a very streamline route. I don't know. Maybe it's like the excessive roundabouts and some sort of sneaky means of slowing down fast drivers. Of course drivers out here are a whole other story.

I never liked driving in California because I am a very timid driver. Rarely do I go fast, but out here, it seems like I am the fast driver... and I'm just going the speed limit! People out here have a problem with going too slow when there are high speeds, or too fast when there are low speeds. When I drive to work, I take Mill to McCarran because it's just faster that way. Less traffic and higher speed limits. But no one seems to know that there is a 50 mph speed limit on Mill behind the airport! And the speed before you hit that 50 mph zone is 40 mph, but they seem to go 20 mph because they all need to go to whatever little shops are on the way before there. Then there's the 45 mph zone after the airport up to McCarran. Again, people go 20 mph slower because they don't know where they're going! Come on! You make the same commute every single day! How is it you do the same thing every day and yet you still slow down to an almost stop at every intersection as if to read the street signs to make sure you're making the right turn!? That baffles me. But I'm sure after doing it 5 days in a row they probably have developed the habit of it and thus ruining the benefits of a 45 mph speed limit for those who are attempting to make their commute faster because it would be ridiculous to take the freeway with all of the backtracking involved and the route Google Maps suggests with its millions of stop lights and school zones because it is .2 miles shorter than my high speed limit zig-zagging route that can get me there 10 minutes faster!

I really appreciate getting to work slightly earlier because that means a better parking spot. Granted there's enough parking for everyone, but I've worked at places where if you don't get a parking spot, even a bad one, it meant street parking. And if you got stuck with that, you were screwed. But in addition to getting a nice parking spot, it gives me time to do little things like get coffee or tea and go to the bathroom.

Our office is two stories. Most of the office is downstairs and uses the downstairs break room and bathrooms. Not me. I'm upstairs. I use the upstairs bathroom and break room. Partially because they're right next to me, partially because it's a micro version of my 3 mile radius habit which stemmed from my nothing outside the valley habit I grew up with. I'm like a little critter that likes to stay within it's territory. Anyway, our bathroom is pretty swanky but there are some huge differences between the upstairs bathroom and the downstairs bathroom. In addition to it being a single toilet bathroom, the toilet is also unusually tall. I can't help but feel like a little kid who has learned to use the big people potty whenever I go. You know, giddy, kicking my feet like I'm on a swing kind of. I mean, it is tall. Finally, for some weird reason, our sink doesn't get hot water. So it really sucks on mornings when you drive to work all cold and tread through the snow having to pee because you're so cold only to finish up by washing your hands with cold water.

You never notice something until someone points it out. Then you can't help but always notice it. I've been noticing whenever it's 11:33 for over ten years because one of my friends once told me in high school it was her "evil" time, that being, every time she looked at the clock, for whatever reason it was 11:33. Ironically, it's not 11:33 right now. Another case in point was that a coworker mentioned that the soap in the bathroom seems strangely far from the sink. Naturally, now I notice it is far from the sink! And, to make matters worse, it seems like every time I go in, it gets farther and farther from the sink, despite my efforts to bring it closer. What's that all about!? And as if that's not enough, insult is added to injury when you need to dry your hands after washing with the cold water, traveling away to get the soap, and going back to the cold water, only to have to go all the way back to where the soap was to get the paper towels to dry off! It's madness I tell you!

OK, it's not that horrible, but it does distract me from thinking otherwise stranger thoughts. Like how I'm desperately needing a hair cut, particularly my bangs. They're doing this weird thing, and maybe it's the weather, but they now want to fall to the side opposite of the direction of my natural part. Don't get me wrong, I think I look good with sideways bangs, but the problem is, the bangs plus my haircut make me look like the guy in No Country For Old Men. I love that movie and the character of Anton Chigur, but, I feel a little odd with sharing his hair style. Fortunately, SNL made a parody of There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men in which the character was mocked for having a "ladies haircut". So it's confirmed, my hair is alright and he has a chick do.

Mixed Feelings

2010-11-23T21:38:00.000-08:00

I've been having majorly mixed feelings about the snow. Like Sunday, when I was off and could do whatever, I loved it. Charlie and I went to the park and rode the boogie board downhill. But today, when I was at work and had to commute there and back, I was hating it. I was joking that I wanted to go outside with a lighter and hairspray saying, "GO AWAY SNOW!!!" Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about the snow right now. Maybe come tomorrow night I'll like it again. I do want to get some snowshoes though. I'd like to try out snowshoeing.

Flaws In The System

2010-11-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

I have been spending a good part of my days compiling letters written by 5th and 6th graders thanking our company for programs and goods sent to their classes and I often chuckle at the silly things they say or draw. But more often than that, I shake my head in disappointment at how children of that age seem to lack basic knowledge I remember having and my peers having when I was that age. You know, common stuff like how to write a proper letter. Some refer to us as "Dear *** people". People. That's a little rude. I snicker a little at the innocence of children signing letters "love" or "your friend". Because really, they are our friends. But the sad part is when you see a total inconsistency in grade levels. One school will have kids draw a picture and write a letter inside of a home-made card. They look like they were done by kids half their age and the spelling and grammar goes along with that theory. Then you will see another school with the same age students writing proper letters, addressed and formatted, written with good penmanship or typed. It just makes you wonder why places where there are kids who are doing the same program and following the same state education correlations have such huge scholastic differences. Not sure what to think at this point. It's just pretty bleak out there.

Reoccurring Dream Symbols

2010-11-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

Beaches with massive waves
Ghosts
Snakes
Giant houses
Dumpy sun rooms
Bill Hader (Not sure why)
Zombies
Vampires
Apocalypse
Driving stick shifts (before I knew how)
Fish
Dim lighting
Deserts in the winter
The man in the desert
Lizards
Blood
Bath tubs
Difficulty running
Lack of privacy
Red
Blue
Grey
Locked doors
Snow
Aggressive animals
Flowing
Lack of coherency
Reading *
Number *

* I actually can recall the information of what I read and numbers I see in the morning as well.

Yeah. A lot of these things pop up in dreams often. I'm not sure why or what it means but it fascinates me that its so common. I'm even more fascinated at the fact I can read names or addresses of things in my dreams and remember them in the morning.

Surrender

2010-10-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

It looks like our little Walmart standoff made national news. In the end, the guy, a Walmart employee was to be confronted about his behavior. The guy was on suspension pending termination and escorted from the store by a few people before the shooting ever happened. Wednesday morning, he comes into the store and confronts a manager and two other employees who he proceeds to shoot. One gets shot in the leg, one the shoulder and one the chest. The leg goes home after treatment yesterday at the hospital and the other two are still being treated. After 6 hours of being holed up in the store, the guy surrendered. No one heard any shots even though there were some 48 shots fired because it happened behind two double doors. That all makes sense now. I did hear arguing. That's why I wanted to get off the phone with my mom. So while no one has come out to say, I believe there must have been a confrontation of some sort before the shootings. Why else would there have been arguing? Unless he was arguing after he shot people and that's when the managers told everyone to get out of the store. I suppose theories will never end until he actually goes to court and everything comes out. So we'll just have to wait.

In other news, some other crazy person committed suicide that same day by jumping from a 10 story building. I've kind of had a little bit of an agoraphobic feeling towards Walmart in the end. I'm not sure just how much I want to go back there. I know I'll go back because of their low low prices but seriously, the crazy people that go there and work there are a little too much sometimes.

Rule 17: Don't Be A Hero

2010-10-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

The morning was a little different than usual. I had Friday off for Nevada Day. I took Charlie to school and headed to Walmart to get a few things. I was browsing around what seemed to be a more empty than usual day at Walmart on Kietzke and S. Virginia. It was around 8:27am and I was on the phone with my mom. I told her I had to go because there was some sort of ruckus and I wanted to see what was going on. I was hoping to see a fight or something. The next thing I know, I hear more yelling and a manager yelling and running, "EVERYBODY OUT NOW!!!" I left my cart near the pull-ups which I was contemplating getting for Charlie and ran as fast as I could to the exit. I recall having to slow down a bit because my moccassins were slipping on the tile floors. I kept thinking in my mind, "It's a gun and I'm not going to be a hero." My plan was to get the hell out of there and get back to safety, that being my home. So I ran as fast as I could, never looking back, because everyone knows the number one rule is to not look back because looking back slows you down. I got to the parking lot and there was a man and woman on a phone and the woman asked him what he was doing and he said, "I'm calling 911!!!" as if to question her logic. I asked what happened and they said someone got shot. OK. How is it I was a few aisles away from what happened and from the shooter yet I hadn't heard gunfire or known that there was a shooting? I got in my car and left, not waiting to find out anything else. We turned on the police scanner and listened to the events unfold as no news channels were airing what I think is a pretty big story.

So basically what I can gather at this point: a at Walmart shot someone with what was described as a "mid size silverish handgun". Originally one employee thought they saw a shotgun, but no shotgun was found. The suspect ran into an office and was then trapped in the office. Police units have him trapped still and are checking the store for victims, witnesses, evidence and clearing the place out. They're clearing any additional guests leaving including what I find to be amusing, CCW holders. I guess it's nice to see that I'm not the only person who decided not to be a hero today.

****UPDATE****

News is now covering it and three people were shot. More details on the news. The end.

I'm On A Boat!!!

2010-10-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my sister's 30th birthday party. She doesn't turn 30 till the 28th and wanted to do something big because it was a big deal. You only turn 30 once. She didn't want her party to conflict with anyone's Halloween plans so it was decided to be last night. I flew out all by my lonesome to meet up and help her get ready. Because of Obama coming out, my trip from LAX to Van Nuys on the Flyaway took forever, but I managed to get out there close to 4 pm. We ran to get the cake and a few things at Target and then got to working on getting ready. They started letting people on the boat when we got there so it was cool. Anyway, it was soooooo much fun!!! Imagine having a bunch of people you love being around all dressed up, on a boat, with a bar, snacks, deserts, dancing and karaoke and that's what you get. We got to hear all the songs we wanted and sing the songs we wanted, in the case of some of the guys, the same song multiple times. No one cared and it was all good fun. Everyone looked great and there's not a single picture I have where anyone is not smiling. OK, maybe a few WTF faces to someone doing something funny or ridiculous but it was all in good fun. After the party, we hung out for a bit and then headed home. I was super hungry so we got some Del Taco, even though I wanted Taco Bell. It reminded me of a classic "Oliver" moment when he tried to order me Nachos Bell Grande at a Del Taco drive through. Anyway, by the time I got back to my parents' house, took a shower and ate my Del Taco, it was 3 am. I had to be up around 5:30 to get ready to go to the Flyaway to get to LAX for my flight. My mom woke up late because for whatever reason the alarm went off at 6:00 instead. I got up, got dressed and shuffled off to the Flyaway. I was lucky enough to get the 6:45 bus and got to LAX early enough to get on my plane. I forget how much I hate that airport until I get there. I had an hour to wait till my flight after I got through security and I sat down with some McDonalds. Much to my dismay, there were two very annoying teenage girls with their mom to the left of me and they kept saying the same thing over and over and over again. Fortunately they left after about 20 minutes for their flight, but they were replaced by 5 of the most shallow and idiotic 20 something girls who sat behind me. They were going to Vegas and talking about getting shots at 8:30 am. The thought of it made me want to barf. I only had 3 beers last night between getting ready to go and actually being on the boat. I planned it purposely so I wouldn't be all hung over and sick feeling today. So I feel fine outside of being ungodly tired and hopped up on coffee to stay awake and I have their meaningless banter making my head spin. They struck me as the kind of girls if you asked who their hero was they'd say Ke$ha or something under the pretense they like how she dresses or something absurd along those lines. I wish I could just slap them all with my clutch and tell them to get a life. Then one leaves and comes back with this big gulp size cup that has some sort of "tequilla and lemonade drink" as she put it. Classy. I'm glad I wasn't flying to Vegas. On both trips up and back, I had to sit next to women who were completely selfish travelers and insisted on leaning onto my seat even though they could have leaned into the seat of their friend/boyfreind/husbands(?) to the left of them. The one on the way up was the worst though because she was all sweaty and had her air on full blast. I had my air off because I was cold. Being cold and sweaty sucks. Being cold and sweaty from someone else's sweat that is leaning on you is repulsive and sickening. That being said, the same woman insisted on lifting her arm rest a bit to adjust a giant leopard print pillow she brought with her. Both flights were full so it was really annoying. My back hurts from leaning into my window and sitting all cramped to not get squished by the women on the left of me on both trips. Anyway, I'm pretty tired and feel completely gross and I'm debating going to Petco for their Halloween costume contest for pets.

CHRISTMAS LIST 2010!!!

2010-10-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm too lazy to set up an Amazon list or a wishlist this year so if you're lost for ideas here goes:

Fuzzy pink house shoes
Shotgun shell thermos
Mini-deep fryer
New Converse
Anything with pugs or guns
Travel mug with a twist on lid (bonus points for a pug or gun theme!)
1 - 5 lbs of Brazillian Coffee beans from Fairly Grounded (CAFFEINATED!!!)
White or Red pea coat
Donut Pan
Bread pan (I have one and I'd like another! Bonus points if you get one that matches my current pan!)
Remington 870 21" vented turkey barrel
Clothes (see sizes below)
bottoms - large, 10 or 11
tops - large (or medium)
shoes - 8 dress, 8.5 casual
Jewelery - I don't discriminate against shiny things or things of crazy colors and textures :)
Knife - I guess this is a little personal, but I'd like a nice utility knife, not so crazy like a Leatherman, but maybe something like a basic pocket knife with a knife, scissor, file, and screwdriver option. Bonus points for an ivory, pink, or yellow handle.
Rubix Cube
Body Pillow

*** Keep posted as this list may get updated upon future dates. Also, this is simply a guide to aid in ideas. Feel free to stray from the list.

Quail Hunt 2010

2010-10-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

One of the things I've wanted to do for the longest time was get into hunting and I started this year. I was able to get into the butt end of dove season, but there wasn't a single dove in sight the two times I went out, so I waited eagerly for quail season to begin. Let me tell you, the 9 days it took for quail season to open seemed like FOREVER! But the day came and I joined my friend Jen in Yerington for what was supposed to be a morning quail hunt that turned into a two day adventure.

Yerington is a nice little farm town an hour and a half away from me. I love it out there and have no problems going out there because it's great! I left the house at 6:30 and got to Jen's around 8:15 because of a little bit of morning traffic. She just got back from taking her kids to school and we transferred the shotguns to her car and headed out to hunt. Our hopes were high. When we got out, we saw another truck of guys and they were going in a different direction. We made the mistake of not getting bug spray, of course we didn't know we needed any. After an hour or so of getting attacked by mosquitos and remembering the dozens of West Nile Virus warning signs we saw when we first came in, we left to get bug spray and returned.

Ready to hunt with my little partner, Lulu, the hunting pug or Bird Dog Lu.

Upon our return, we tried another spot. First, I saw something big dart out a little ways away and said it's either a coyote or a deer. Not too much longer, we saw it was in fact a deer. A nice sized plump doe who had that "deer caught in headlights" look when it saw us and then boinked away into the distance. We kept thinking what a great thing it would be to have a deer tag there and then. We heard the distinct "ooo-hoo-hoo" sound of quail and followed it until we came across some. It started with one. It flew up out of the sage brush and I took a shot at it. Missed. My one shot resulted in a coven of at least 40 quail to fly up ahead of us. We followed them into some thick brush until we got to an irrigation ditch. In order to get to the quail, we would have to jump the ditch. This was a rather interesting task. We could easily step into the water and cross, or we could literally jump. Being women, we decided it would be best to not get our socks wet and walk around in sopping wet shoes, so we unloaded our shotguns and crossed. I jumped across first with Lulu in hand, then Jen passed me the shotguns and followed. We reloaded and headed back to our pursuit of quail. Apparently they wised up because they weren't coming out for anything. After about an hour or so of no quail, we decided to call it a day and go get some lunch.

The irrigation ditch we had to hop.

Following lunch, we returned to Jen's home and I spent a nice deal of time with her older kids who are home schooled playing Rock Band. This has inspired me to use some money and invest in an XBox for the sole purpose of getting Rock Band. I like the drums and singing. I can't do the guitar to save my life. I had the famous "chipotledillas" for dinner and they are super awesome. Although I don't eat spicy foods enough to remember the detrimental effects they have on me. Basically, my DrPepper plus the chipotledilla was the formula to create the gnarliest gas bubbles causing me such sever stomach pains, I was just doubled over for the evening. * Note: Despite gas, I will totally eat them again because they're that awesome because gas goes away. The memories of chipoltedillas last forever! The evening ended with me deciding to stay another night and Jesse was going to have a "guy night" with Charlie and go get dinner and hang out and have some quality father/son time. Which is completely hilarious to me that I'm out hunting with the girls and Jesse's home having dinner with Charlie. Hopefully when he's older, Charlie will be going on father/son hunting trips to learn man-stuff while I stay home and get dinner with the girls. Our night ended with watching the movie Serenity which is like a post-apocalyptic space western zombie movie. I know, right!? That is a lot to put into one movie, but it works! And I am definitely going to watch Firefly now, which was the TV series that existed before the movie which inspired it, so says Jen and her kids, all with wide eyes and enthusiasm; her oldest son in his Jayne Cobb hat. Love the nerd factor. They snagged me in on it!

So a few things that I did not mention were that Jen's husband was out trying to find chukar while we were out looking for quail. He gave us a hard time about not shooting any quail when we got back, in good humor of course. When he returned, he asked us where we found them, Jen drew a map, and he went out in search of them. I kept going on about how I'd be so mad if he got one because those were OUR quail. I was plotting revenge, luckily, he didn't get any quail either so it all worked out in the end.

Tuesday was the final day of our quail hunt. We went back out and they were further back. It was back across the irrigation ditch and walking around trying to find them. I stumbled upon them and took a few shots but no luck. Jen and I left for lunch, returning in separate cars so I could head home when she had to get her girls from school. We parked the cars and within less than 10 minutes of leaving the cars, one lone quail flew out of the sage brush. I took a shot at him and missed. He was still within my range and I took a second shot and he went down. It was quite possibly one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced. I told Jen she could take Lulu and look for more quail while I get my bird.

Lulu hears some quail.

But I didn't get the bird. Maybe it was stunned and came back to and ran off when it landed. Maybe I wasn't checking far enough out, or maybe I was checking too far out. Maybe it didn't help that every sage brush looked the same. Whatever the case was, I spent over 2 hours looking for a bird that was not there. I spent more time looking for the bird once it was down than I did when it was alive trying to find a bird to shoot. The most baffling part was that I could see my car the whole time and I was wondering what the heck happened to the bird. I kept searching for it long after Jen went to get the girls and finally I just gave up. I figured if its down, someone will be getting dinner tonight, just not me. And if it was stunned and walked away, I'll get him next time.

The bitter look of defeat. Not finding my quail and giving up.

Anyway, I learned a few things from this trip. First and foremost, hunting is a lot harder than shooting clays. It's hard to focus on a bird to shoot when there are more than one in front of you. It's hard to focus on something that blends in with the environment around it. Even if it does go down, it's hard to find something when it blends in with it's environment. However, I did learn that I can shoot a bird if presented with an opportunity to do so. Despite the fact my Remington 870 Wingmaster is a pre-1986 model with no choke and an 18" barrel and people laugh when I tell them I'm using it for hunting, I learned that it is a pretty comfortable gun to have to haul around thick brush because of it's size. I also discovered that despite where I'm going, bug spray will be with me at all times. Lulu is great at flushing quail. I wish I had a hat with a camera on it. I had a lot of fun. While I love fishing, I love eating birds more and I am so all about hunting now and trying to plot out my next hunting trip. I'm thinking probably some weekend after Halloween.

Zombie Vaccine

2010-10-08T01:20:00.000-07:00

There had to be a cache somewhere around here. Shuffling through trees and leaves and nothing. I turned around and found myself alone. The shuffling continued. But it got louder as if someone was coming our way. No one was in sight. I called out for my friend but got no response. Only some muffled groans from off in the distance. It wasn't my friend, it was someone else. A zombie. I pulled out my .45 and shot him in the head. After all, that's how you get rid of them. We knew they were around lately but hadn't seen any of them. We just heard about it. It's like knowing a storm is on it's way and hearing about it but not seeing it. Then when it finally gets to you, you wish it didn't come, but you were glad to know it was real and not made up. Because it seemed a little too crazy to be true. I know my friend would be alright. I didn't have any physical proof other than a gut feeling, but my gut is always right. I headed back to the car but it was gone. My friend had left.

As I walked back towards the city, there was a school bus. I got on it and it drove up the freeway and got off on the Mill exit near GSR. There were no cars on the road other than the ones that were now on fire. Apparently a lot happened while we were gone. I'm not sure how I knew, but Jesse, Charlie and Lulu were with my parents. That was the plan. If anything happened, go to their home. Now it was up to me to meet them. The bus crashed into the side of the offramp and I crawled out of the emergency exit. I had my 870 with me this time.

I walked around the more industrial parts of Mill and came across a structure composed of aluminum sheets held together with some random fabrication materials. Inside was buzzing with action. Bloody people were trying to help others out amidst the tools and machinery. It was like a make-shift hospital. Some of the people were barking orders at others. I asked if I could help. They needed someone to assist with placing face masks. They figured if they could tack on sheet metal masks over the mouths or faces of the infected, they could save that person without destroying them and use them for labor.

Of course! Why destroy those mindless zombies when you could rehabilitate them to do something useful! Why hadn't anyone thought of that before? In other parts of the country, when others were just running from them allowing them to destroy their cities, this small group of vigilantes discovered a way to take charge and be industrious. They were the perfect workers. They didn't require food or sleep. They didn't require social happiness. They were like machines. When they fell apart, you could replace one with a new one. It was as if it were a human machine. Each mindless being did exactly as it was instructed to do. If you told one to staple metal to the face of a man who had been bit minutes ago and was in perfect health and not yet infected, the zombie worker would do so. If you told one to stand under a trash compactor which would result in destroying the zombie forever, it would do so. They would only comprehend the orders they were given and never question them. The zombie workers were every employer's dream employee.

I had spent too much time fascinating over the zombie workers. So much that I didn't realize there was a crowd of zombies headed towards me. They were not masked off and had the desire for flesh. They stopped and stared at me. I didn't know what to do. I gave them a command and they stared completely dumbfounded. I shuffled back slowly and they followed. But each time I was certain I was about to become a zombie, nothing happened. A few of them grabbed at my arms but then dropped them. One of the doctors turned around and looked as did a few of the patients.

"What's going on?" I asked.

No one seemed to have a response. The zombies poked at me some more and then turned away.

"You must be no good," one of the doctors said.

"Is that possible?" I asked.

Seriously, how is it one is not good enough for zombies. I'm a smart person. I have brains. I'm healthy. I think I would be more than good lunch for a zombie. But for whatever reason, they wanted nothing to do with me.

One of the doctors came up to me. "Let's do a blood test."

"Why?"

"You may be contaminated."

"I can't be. I haven't been bit."

"We can't be too sure. Maybe you got bit and didn't realize."

"I think I would know. I don't have any cuts or bruises. No signs of any bleeding that would imply I got bit. I'm pretty certain I'm not contaminated."

"Well maybe we can find out what's wrong with you."

I didn't like this. It seemed very weird now. I know, this should have been weird a long time ago, stepping into a weird factory hospital with zombie workers and doctors who weren't armed with any guns or anything but seemed to be operating fine in this so-called work environment.

I looked around and suddenly had the need to get a nail gun. It was important that I have one. I was going to go outside and see if I could test my "no-good" status on the zombies around me. A nail gun seemed like a good weapon but I wasn't sure if it would do the job or not.

Upon finding a nail gun, I walked outside of the building with a new crowd of zombies in trail. Once outside, a bunch swarmed to me, but again, none were interested. After a few pokes and curious looks, they lost interest and wandered back to rummaging in trash cans and walking the streets. I shrugged and went back inside.

"OK," I said to one of the doctors, "You can take some of my blood. I'm pretty sure whatever it is, the zombies aren't interested. Maybe we can make a vaccine with my DNA. Maybe it can be used to ward zombies from attacking people, or maybe you can test it to see if it cures zombiesm."

The doctor took a syringe and poked me in the arm drawing out a small amount of my blood. He then stuck the same syringe in a man near by him that was not infected and after shooting him up with a small amount, shot a small amount into a zombie.

I'm not sure what happened to the man because he disappeared into the building. I think my blood killed the zombie. Whatever happened, the doctors were fascinated and started to take my blood and separate it into various viles, adding chemicals and placing drops at a time on petri slides under lights and microscopes, some how generating new blood cells from my sample blood.

I turned around again and walked back out the door and headed towards the freeway as the sun was setting. I was going to meet up with my family and call it a day.

No Sense Trying To Make Any Sense Of Things

2010-10-08T00:44:00.000-07:00

A strange occurrence happens every fall and that is with the arrival of each autumn, my brain goes into overdrive and starts to produce fantastically odd dreams every night. So, in honor of the season and Halloween coming up and the fact it's October and none other than "what the hell, why not?" I am going to share some recent dreams. Of course I will elaborate on them a little more and convert them to short stories for your reading entertainment. After all, my dreams are nothing more than a cesspool of rehashed versions of daily events, my subconscious, and memories, ideas, and worse, my imagination, which everyone knows is more than capable of being completely catastrophic and out of control. On that note, we'll see where my dreams lead me. Definitely some odd adventures with no resolutions. 'Tis life...

Overstimulated!!!

2010-09-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight I really debated going running. It was hot and gross all day and even more unpleasant after spending an evening dying a dress that didn't take to the color in a hot and muggy bathroom and then followed up by folding two weeks worth of laundry (which I never really got around to folding last week's clothes, my bad.) Of course, my pre-weight before run inspired me that if I go out and run tonight, it will motivate me to run again more this week and I may be in the desired shape I want to be in for the mud run and Halloween (no worries about fitting my dress for my sister's 30th birthday, though, that's custom tailored! OH SNAP!)

Anyway, I managed to drag myself down to the river. Mr. iPod was put on shuffle and started out with some Ladytron followed by some Lilly Allen and Michael Jackson and Electric Six and then the Dwarves came on. At that point, something about being out at night in dim lights, running around listening to loud punk in the muggy heat gave me flash backs to 1998 when I was 16 and there were a million great bands in town that summer and well into the fall and so I just put it on the Dwarves from there out and ran.

Long before I got to the pleasant memories, I knew tonight was going to be odd. It started out with an over-abundance of potential white supremists out and about. After watching enough episodes of gangland you can kind of start to pick out the tale-tell signs of them. Plus every time some idiots go tagging up the neighborhood, they have a tendency to paint swastikas over any new taggings and well, we recently got some new taggings down along Brinkby. Anyway, they weren't really doing anything other than walking around the lake, maybe going somewhere or whatever. But it was one of those things where you gotta be aware of things.

So they disappear by round two and my theories of them just passing are correct. I do see one of the regular night time runners. On round two he gives me a thumbs up and that was pretty encouraging. Sometimes on crappy nights like tonight, you want to throw in the towel after round 1 but I managed to go all 3 as planned. Toyed with going 5 but realistically, it's just not the right weather for 5 miles for me since I haven't been running regularly in a few weeks.

Well, lap 1 is the white power guys. Lap 2 is the thumbs up of encouragement. Lap 3 has to be epic.

Nothing.

Not until I'm about 3/4 the way through and then it happens.

Young lover Latino boy gets up in a defensive manner. I turn the music off to eavesdrop on the gossip.

"WHAT THE FUCK!? I LOVE YOU? I GIVE IT MY ALL? AND FOR YOU TO TELL ME YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS?!?!?!?!?"

BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!! OH, what a way to end the night!!!! With a break up!!! Every night I see the same douchey youngster types at the lake connected at the hips and lips, grabby with the fingers completely uninterrupted by the people around them simply because they are in the park in the dark and it's "romantic". To see this break up made my day. Young love. So fragile. So disposable. So amusing. On that, I say tonight was probably one of the most amusing runs I've had in a while.

WOLVERINES!!!

2010-09-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

Friday morning, I was supposed to go on a hunting adventure with "Kristy Caliber". Unfortunately, there was a mishap that involved her keys getting locked inside her car. I got a text from her at 6 am notifying me of this. But the real kicker comes from her dad insisting he can get the car open. Four hours later he did! However, by that time it was too late to get our hunt on so we postponed it for the next day. So Saturday rolls around and we're out looking for a good spot for doves. Not a single bird in sight that day. However, there was a moment where there was a helicopter flying towards the air races I'm assuming (they were this weekend). I couldn't help like I was in Red Dawn.

At that point, I had a brief potentially shit-your-pants moment where I thought, "What if something like Red Dawn actually ever did happen?" But that passed quickly. I then took to enjoying the environment. We never did get any doves but it was nice to get out.

Automatic to Stick

2010-09-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

I know at the beginning of 2010 I said I had this feeling this year was going to be an incredible year for me and to be honest, it has. I am doing so many things this year, scratch that, accomplishing so many things this year I had dreamed of doing my life but have finally dedicated myself to learning or doing. I finally did my hunter's ed. I finally learned to drive a stick. After about four years of Glock-Block, I finally learned to love the Glock. But right now I'd like to talk about the stick shift.

I'm not sure what the deal is with me but I used to have stick shift fantasies. No, it's not some weird Freudian thing. It's literally dreaming about hopping in a car with a clutch and knowing how and when to shift. And I would have re-occurring dreams where I would know how to drive a stick. Now, I know it sounds stupid, especially since that's how so many people I know learned how to drive a stick, but I'm not that lucky. Sometimes I can pick something up and figure it out in a matter of seconds, other times I can't. Stick is one of them.

I recall one of my first stick lessons. A five minute quickie behind Jesse's work. OK, that came out sounding dirty. Seriously though, we went to the big lot behind his work and he gave me a very basic run down of clutch, break, gas, in a series of ways that confused me. Lesson two, which was considerably longer, wasn't any better. Lots of stalling and jolting. And the fact his truck was just a big clunky machine didn't help any, but I can't complain as it's been reliable for us. I think it eventually made sense when I tried to look at driving stick from a shooting perspective and thought about the gas/clutch system in a sense of follow through with the clutch as I give gas. (My biggest error was always jumping off the clutch as soon as I had a little gas and would result in stalling, grinding, or the car jumping, and sometimes a combination of the three.)

Well, long story short, it has taken me a great while (I think) to start to get the stick and I am finding that I am liking it. A lot. I get it now. I get why people drive sticks. Not because you get better mileage or have cheaper insurance rates, but because they're just fun to drive. I like the fact that I know how to drive a stick now. If some weird event ever happens and I get asked by Top Gear to drive their course I would know how! But that will never happen. But if it ever did, I could do it!

Anyway, I just like the whole idea of converting to stick for driving now. It makes me feel like more of a purist. I shoot iron sights. I drive stick. I make most of my foods. Yeah! Hey! I bet I can drive a tractor now too! OK, I'm getting crazy with it. This is just the point where I smile and go to bed.

Blarrgh!!!

2010-09-12T21:14:00.000-07:00

I swear this feels like it has been one of those ridiculously hectic weekends. Friday was kind of a blur and I don't even remember what happened but Saturday I did my hunter's ed finally after what seems like what took way too long to finally just sit down and do and looking back I feel like a total idiot for not having done it earlier. Oh well. On the plus side I now have my license and can go out hunting some day.

When I got home from that yesterday, I came home and did some work. I took on a new contract that was due today but it was good quick and easy money. I took a break from it and then ran 5 something miles last night. I came home ridiculously tired and took a shower and crashed and slept the best sleep in my life.

Of course that was all ruined this morning when I woke up at 6:30 and went straight to work. I worked some more on my contract and then around 11 started to get ready and make lunch and at noon Jesse and I left to finish up our shotgun class. That was a lot of fun and honestly I need to go out and shoot trap more often because its fun and I could use some more practice. Shotguns is still pretty new to me but I like it.

When we got home from shotguns, I went back to work, finished my contract and I just feel so unbelievably tired. Jesse got us a pizza for dinner and that was a plus because I don't think I'd like having to come home and cook after my long day. I do want to go jogging but I have a feeling if I go out now, I'll want to run 5 miles and if I do it'll be all late when I get home. I'm not a huge fan of running after 9 so I might just pass. Or wait for Chrissy to get off work. I dunno.

Anyway, yeah, pooped. Tired. Accomplished a lot this weekend.

Adventure To-Do List

2010-09-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

1. Visit as many nearby ghost towns possible
2. Get hunter's safety/ed out of the way
3. Hunt a Thanksgiving Turkey
4. Hunt a Christmas Pheasant
5. Go hunting and have a bunch of fun
6. Catch a decent sized catfish (this has been on my list since I was a kid and I have yet to accomplish this one!)
7. Fish some of the out-of-town parts of the Truckee
8. Fish Pyramid and see what all the hype is about
9. Go cross country skiing at Spooner Lake
10. Go prospecting
11. Look for turquoise out in the hills
12. Visit more small towns
13. Go horse riding around more ghost towns
14. Participate in a re-enacting event
15. Go to an Appleseed shoot

I Need A Dose Of Motivation

2010-08-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

I have totally be slacking on my jogging lately. I don't know if I've been on a slump or something or what. I just haven't had the motivation or drive to get out of bed and do things. And it's not just the jogging. I've gotten bad with the soda thing. I said it's ok for me to have soda this week because my parents are up but really it needs to stop. I think I've kind of been realizing that I have to stop anyway because I'm just not feeling it with my body. Like it's a swift kick in the ass whenever I drink it now. Which could be a good thing. Anyway on to my jogging...

I'm not exactly sure why I have been slacking because there are so many great people-watching opportunities that come about whenever I go out. Today, however, was not one of them. I felt more like I was the spectator to other people's people watching pleasures. And I totally could have been. For starters, I feel like I was running faster than I normally do, which is cool. I felt really good today when I was on my jog. I felt like I was floating the first loop. The next two loops I felt like I was down to business. I think the fact that I sing along to the music I listen to while I run and sometimes get a little into it with my shoulders and dance makes me to be quite a spectacle to those around me. Luckily, I tend to go out when not too many people are out, or awake, or can see me. That's a plus.

On the way home, three emo girls who looked like they were in 9th grade, trying their hardest to be hardcore and cool, totally busted me singing along to Danzig She Rides. At this point, I'm on my cool down period walking home. That's fine. Instead of doing the "embarrassed to get caught doing something embarrassing" act and stop singing, I look them all square in the eyes as I keep on singing my little heart out as if to tell them, "I am way older than you, I don't give a shit what you think about me singing alone as I walk down the street all sweaty and winded. I have more balls than all of you combined and I'll always be cooler and more hardcore than you. OH SNAP!" Yeah. Sometimes being old and condescending can be fun. I guess it's harmless ways grow ups get their kicks.

Good times.

Happy Wife Moments

2010-08-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

1. Jesse and I were driving home from Carson a few weeks back and we were listening to the radio. The Eagle's Already Gone came on and Jesse says, "Hey, this song was playing in the car the first time we went shooting together!" Aww. He remembers a detail from so long ago. Long before we dated things were important because he cared.

2. A few mornings ago I was going in the safe to get out the Glock 36. I chambered a round and put it into my belly band to go jogging. I turn around and see Jesse zonked out asleep in bed smiling. I asked him what was so funny and he says he's smiling "just because". I guess the thought of your wife carrying on of your favorite guns to go jogging at 7am is a pleasant thought.

3. I call Jesse at work today to tell him not to tank up at lunch because I'm making beef bourguignon for dinner. I can hear the excitement in his voice as he says, "YOU READ MY MIND! I was going to call you and ask if you could make that!" Today totally felt like a beef bourguignon day and the fact Jesse got so excited about something as simple as dinner made me happy.

All Epic Heroes Need A Song

2010-08-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

So in a lame attempt at putting Charlie to bed, I go on with the usual list of lullabies and eventually run out and don't want to start from the beginning. What the hell more can I sing to him about? Pugs? No, I spent about 5 minute singing about pugs. Trains? Tuna Fish? Lifeguards? Been there, done that. Finally I had one of those moments of, "Why didn't I think of this earlier!?" I drew out my list of Tall Tale epic heroes and came upon my newest hero, Snowshoe Thompson! Alas, I made up a little tall tale campfire type song to put the boy to bed about Mr. Snowshoe Thompson. It didn't work but damned if it isn't a great new ballad!

The Ballad of Snowshoe Thompson
Snowshoe Thompson, Snowshoe Thompson,
Hero of the west,
Mailman of the Sierras.
Snowshoe Thompson, Snowshoe Thompson,
Doing all the things
No one else could dream of!

Trekking through the mountains
on skis, in the snow.
Didn't need a compass,
but he knew where to go.
Guided by the stars
and the rivers and the trees,
He could get it done and
that's what everyone believed.

Snowshoe Thompson, Snowshoe Thompson,
Hero of the west,
Mailman of the Sierras.
Snowshoe Thompson, Snowshoe Thompson,
Doing all the things
No one else could dream of!

A traveler lost his way
and didn't know if he'd survive,
But the hopes of Snowshoe passing
kept his hopes alive.
Lo and behold, Snowshoe did arrive
with doctors and ether to keep the man alive!

Reno People Strangeness

2010-08-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

1. Crazy Cat Lady #3 - I see her regularly on my jogs around the lake. She usually has on the same outfit which consists of carnation pink shorts with an elastic waistband, a matching carnation pink and baby pink or dirty white striped t-shirt tucked tactfully into said shorts, and black snow boots. Yeah, I don't get it either. She has a cat with her... at the lake... on a leash and harness. Did I mention the harness is black leather with spikes?

2. That Guy - There is this old man downstairs. There is also this creepy guy who is with him a lot. I draw all kinds of conclusions as to what could possibly be going on. Assisted living? Loser son who looks to be in his 40s or 50s that can't get a job and has to live with dad? Some sort of gay boy toy? (Strangely the last theory seems to make the most sense.) Old man looks like your typical old dude. That's fine. He's a little odd, but that could just come with age. It's That Guy that is the weird one that I get a bad vibe from. He looks like Gerard Depardieu if he had silver grey hair. He also has this kind of oaf/giant manner to him. He is often walking up around our driveway and going back inside. He's not a smoker. He's not buying drugs. He just goes outside. If he needs air, they have a patio he can go out on. It's just strange. He always wears the same royal blue t-shirt too. Weird.

3. Crazy Duck People - Back to the lake. There's always some crazy people feeding the ducks at 7 in the morning. I guess that's what you do when you're retired and your kids don't talk to you or something, I dunno.

Measurements

2010-08-12T14:46:00.000-07:00

I've kinda been tracking my weight loss for the past 2 years since Charlie was born as a way to keep myself in check with my health and to track the progression of where I've come with things. I always say so long as I'm under 200 lbs I'll be happy. That was the biggest I ever was when I gave birth and I don't want to be that big ever again. Of course I've gained a lot of weight over the years and I'm trying my hardest to get rid of it and tone up. Since Charlie was born I've been trying harder to watch what I eat and exercise. I believe that it takes months to put on pregnancy weight and it can take months to lose it all (unless you breastfeed and then you're burning 500 calories a day!) But I also believe the same applies to general weight gain and weight loss. I gained a lot of weight over the course of some 5 years and granted it could take just as long to go away. I don't believe in fad diets. I have spent the past 2 years changing my lifestyle from cutting back on fast food and soda to just eating healthier and exercising. It's nothing rapid but it works. I still go get fast food about once a week and I still will have ice cream. But I also run 3 miles 3 or 4 times a week and do sit ups and push ups afterward, not to mention I chase a 2 yr old around all day. I'm relaxed and enjoy my life and my food and I'm doing it one day at a time with a long term goal of a healthier life instead of a short term goal of losing a few pounds. The weight loss will come with the lifestyle. The lifestyle takes time. Good things take time, which is why patience is a virtue. :)

First prenatal appointment
November 2, 2007
Weight: 167 lbs.

Last day of pregnancy
May 8, 2008
Weight: 200 lbs.

6 Weeks Postpartum
June 23, 2008
Weight: 165 lbs.
Triceps: 11.5"
Bust: 39"
Waist: 34"
Tummy: 38"
Hips: 42.5"
Thighs: 24"

The very last time I measured myself
March 25, 2009:
Weight= 150 lbs.
Triceps= 11.25"
Bust= 36"
Waist=31.5"
Tummy=34"
Hips=36"
Thighs=22.25"

Where I'm at today       (difference from last measurements)   (difference from 6 weeks postpartum)
August 12, 2010                               appx. 1yr 5 months                       appx. 2 yrs 3months
Weight = 147 lbs                                   - 3 lbs                                       - 18 lbs
Triceps=11"                                          - 0.25" muscle                         -0.5"
Bust=35.5"                                        - 0.5"                                    - 4"
Waist=30"                                           - 1.5"                                    - 4"
Tummy=33.5"                                       - 0.5"                                         - 4.5"
Hips=35"                                           - 1"                                         - 7.5"
Thighs=22"                                            - 0.25"                                      - 2"

My haven't we come a long way... I'm proud of me and my accomplishments not to mention I'm 20 lbs less than I was the day of my first prenatal appointment. Go me! Woo!

Lefties Have Rights Too: Revolvers For Lefties

2010-08-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

Let's face it. It's a right handed person's world. Everything is geared towards the right handed person. When it comes to guns, this still applies for the most part. While there are many semi-auto pistols that now come in ambidextrous models or even left handed models, the left handed revolver shooter can feel left in the dark. It is always hard to watch a left handed person learn to shoot a revolver designed for a right handed person. Fortunately, while most instructors do not have left handed revolvers on hand for classes, that doesn't mean they don't exist. There are options for left handed revolvers, even one specifically for the lefty.

Smith & Wesson recently introduced the Bodyguard, a compact revolver similar to the size of most J-frame revolvers. While it has an ambidextrous cylinder release on the top, it's not truly left handed as the cylinder still releases onto the left side of of the frame like every revolver geared to the right handed person.

Charter Arms, however, has been the front runner in the lefty revolver arms race with a revolver that is designed solely for the left handed shooter. Their Southpaw is your standard carry sized revolver. Not only is the cylinder release on the right side of the frame for a left handed shooter, but the cylinder additionally opens up onto the right side of the frame. For any lefties in the world who are interested in shooting revolvers but dislike having to learn as a righty, this is the best option. While Charter Arm's isn't as big of a name as Smith & Wesson, that doesn't take away it's credibility. It is still a manufacture of quality firearms.

Monday Funday

2010-08-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

Ever notice how coupons are always made for products no one ever buys. Like seriously, who is going to buy two boxes of cake mix to want to save $0.50? That has nothing to do with any of this post. I just wanted to mention it.

I came home today to some new contracts. Freelancing is going well. Rent for the month is paid. Jesse gets paid Friday and it will be a bigger check than usual because his sick time or PTO was left off his last check. We only need part of it to pay for all our bills plus my shotgun class so it's nice to know financial obligations are paid for. Plus he will have a little extra. It's nice to know we can actually start to save some money for our trip to Cali in October for my sister's Sweet Thir-ty (sung in the tune of MTV's My Super Sweet 16)

I made good friends with some little ground critters today. It was pretty awesome. They hopped on my lap and ate Cheeze Its. We also checked out the Galena Creek Fish Hatchery. That's where we want to do our vow renewal at. I got some pics of the place. It's got a great view of the pond. Super pretty. We also walked around looking at the old historic ruins. It was a good time. I caught some fish. We finished it off with In N Out.

Needless to say right now I am a super happy camper.

My Ground Critter friend

By some old irrigation shed

Jesse and Charlie at the fish hatchery on the north east end

Jesse and Charlie at the fish hatchery on the south east end

Me and the boy at the view of the pond from the fish hatchery

Crazy Cat Lady

2010-07-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was walking out to the pool with Charlie when I stumbled upon a frail old lady who looked disoriented and confused in the walkway. She asks me if I've seen the cat with the kittens. I've never seen a cat with kittens or any kittens for that matter. I ask her what the cat looks like so if I see it I can let her know. Instead, she goes on about talking about how there was a lady who lived downstairs who was feeding a cat with kittens and the lady left so now she feeds the cat with the kittens but other cats are eating the food she puts out and she is worried. I ask her again what the cat looks like and she gives me no answer. Instead, she looks at me and says, "You know, someone in this building has a dog and it barks and scares the cats away." I ask her if the dog is a little pug; a small brown and black dog with curly tail and smushed face and she says that is the dog. At this point, it sounds like she is trying to get people to be against the dog to get rid of the dog to save the kittens and I tell her, "That's my dog. She's smaller than a cat and is afraid of cats. She's ok with other dogs, though. She also lives ALL THE WAY OVER on the OTHER side of the building AWAY from where the cat with the kittens is at." The lady looks a little caught off guard as if her attempt to have people hate the dog has been foiled as she is now confronted by its owner. I told her then that Lulu only comes out with me to go to the bathroom or on walks and that the rest of the time she is indoors. She is a domesticated dog and really just a lazy, lovable pug. Plus everyone in our building that has seen her thinks she is just adorable. She has the nerve to ask me if I even care about animals. Yeah, I totally do because I have a dog and I grew up with cats and dogs and birds and turtles and fish and snakes and helped several possums. I was so infuriated by this lady yesterday it wasn't even funny.

Invasion of Privacy

2010-07-23T16:03:00.001-07:00

http://www.nevadajudiciary.us/images/advanceopinions/126nevadvopno23.pdf

In the case of Reno Newspaper vs. Washoe County Sheriff, the court ordered that concealed carry weapons holder names be released as public record. I'm not exactly sure what part of this comes across as a good idea. So, to make a long story short, I'll list a few reasons I believe this is a bad idea:

1. It's an invasion of privacy. There are people in the world that don't want people knowing their business. Not everyone talks about politics, religion, and things of touchy subjects openly. For this reason, a lot of people don't want their preference of owning guns and carrying them to be public record.

2. It's an open invitation to crime. Now criminals in the world know you have a gun. All they need to do is look up your address in a phone book and if they find you, they know you have a gun. Guns are valuable. Chances are if you're not home, you probably have other valuables worth stealing. It's almost as dumb as having a bunch of really cool things and placing them in your window for the world to see and then wondering why you get robbed. Its called advertising. It's just a bad idea.

3. It's not safe. Many CCW holders are people who have either been personally attacked, knew someone who was attacked, lost someone or knew someone who lost someone to a murder, are in witness protection, or are just being proactive regarding their safety. To list all the individuals in the county who are armed is now a wake up call to criminals. Now law enforcement officers will argue that this knowledge is good because it will drive down crime rates, but realistically, criminals don't fear the law and they certainly don't fear you or me. All this tells them now is the criminal who would originally rob you with a knife, will now show up with a gun to level out the playing field.

4. There's no tactical advantage. Look, we can open carry, but the whole point people choose to concealed carry is for that tactical advantage. They don't want to notify criminals that they are armed. A criminal who sees an armed person will handle their crime differently if there is a gun involved. They have nothing to lose. They've gone to jail once, they'll do it again.

5. The first letter of CCW is C for CONCEALED. Again, we can open carry, but not everyone wants to do so. We all know that not everyone is on board with guns. Even though we can open carry, not everyone knows it. So many times, people get pulled over for open carrying and sometimes even detained until the officers in their areas realize that it is in fact legal to do so. But a lot of CCW holders get their permit for the specific purpose of carrying without alarming those around them.

6. Discrimination does exist. To sit and say that once this information becomes public record and that it won't affect people directly is a lie. Who is to say that a school won't run the names of all their teachers and staff to see who has a CCW and then fire them because they fear their employees might be breaking a federal law? Or who is to say that someone wouldn't get denied a job with a company because a potential employer feels like checking if an applicant is a CCW holder? Maybe this sounds a little paranoid and extreme but who is to say something like this wouldn't happen? And how does one prove it? With this economy all a company has to do is say, "We had to do cuts" or "We found someone more qualified"?

All around, this is not a good idea. I hope that everyone pays attention to what is going on with this situation and if a class action suit comes up that everyone who values their rights and privacy gets involved. Until then, the best we can do is boycott RGJ and it's affiliates. If they're gonna mess with us within the law, then let's just do the same.

I Do My Own Thing...

2010-07-21T15:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while about life. So here it goes: life is good. Actually, in a nut shell, I was, for the longest time, one of those people that was feeling the pains of a bad economy and unemployed for what seemed like forever and a day. I had several interviews with several companies but none of them were in my designated job field so when the going got tough, I decided why settle? I gave up on trying to "do whatever" to make ends meet and did what I do best: I do my own thing. I am not one who deals with compromise well. I don't believe in having to change who I am or what I do for others. So when the going got tough, I became an independent contractor. Right now, it's working out very well. Financially, I make less than if I were working out of an office, but the fact that I do not need to pay for daycare and can set my own hours makes up for it all. My range of duties as an independent contractor span from marketing coordinator, graphic designer, copy writer, and shooting instructor. The first 3 kind of tie in, the last is just an oddball, but my point is this: people who want to make money will find a way. I'm by no means wealthy. But I refuse to be one of those people who sits around waiting for the gov't to "make jobs" so I can have one. No one is going to make anything for you. No one is going to owe you anything. If you want something in life, you gotta work for it. Some people don't get it. It sickens me whenever I hear these people speak with this sense of entitlement like because they made so much at one job that they are expected to make the same amount or more in a new job, or worse, people who have good jobs but quit them and then complain about the fact they can't find work. If something isn't broken, why try to fix it? And especially during the bad economy we're in right now. It's just ridiculous. Anyway, that's just my little blurb about life right now. It's going well and I'm happy.

Open Carry

2010-07-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

Moving to Reno from Southern California is like moving from Antarctica to Egypt. They are two totally different worlds in so many ways but one of them is the pro-gun environment out here. Nevada is an Open Carry state, meaning, unless otherwise posted, you can carry a gun. Obviously, restrictions apply to the same places of concealed carry that you cannot take guns (airports, state and federal buildings, any place that has a sign prohibiting firearms, etc.) Each state has its set of laws and restrictions regarding guns, the carrying and use of and before you go out to do anything, I urge you know your laws first.

I've open carried out here before in wilderness, although I have never carried in town. It was pretty interesting. Sure, I just had it on a brief period in town while going to and from the Women's Shooting Academy classroom and then out to the range. Usually I bring the big honkin' XD .45 Tactical to the range but can't conceal it because of the obvious size. But it's a really great gun to shoot and it shoots well and I'll face it, I am starting to become one of those people who believes carrying a .45 is as Martha Stewart would say, "A good thing." Personally, any gun is better than no gun and that's my number one rule, but in terms of the "shoot what you can shoot well" is starting to move in the direction of that XD. Of course I can't carry it concealed because of it's enormous size, but I can open carry it. And it was pretty cool. Something about carrying a gun you really like a lot and not worrying about if you're printing or not because who care's it's out in the open and in compliance with state laws. Here's to Open Carry... for those of you who applied for a CCW and don't want to wait for it to come in to start carrying or for those of you who don't believe in CCW's*!!! For more information about Open Carrying check out http://opencarry.org

*Disclaimer: KNOW THE LAWS REGARDING GUNS IN YOUR TOWN. FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LAWS MAY VARY FROM PLACE TO PLACE. THINK OF THOSE AROUND YOU: KNOW YOUR GUN SAFETY AND DO NOT CARRY A GUN YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE AND PROFICIENT SHOOTING. EVEN IF YOU DO NOT WANT A CCW, IT IS WISE TO TAKE THE CLASS TO LEARN LEGAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES INVOLVED WITH CARRYING A GUN.

Apples & Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

2010-07-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

I wanted some cookies tonight and was going to do a peanut butter cookie but then thought an oatmeal could be healthier. I didn't have anything to mix in with it in terms of raisins or craisins. Then, I saw apples on my counter and the little light bulb above my head started flashing and there was a DING! DING! DING! sound going off. It was a total success and I thought I'd share this healthy alternative to a classic treat.

2 cups oats
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) of butter melted
2 eggs
1 cup diced apples (I used golden delicious because they're super soft and sweet and go well with this)

Preheat oven to 375º
Mix everything together. Drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes or until corners are golden brown.

The Constitution Is Still Valid

2010-07-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

Here's some change I can live with: the Supreme Court declaring that the Constitution is still in fact in effect and that all 50 states have the right to bear arms. That being said, some of those places that took it upon themselves to say, "No, you can't have guns because they cause crime!" are finding themselves walking around like a dog with it's tail between it's legs as they scramble to find ways to control the citizens of their cities.

It will be interesting to see how this new ruling will affect the gun owning community and activist who take on the government to try and repeal some of the gun laws that have been placed in the past few years. It will be even more interesting to see how the recent economy and economic hardships will come into play with this as well. With more people out of work, crime rates have gone up and people feel the need to want to protect themselves. Maybe there will be some good coming out of Obama's presidency, that being, Americans will wake up and realize we've been making mistakes left and right for the past few years and it's time to clean house.

On a closing note, I have this to say about some of those silly gun laws that restrict gun ownership to one gun or one every so often: think of your wardrobe. Think of all the different things you have to wear for different seasons. Different occasions. Different activities. You don't just have one outfit and one pair of shoes and that's it. You have many. The same applies to guns. There is no "one in all" gun. Don't tell people they can only have one. Each gun has it's purpose. If they can afford multiples and are of good moral standing, don't limit them. Hopefully California can get some of their stupid laws repealed because I would be more inclined to visit if they did.

The Legend of Kristy!!!

2010-06-28T21:50:00.001-07:00

About a month ago, I was the butt end of a geo caching prank. My friend Kristy, who turned me onto caching, has always wanted to be a first to find (FTF). She saw someone planted a new cache and went out bright and early around 6 am to find it on a rainy morning. I guess someone else found it or she didn't find it but basically our other friend Vicki saw her at work later in the day and told her I found it. I really didn't but she used me as a pawn because Kristy new Vicki hadn't ever been caching. It was a prank gone a foul because the reality of it was Kristy was kinda sad to not have found it. Then she was told the truth and all was good and right in the world. Kind of.

I got a great idea for a birthday surprise that involved planting a cache but there was a whole slew of stuff that needed to be done to make it work. First off was the creation of a little trinket, which was a little .22 with beads epoxied into a beer bottle cap. That took an afternoon to make because the epoxy was being a little non-cooperative. A few weeks later, I took an old garlic salt container and painted it an ugly tan color and placed the trinket along with a cache log sheet and hid it. I sent Kristy a message that I heard about some cache and she had to find it because she had a GPS device and I didn't and I found these coordinates but they led me somewhere else. She couldn't do it so I had to get some back up in on this prank. That's where Vicki, Tim and Jo came in.

We plotted that after having dinner with them, they would go geo caching and see if I wanted to go with. They would look for the cache I tried to find and told Kristy about. I was out with Lulu and was going to meet them because they were going close to where I was at. So I met up with them and we wound up in a dog park. We went there and Kristy swore she found it right away. It was a sprinkler head. Tim pointed out two more and Kristy still wanted to dig it up to see if it was the cache. After walking around the back end of the park, she finally found it and the look on her face when she realized she was at the end of yet another Geo prank was priceless, however, this time it was a look of delight.

The story shifts a little because the cache was submitted to geocaching.com but was refused because there were too many caches in similar terrain nearby so we could either relocate it or check back in a few weeks. I basically told Kristy to hide it somewhere she likes and we'll replace it somewhere else. Of course she finished by saying before she hides it all of us had to put one thing in there for other people to find. Fair enough.

The rest of the evening we went looking for some other caches and found two more and it was a good fun night of caching. Good times, good times. Hopefully The Legend of Kristy!!! will get placed somewhere soon for others to find. It was quite a great prank to right the wrong FTF prank pulled on her earlier.

Car-less Whispers

2010-06-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been something like 3 weeks since the Oldsmobile and I broke up. I haven't really noticed anything awkward or hard about not having a car. I think the only thing that is really difficult is grocery shopping. I need to have Jesse take me to the Walmart but other than that, it is what it is. The damned thing couldn't go on freeways so I still need to carpool to get to any place that requires a freeway trip. I usually walk to any place that is within walking distance anyway because I'm too lazy to get Charlie buckled into his car seat. So yeah, not much change.

In terms of other things, I've been learning to drive a stick. I'm not the biggest fan of it but I don't completely hate it either. It requires a lot of guesswork and adjustment on my behalf in terms of getting used to the whole first gear clutch/gas balance. I think if we had a newer car it would be easier but I could be wrong. Jesse's truck is just so big and clunky and I feel like I'm driving a big rig when I drive it. I'm better at shifting gears than I am getting out of first. I no longer stall when I go into first, but again, it will take a lot of adjustment on my part. I just hope I can get it figured out by 4th of July. I just don't see that happening, though. I also don't see Jesse just letting me use his truck to go places and leaving him without a car. I just see me being without a car, again, for a very long period of time.

How To Draft A Patter & Sew A Simple Summer Skirt

2010-06-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been asked by a million people (OK not that many but a lot) about my summer skirts I did last year and long story short, I finally got around to doing it. Anyway, long story short, here's the directions. You can also download a PDF here (yes, this will be the project for the August issue of The Gunslinging Housewife in case you picked up on that and wondered.)

History, Fish, and Eternal Love

2010-06-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

Jesse and I went to Galena Creek Park on Monday and fished at Marilyn's Pond with Charlie. It was a cute little place nestled right on the south side of town. Anyway, upon further research of this place, we realized that you can actually rent out various places for events. Then spews an idea bubble: Our 5 Year Wedding Anniversary Vow Renewal!!! Somewhere around the course of our lovely day outdoors and enjoying nature and a few months of earlier talking about having some sort of get together since we never had a wedding ceremony with friends and family, we decided that this will probably wind up being the location of the reception. We're going to go with the historic landmark Fish Hatchery which pretty much is a quaint restored historical building (we both love history!) and it is not the usual run of the mill banquet hall, casino, backyard, etc. It stands out as different and has facilities from a kitchen and bathroom to large dining area capable of holding a reception for up to 130 guests. We talked about it briefly today and discussed the idea of liking it. Plus, it's pretty cheap. On that note, potential color schemes for the lovely Saturday event in 2012 will probably be a forest green and reddish orange or charcoal greyish silver and reddish orange. Obviously I won't be wearing a white dress. However it will be a black tie affair in the woods. Plus, why not have it at a fish hatchery? Fish are notorious for their symbolism in various cultures, religions, dreams and what have you from good luck, eternity, life, happiness, knowledge, transformation, and so on. It just makes sense.

Huminuminum...

2010-06-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

This morning I get a call from my mom all early. She then calls back later and asks if I heard from my sister. Nope. I guess my sis called her all late last night and something was wrong. She heard from my sis that my ex was hospitalized for colon cancer. The details entailed something about 13" of colon being removed, another tumor found in the liver and being able to come home to see friends and then having to return to the hospital. I'm a little shocked to hear this but at the same time not really surprised with the unhealthy lifestyle choices he made. It's odd because I know I left the relationship completely void of emotions towards this man yet now I just feel bad for the guy. As one of his coworkers one put it, "He sits in his little room, on his little computer with his little records and confines himself in his little world." Who knows? Maybe some people just aren't meant to get out and be part of the big picture and are happier in their own little worlds...

Close Encounter of the White Trash Kind

2010-06-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

I hopped on my bike to go to the store today so I could get some pasta sauce for dinner. When I was locking my bike up, this white trash lady was going on about some ruckus. I asked what happened and she said, "Some man came up and took my dog!" Take in mind she is standing outside of the Dollar Tree with two girls who look to be about 7 and 9 and another kid in a stroller. Why they are taking their dog to the dollar store is beyond me. I go in, grab a can of sauce and come back out.

I asked if the cops came because I saw a cop when I rolled in and she said the cop said he had other stuff to do and couldn't look for her dog. But she said she knows who did it. She then goes on to tell me the saga of her dog while I'm locking Charlie in his seat and unlocking my bike. The lady's story goes something like this, "This guy was staying with my friend a few months back and he had this bull mastiff type dog. She moved to Washington or something and he couldn't go with her because he got in trouble for molesting her 4 year old so he has to stay here. He left and the dog was there for a few months so we took it and he just drove by just now and took it back."

"Oh, so it wasn't your dog in the first place?" I ask.

"He abandoned it," she replies, completely ignoring my question and jumping straight into her defense.

The best part is the older girl, "I don't understand how anyone could take him. He's really mean and tries to bite people he doesn't know."

Again, this dog was tied up and left outside of the dollar store? What if he bit someone?

I love how this lady just starts to give me so much unsolicited information about all these other people and events when a simple, "Someone took my dog," would suffice. Ultimately, there are so many things in this equation that do not work in her favor. The dog belongs to someone else. The dog is probably still licensed to that person. She took the dog with her to the dollar store because for whatever reason she does not want the dog to be alone at her house. Now, I could be going out on a limb here but maybe she doesn't want it alone at her house because the guy knows where she lives and plans on going there to get it when she's gone? Let's not forget the fact of the matter she had the dog tied up outside on the bike rack while she went inside to do her shopping. I'm pretty sure even if the cops do find this dog and the guy who took it, they'll probably just look at her and say, "Who's the dog licensed to? OK, that's the dog's owner."

I swear I felt like I was in an episode of COPS or something it was that bad. I don't even know how to comprehend any of this other than saying, "Only in Reno..."

A Nice Walk (Bye Bye Trash)

2010-06-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Charlie is at that age where communication both on his end and from my end is starting to be a little more clear so life is getting less frustrating. This morning we were going to take Lulu for a walk to go potty. For the longest time when we go on walks, it's Charlie holding my left hand and Lulu's leash in my right hand. Not today. Today was something like this:

Me: Wanna take Lulu for a walk to go potty?
Charlie: Yeah!
Me: OK, go get your shoes.

Charlie runs into his bedroom and comes back with a pair of flip flops.

Charlie: SHOES!

Charlie sits down and I put his shoes on.

We go out with Lulu down the stairs.

Charlie: Up please?

I pick Charlie up and walk down the stairs. We then go on walk down the street and Charlie stays at my side without holding my hand just running between me, Lulu, Lulu's leash blocking him from the street and the shrubs blocking him from neighbor's apartments. He stays in his "box of safety" the whole time and behaves rather well. I ask him if he wants to see trash cans and keys in mailboxes to lure him to the right path and to keep him on his mission and not to stray his attention away from the fact he is doing a nice safe job walking on the sidewalk. He points at trucks and exclaims he sees a truck. He asks if we can see the pool so I let him walk to the pool. Then I tell him we're going to see Owie (Not really, I lied) to get him back to walking without crying as we leave the pool. As we get to Owie's side there's a trash can and I ask him if he wants to see the trash and he forgets about the fact we're not actually going to see Owie but that it was nothing more than a distraction from the pool. Finally, I show him the trash can by our apartment.

Me: Let's go see mommy's trash can!

Charlie: YEAH!

We cross the street together and he goes to the trash. After he points out the obvious (I see trash! Trash, yeah, trash!) I tell him it's time to go to the stairs and to say bye bye to the trash can.

Charlie walks back up the driveway with me and Lulu and turns around and stops. He looks at the trashcan and just as I fear I will need to run after him and drag him upstairs, he raises his hand and waves saying, "Bye bye trash!" and returns to walking up the driveway, occasionally turning back to wave and say bye bye to the trash can. He then went up the stairs with Lulu and me and I opened the door and we all went inside thus ending a nice walk.

Maps

2010-06-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

There are so many amazing skills in the world that people don't really know or get and map reading is one of them. I realize that GPS is awesome but realistically, maps are cooler. Like way cooler. I'm going to make a gun comparison here for a minute but maps are like iron sights. They're old skool, original gangstas, and you know that they will never run out of batteries. GPS devices are super cool, make you more accurate, but are like cheating. Anyway, today was a bit of an interesting day.

After Charlie woke up from his post-lunch nap, I took him on a walk to go geo caching. There's a few caches in my area that I have yet to discover. I found the location of one but the next two were full of muggles and nearly impossible to search around. Dang muggles. I also remembered the joy of walking places. My ankle still hurts a little, more so after I twisted it hopping the baby gate this evening, but I find I actually sort of miss walking around places. I need to get more used to this new neighborhood. I would really like to invest in maybe a second hand jogging type stroller. Maybe. In reality the only reason I ever use strollers is to haul crap around because I don't have enough arms or room in a back pack.

Back to geo caching, though. Charlie and I found a really cool cache by one of my absolute favorite places, which I will not say where. But inside the cache was a cheesy plastic skull ring. Finding this made it more fun because I felt like I stumbled upon someone's buried treasure. Neat-o! I traded a Reno casino chip I found at one of the caches Kristy and I went to earlier in the week.

On our way to the next cache, as I said earlier, there were too many people around hanging out (muggles. Can I say how much I appreciate a hobby that uses Harry Potter slang for people who are not in the know?!?!) After two more muggle infested cache sites, I wound up taking Charlie to the park to play.

He wasn't really into the park all that much today for some reason. He was more into digging in the sand and throwing it than he was on going on the slides or playground equipment. I don't know if it had anything to do with the fact there were so many people out or what, but whatever. Tomorrow I might want to take him fishing or something because there were so many people out fishing. It could be fun for like 5 minutes.

Anyway, today was a fun day. Oh and I forgot to mention the fact it started out with watching The Car. I was expecting a Christine type movie to suck, but it was actually pretty entertaining and inspired me to never go to Utah because I will get run down by a psychotic ghost car. I'm just sayin'... Thank God the guys at Star Targets have invented an exploding target should I ever encounter a psycho car out in Utah, I'll just ring them up and they can help me destroy the car in a canyon. Oh, did I just spoil the movie for you? Because that's how they killed the car. Can you really kill a car? Sure, I killed mine. Ha ha bad car joke. Ba-da tsss!

Oh, when I got home, I got a sneak peak at what our hospital bill for Charlie's surgery may be... close to $20,000. Last thing I want to see. We haven't met our $500 deductible yet. I think if we get them another $250 I can maybe talk our insurance company into billing us 20%. Less than $20,000 but still way more than we can afford. I seriously do not want to file bankruptcy if we can at all avoid it. So we'll see what we can do with this doozie.

Cleaning Guns

2010-06-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Today I was looking at my .357 and noticed I missed a spot while cleaning it, so I did a quick touch up. To be safe, I double checked some of the other guns I last cleaned and they were all fine. Of course by this point, I have a pile of guns out on the table so just for fun, I bring all of our pistols out. I play around by organizing them in different manners: by finish, by materials, by safeties, by decockers, you get the point. I realized we have a really nice assortment of handguns and started to wonder about what made us get each one. Obviously many of them were of similar calibers but they had features that made them different and worth a purchase. So I decided to record a video about things to take into consideration while gun shopping. The reality of it was I wanted to have a brief 2 - 5 minute video for youtube and what I wound up with was a nerdy 20 minute analytical discussion video breaking down points of revolvers (do you go single/double, size of gun) to semi-auto (do you want a safety, decocker, size, caliber, etc.) and even broke down different types of finishes and compositions (stainless, blued, parkarized, polymer). And it would have gone on longer had the memory card on my camera not run out of space. Yes, very nerdy gun stuff. I started to post it on youtube upon which I realized it is way too extensive to lump into one mash so I need to go back and do this again and in the words of DJ Lance Rock, break it down! I know I promised I would do it, but it is just too long so in time grasshoppers. Till then, give me some time to break it down into the appropriate segments so it's not some huge mess of over information. It really is a lot of important stuff but some more important than others. My key point throughout is that you are going to be spending a few hundred dollars and for those of you who can't just fork it out quickly or easily, you better think long and hard what you want because it's a lot easier to buy a gun than it is to sell one.

Never Make This Mistake People!!!

2010-06-10T13:49:00.001-07:00

Today I got an email which sounded kinda like spam at first, but then I realized it wasn't. I will share:

Good morning beautiful Jena,

I'm glad you liked my reference to "blood boiling," I have little doubt that your dancing would be a beautiful sight to see. I still can't believe that you're not really in your thirties and are just putting me on.

I was also touched by the story about your house being in a book and how it affected you, It shows that you are a woman that understands hard work and can appreciate the resulting rewards of following your passions. Tell me more, I would love to know as much about you as you want to reveal. I'm not sure if I understand the difference between architectural designer and a regular architect or designer. It's one of the advantages of writing to each other before meeting, no fear of embarrassing questions or answers.

Now that I have two email addresses for you, is there one that you prefer?

I hope you have a wonderful and hope to hear from you soon,

Fred

So this is where it becomes interesting. "Fred" is someone I emailed a few months back regarding a job listing he had posted. We spoke on the phone but nothing ever came of it because in my mind, he wanted to have someone do work for him and he didn't want to pay them what they were worth so our conversation ended at our first phone call.

Well a little bit about "Fred" that I do know is he is old. He's technically old enough to retire but had some sort of lawsuit he was paying off or finished paying off from an accident that happened on his old career and was looking into starting a new business venture and needed a graphic designer. There's where I applied and he got my email address added into his book automatically. So in a senior moment, he emails Jena, but with my email address because he sees the "Jen" part but must not remember that I was the graphic designer and not an architectural designer!!!! Hahahaha!!!

I was thinking long and hard about this one. Do I respond? Do I ignore it? I read it again and it sounds like they're gonna hook up. Or could. Or worse, I could get some creepy email photos of an old man naked!!!! NOT COOL!!! So, I decided to write back a small paragraph to him to let him know that he has the wrong person because really, it could get awkward if he thinks I'm Jena.

Fred,
This is not Jena and this email address does not belong to her. Please make a note of that so you do not accidentally email any future correspondences for her to me. In fact, you can delete my email address from your address book. The only reason it's in there is because I contacted you about a year ago regarding a job you has posted on Craigslist. At first I thought this was a spam, but realize it's supposed to go to someone specific and that you might keep accidentally emailing me thinking I'm Jena and she may never get any of your emails, so please make sure you find out what her correct address is. Glad to inform you of this error before it could become embarrassing or awkward for you.

jt

That wasn't too bad was it? Now the beautiful Jena will get her emails.

Strangely enough, he just wrote back as I write this apologizing for the error. I chuckle slightly. I guess it's nice to have odd things like this to amuse me sometimes. Some days, I just feel like such a creep...

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

2010-06-10T12:36:00.001-07:00

There comes a time in every relationship where you need to sit down and carefully look at what is going on. Is there hope? Is there a future? Are you just wasting away? Sadly, after putting in a new heater core and realizing that didn't fix the major problems with the Oldsmobile, and talking with the mechanics, I've come to the grave conclusion the Oldsmobile is done for. Not for good, but for me. We had a good run but our relationship isn't healthy. I put all this work into it and get nothing out of it and I feel worn and tired. My heart is broken being with a car that loves me as much as I love him. So it is with a heavy heart I said today, I broke up with my car. Here's what I had to say to him:

Oldsmobile, I think it's time we go our separate ways. It's not you, it's me... Oh, who am I kidding!? Of course it's you! I did all this nice shit for you and what do you do!? You crap out on me! You do this all the time! Like when we went to LA and you died in Sacramento before that snow storm? Or like when you over heated out at Derby Dam on not one but several occasions. And now you're smoking behind my back!? Are you kidding me!? I totally feel like you don't care about me at all and I'm done. I'm done spending all this money on you just for you to get all hot and bothered and not want to go anywhere or work. You're a lazy bum. I hope whoever you wind up with next realizes how much of an asshole you are and I hope if they give you all their money you at least treat them nice. More than I can say you did for me. But who am I trying to kid? I got you knowing you were a piece of crap thinking I could change you and shame on me. Hopefully next time I won't wind up with a loser. But you know what Oldsmobile? I'd rather be without a car than with a piece of crap! So screw you Oldsmobile! I'm done with you!

Oldsmobile, You're The Biggest Problem In The World...

2010-06-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

I bought my Oldsmobile November 8, 2008. This was after I had spent 18 months without a car in Reno, 9 months of which I was pregnant, 6 of which I was with a newborn child, and 1 where I was in good health and had no reason to have any issues walking anywhere I had to go. One month after having the Oldsmobile, we drove him to LA for the holidays and he had a minor setback with a water pump that left us 120 miles from home at an odd hour of night with a snowstorm on the way. When we got back, he ran like a doll for about 11 months till his heater core crapped out and Jesse bought a new one to put in place and do a quick home fix for the $40 or whatever it cost for the heater core.

He bought the part, rummaged through my car and came back telling me he couldn't do it because he didn't have access to it. Really? You mean to tell me you didn't look into your abilities to do this before you ordered the part and started to unhook things? I now use the heater core as a metaphor whenever Jesse takes on a project being a little too overly ambitious and realizes post starting a project he can't do it because he just doesn't have the abilities to do so.

Well, I'll put a little gap in here back in time. I love my Oldsmobile, Oldsie as I sometimes call him for short. He never did get a real name, but Oldsie is just fine for him, thank you. I have a little song I sing when I drive around in him, "Ollllllllddddsss-mo-biiiiiilllleeee, you're the greatest car iiiiiiiiiiiinnnn theeeeee wooooorrrlllllllddddd... Olllllllddddssssss-mo-biiiiiiiilllllllleeee, nothing like an Ollllllllldddddsssss-mo-biiiiiiilllleeee..." or something like that. It changes sometimes. I painted him to look pretty. I mean, his paint is pretty crappy looking, but not all craptastic as it looked when I got him with rust spots and molding falling off or missing. I bondo'd that crap and now he looks even... and he doesn't have a cracked and peeling crusty vinyl top anymore either. He's two-toned and awesome.

So why does he break my heart? That's simple. Between today and last week, I dropped $350 on fixing him. $350 I can't afford to spend but spent because I need to in hopes that will help him run and function like a good little 30-something year old car. He no longer leaks coolant, but now arises a new problem. Because he has had such issues with coolant leaks, there is now a strong possibility he may have internal engine problems. Nothing huge like a rod or something, but very possibly something that could be another expensive problem, or worse, something that would result in the need for a new engine or a new car. I just feel like my heart is sinking. I can't afford to drop any more money on this car. If he has major problems, I know people certainly won't want to spend money to buy this car and I sure the hell don't have any money to buy a new car. I am just at a loss with this car right now. I'm hoping whatever is going on is just residual crap burning off, but I fear the worst because my instincts, for someone who doesn't know crap about cars, usually tend to be right on the money when it comes to things going wrong with the Oldsmobile. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that he can be a good li'l tank of a car and behave.

The Safety Instructor

2010-05-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

Two days ago, the kids next door were hopping fences into the deck of the people who live below us. RPD came out and the kids said they had a toy go back there. Yet the didn't go to get a toy, they were clearly playing in there doing who knows what. RPD came and talked to me and I felt like I got the 5:00 treatment of the day was almost over and instead of doing their jobs, they just let the parents know the neighbors were complaining about their kids and told me that if I have a problem with them hopping the fence that I should tell my landlord to make the fence taller. Sorry, the fence IS tall already. At least tall enough to where someone can tell that it is meant to keep outsiders out. All of this was a week after the cops came out to yell at the kids for trying to break into my friend's car.

The very next day after their second incident with the cops, the kids go back to hopping the fence. I get angry but just stew. Today, I come home and they're doing it again. Finally I go down there and confront them all and ask what they're doing. They tell me they're looking at the plant inside the apartment. Really? Then why are you trying to hop their fence? I tell them that people in our building have seen them running in the area behind the decks that is fenced off and hopping into people's back yards and that if they lose a toy they should knock on the person's door and ask them to get it for them, NOT to break into their back yard. Then I scare them straight...

I tell them I work as a safety instructor who teaches people about personal safety. I tell them how dangerous it is in this neighborhood to be out at their ages (I ask them their ages and they're all 10 years old and younger, mostly between 8 and 10.) I ask repetitively why they are not being watched by their parents and ask if their parents know where they are or what they are doing. I tell them if they play in our driveway, they will get hit by a car if someone drives out and they will get seriously injured or die. I tell them if they play in the street they can get hit by a car and get seriously injured or die. I tell them if they are playing out on the street unsupervised that we live in a dangerous neighborhood and bad people live here and bad people drive around looking for unsupervised kids to kidnap and they will torture and kill them and their parents and the cops and no one can do anything to help them if they get kidnapped. I tell them if they get hurt on our property our property manager will tell their landlord and their landlord will kick them and their family out of their apartment and they will be homeless because no one will let them live in any apartments or houses if they get kicked out and their parents will need to pay a lot of money to the landlords. I kinda blew things out of proportion while making it sound like I was super concerned about their safety. They told me about how the cops told them to not play on our property anymore and I asked them why they are here then. They didn't have an answer. At that point, their mom came out looking for them and I told them to not play in our complex again because everyone who lives here is complaining to our landlord about them and that if our landlord hears about them again she will tell their landlord and they will be homeless.

Mean and far stretch from the truth? Possibly. Necessary to scare them straight? Definitely. I just like the fact I came out there wearing my Nevada state flag shirt and my loud cloppity clop boots when I busted them in the act. I told them if I wanted I could call RPD right that moment and have them arrested. Seeing them shaking in their skin was kinda priceless. I hope they stop playing here and don't come back. And I hope their parents take a more active role in watching their kids.

Married White Female Seeking The Rifle Of My Dreams...

2010-05-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

Some girls go to bed at night and pray that they meet Mr. Right and he comes into her life, sweeps her of her feet and they live happily ever after. What can I say? I've found Mr. Right. We sort of stumbled together, had a child, and happily ever after would imply the end of one's story and ours is just beginning. So I guess when I go to bed at night, I'll pray that I find Mr. Right Rifle. I know, it sounds a little warped, but really, I love my Mauser. I like shooting the .30 Carbine. I'll shoot an AR but I find it a little boring. I'm just looking for a rifle who can make me giddy thinking about how he looks, get butterflies in my stomach whenever I think of shooting him, and swoon when I hold him in my arms. I want sparks of magic to fly when I shoot him and I want to loose my breath when I strip him down to clean him. I want the Rifle of My Dreams and I have no idea where to start. I don't think I have ever been at such a loss with where to find this Mr. Perfect Rifle. Dear Mr. Right Rifle, please answer my ad. I'm looking for you...

Married white female seeking the rifle of my dreams. I want a rifle that is moderately heavy. Preferably a wood stock, but if synthetic, I'd like something green. Blued barrel. I like bolt action, but I'm not object to a semi-auto. Something not too long, but not too short, either. Iron sights are a must. Mr. Right Rifle, I know you're out there. Could that be you?

The Death of Instincts

2010-05-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

Now days such a heavy emphasis is put on tactical shooting. It's all around you. When you go to gun shows, you see several booths with the latest gadgets and gizmos to add onto rifles and pistols, to reviews of various black rifle and polymer pistol options. Places like Frontsight Firearms Training Institute and LMS Defense teach people on a level of training pretty much consistent with military and police. Even the average person is being taught how to shoot in tactical situations in classes. Shooting organizations have tactical obstacle situations in competitions. Long story short, shooting has drawn away from marksmanship and into the realm of tactical obsession. Forget about target placement, it's all about hitting body mass as fast as possible and wearing black 5.11 gear. OK, well, maybe not that extreme. They still do hope for good marksmanship, but there's more of an emphasis on speed and least amount of body exposure.

My theory is this: no matter how much you train with tactics, it is basically setting you up for hypothetical worst case scenarios and leaves you feeling more paranoid and confused than if you just rely on your instincts to help you in a situation. Don't get me wrong, it's fun doing some tactical drills sometimes, but in my mind, I see uber tactics on the same level as I see baby books. You don't need to read a baby book to know how to deal with your pregnancy or raising a child. Sure, it puts some insight into things, but if you are going to rely solely on the book, then when a new obstacle presents itself, you are lost without your beloved book. I kind of feel like it's great to train in tactical situations, but really, fundamentals plus instincts are really your best friends.

I believe in using stances that create a natural point of aim. Our bodies are built in a way that when we learn what our personal natural points of aim are, we become effective and more stable shooters. We don't have hands that go flailing about to recover from recoil but the alignment of our body creates what can be compared to a building built to stand an earthquake: a structure of stability that will withstand great pressure from various angles.

If you practice the fundamentals and go slow, the speed will come. The movements will be automatic. Your shots can be precise. Your instincts will be able to quickly asses your location and surroundings to help you make a split second decision on how to respond to your situation. It's not an issue of having a tactical gun with laser beams and flashlights and black cargo pants and mock turtlenecks. It's about knowing what you're doing so that everything comes naturally to you. Your gun is no longer a weapon, but an extension of your body that you will use in conjunction with your instincts to go from prey to survivor. Speed will come.

You will know is the right thing for you to do. While it is taught in CCW classes that you will be judged based on what any right minded peer would do in your circumstances, why would you train as if you're military or police when your peers more than likely are just average people like you. It makes one wonder if an excessive obsession of a tactical lifestyle could hinder you in a civil lawsuit. It is a thought to ponder when you consider how you will train when it comes to a skill that could save your life one day.

Dominating Cross-Eye Dominance

2010-05-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

I am a cross-eye dominant pistol shooter. I shoot pistols because I can. I shoot rifles, however, because I like to. I never had any formal rifle training and recently, when I did, I learned there that there is no such thing as cross-eye dominance in rifle shooting because your dominant eye determines the hand you shoot with. Well, I can't be a left handed shooter. Aside from the fact I am so right handed I absolutely refuse to learn to do anything left handed, I am more determined to try and train my right eye to become my dominant eye than to try to be a lefty. I have been walking around confusing people I know by wearing glasses with the left eye taped over in hopes this will strengthen my right eye and so far no luck.

Today we went out shooting and it was just not a good day. I have been beating myself up for the last two weeks debating the issue of whether it is my marksmanship that is off or my eye. I had been studying at home the targets of the last time I shot as well as doing dominant eye tests to see how far off I am from my targets when focusing with my left and right eyes. I derived a theory with the dominant eye thumb thest that if I am on target with my dominant eye and then switch over to my weak eye, my thumb jumps about 6" to the left. Coincidentally enough, when I was looking out of my right eye on a target and shoot at something, it would jump 6" to the right.

Despite the wind, I thought I would put a little test in action. Normally, when I shoot the .30 carbine, I would align my sights halfway up on the target and they would be on level with the X ring, just off to the right.

Today's test involved moving my sights over about 6" to the left of where my groupings were to see what would happen. When I did that, I was level with the target and closer to the X ring.

I'm pretty sure this method is a pretty much unorthodox way of handling shooting, but here's the deal: my fundamentals are all there. I'm positioned properly. My husband was there with me to make sure of this (in addition to collecting brass and dealing with misfeeds so I can stay focused on the task at hand.) I'm doing a proper trigger pull and I have what I consider to be for me a great technique combining trigger pull and breathing to fire my shots. My sights are aligned, but my sight picture is off. Very off. And this is really the only way I can get a proper sight in because of my eye! Deep in my heart, I believe I am doing everything right because I can get the shots I want, but that's only if I offset my target and compensate for my eye. I suppose one day if I ever had to deal with a situation where I need to prove my marksmenship, I'll probably keep this a secret, but for now, I find it works. And hopefully, a few more days or weeks or *cringe* years of walking around with the taped up glasses and I'll be a right eye dominant gal and everything will be good and right in the world. Till then, if you're not as determined as I am to train your eye, I suppose there's nothing wrong with learning your offset compensation distance and just running with it. It's worth a shot.

Your Kids Are Only As Good As Your Parenting

2010-05-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the little chat RPD had with the parents of the kid's next door did nothing yesterday. Shortly after RPD left, there was a loud noise and we looked outside and saw nothing. This morning, I took out the trash and saw the kids' basketball hoop stand thing in our dumpster. So someone on that property came onto our property after being told the laws and being told NOT to trespass and threw their stuff in our dumpster (trespassing, illegal dumping). I shook my head in disappointment and walked up the driveway with Lulu to take her potty as the second part of the trip downstairs.

As we were going off, the kids were outside already and saying stuff. I didn't listen to what they said, just an in one ear out the other thing and walked down the street. I turned the corner with Lulu and on my way back home, I saw what looked like their parent's Jeep coming down the street. I did a double take to see if it had the dent on it like their parent's does but it was too hard to see as the car passed. I put two and two together as I did not see their parent's car on the street when I got back and once I got upstairs I saw their parent's driving back to their spot to park. I feel like this family is harassing us because we want them to watch their kids. Sorry, but your 9 year old tried to break into my friend's SUV with a tire iron yesterday. That goes beyond the realms of "kids will be kids". That goes into CRIMINAL ACTIVITY.

My neighbor next door had the back window of his Jeep busted out two weeks ago. Apparently he told the kids to stop going into our dumpsters and told them he puts cat poop in there. He didn't see who did it but now suspects it was them as he saw the kids with the tire iron in the street. Seriously, those parents need to stop saying stuff like, "It wasn't my kid," and just grow a pair and realize it's kids they're dealing with and if their kids don't respect them, they won't respect anyone or the law and they'll just be breeding future criminals. Who knows what these kids have done that hasn't been seen? Are they the ones tagging up our street now? Did they put a nail in my tire when it went flat? Did they bust our neighbor's window? Who knows? There's no proof, but there sure is a lot of suspicion.

Neighborhood Kids At It Again

2010-05-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

Charlie got his tonsils and adenoids removed and tubes put in his ears 2 days ago and wouldn't you know it, I thought that would ruin his birthday. But just as things were going well and Charlie was super happy, he gets his birthday ruined by the little unsupervised neighbor kids. And they were trying to break into the car of one of our guests! Seriously!? We called RPD out and two cops showed up. Sure enough, the mom of the kids says, "It wasn't my kid, you can't prove anything." Lovely RPD, God bless their souls, says what the state statue is about anyone 8 years old or over can go to jail because if you're old enough to know better, then you shouldn't do something wrong. Anyway, they came back and followed up with us all that jazz and told us if anything happens to call them back. As they left, the kids were thinking they'd pull a fast one on us and try to tell the cops they didn't do anything and the cops, gotta love them, said, "If someone sees something happening and you're on the scene, you'll be questioned," that whole wrong place wrong time thing and maybe you should avoid being in wrong places to not be looked at as guilty, "You got away with it this time but next time you're going to jail." They pretty much scared the kids. The good thing is we can call RPD on them even if they're playing in our driveway because it's trespassing (what I've been saying all this time!) Anyway, long story short, these kids are under strict surveillance. RPD is on to them. They better shape up and those parents better start doing their job and watching their kids or their kids are gonna wind up in the slammer like MC Hammer. Our neighbor across from us gave them a talking to about when they go in the trash and he told them he put cat poop in there. They stopped going into our trash but his car window got busted about 2 weeks ago. He didn't put two and two together but he has his suspicions now. Great.

When Bad Dreams Happen to Good People

2010-04-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

OK, I have some really odd dreams and last night was just further proof. I dreamed my friend Alissa had a stroke. Take in mind she's about 5 months older than me. Anyway, she had a stroke and was hospitalized and basically in a weird semi-coma (I guess it's like a semi-colin hahah). So she was laying in her hospital bed and not responsive except sometimes she would say stuff. But because she had a stroke and her brain was all screwed up, the stuff she would say would be really nasty hurtful mean stuff. Anyway, Katrina went to the hospital as soon as she found out and Alissa was telling her how typical it is that she'd come to check up on her and she was just being really mean. The funny dreamy part is that this is like nowhere near her real-life personality unless you are an uber jerk and do something to piss her off and then she'll politely rip into you. Her mom was pretty heartbroken too because she was just being really mean to her. Oh and somehow she was going to die soon because of it. They had to do a blood transfusion and that was going to take a while but no one knew how long. I wound up coming over to see her with Katrina and she was kinda out of it. The best I could compare her to was Linda Blair in the Exorcist. Sometimes completely out of it, others completely nasty. For some reason everyone was mad at her boyfriend too because they were all saying it was his fault and he wasn't coming to see her or anything because everyone was mad. I dunno. There was just too much going on in that dream and it was super odd. I woke up feeling completely gross and with a headache as if dealing with that dream was more of a chore than rest. You know, like when you go on vacation somewhere and stupid crap happens and you have to deal with it and you're happier to be home but feel more worn out than when you left to go on your vacation in the first place? Yeah, that's the feeling. Oh well, not much you can do about weird bad dreams.

Sunday Awesome/Fail

2010-04-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

There may be some hope for the Oldsmobile yet. At least long enough to provide a temporary solution till we can get something else situated. The problem at the time was a radiator leak. Nothing a little JB Weld couldn't fix yesterday. Strangely enough, I told people my husband fixed it when in actuality I did it and Jesse said it looked pretty good, so that works for me. Anyway, my car still over heats and part of that is the residual oil from a previous leak all over my engine. It needs to be cleaned off or something. We just haven't ever gone in and done that. In fact, it's been like that since we got it so it probably needs some major scraping or something. It's pretty gnarly. But enough about the Oldsmobile...

Today was our second League shooting outing. The Oldsmobile managed to make it out to USA Parkway (4 miles before where we shot at Derby Dam) before the HOT light came on. A little water and cooling down later we got out there and all was good and right in the world. Anyway, there's a bunch of photos from the event on the League of Lethal Ladies site and I won't go into the fun we had there despite me forgetting my "game plan".

I managed to get this really gnarly sunburn. This is totally typical for me around this time of year, though. I get a few really hideous sunburns before my "summer coat" comes in. You know, when your skin kinda toughens up to the sun and you stop burning and just look leathery and gross like an armadillo? Anyway, soon that will happen and I won't have these weird burns. Despite my sunblock efforts, I think I need to stock up on a lot to put in my shooting bucket.

On the way home, I added more water to the Oldsmobile and managed to get out to Mustang Market off exit 23 because the HOT light came on again. I checked the fluids and realized my radiator cap was gone. I should probably keep a spare one in my car with how awful I am along with a battery and bottles of water! Ha! I laugh, but really, it's pretty pathetic that I can't remember to do something so simple. Anyway, I called Jesse and he drove 20 miles from work to bring me a $6 radiator cap. How many of YOUR husbands would do that? That's what I thought... I totally owe him. I thanked him by buying him a bottle of Coke and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I drank half the Coke and Charlie had one of his peanut butter cups. Oh well. I did get him some Wendy's though.

Charlie's guy-buddy Owen came over and we had a "pajama party". His mom saw Hot Tub Time Machine (I have to laugh! Just the concept sounds ridiculous and she said it was hilarious. Netflix! Cue that up!) So they had fun being guys and playing with cars and watching Yo Gabba Gabba and 16 and Pregnant with me. Good times. Owen enjoyed hanging out with Lulu too and he wants his own pug now.

Anyway, over all, it was an awesome day with two epic fails: sunburn and radiator cap. Good times, good times. I know I'll sleep well tonight, if not for the fact I'm tired from running around all day, because I'm super exposed to sun and being in the sun makes me sleepy.

It Takes A Village Isn't An Excuse To Not Parent

2010-04-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

Time and time again I have seen examples of poor parenting and time and time again I get told I was a "sheltered" child or whatever. You know, I believe there are circumstances where it's ok to give a child some freedom and let them explore the world and learn and grow, but I also believe there are times when parents need to step up and be parents.

Case in point are little shit kids next door. I wish they lived in our complex because if they did, their parents would get shit from the landlords and probably be evicted, but they don't. They're in a totally different complex. The kids range in age from the youngest looking like he's about 4 or 5, the middle age who looks to be about 7, and the oldest, who looks to be 10 and overweight. Then there are the "supervising" preteen girls who look to be about 11 and 12 or 13. I'm pretty sure they're all related because they all live in the same apartment, same unit and I only see one set of parents. I'm also pretty sure their lease is like ours and allows two adults and two children, in which case they're about 3 kids over populated. Not as bad as some situations I've seen, but still.

So it starts when we first moved in. I go out to my car one day to find the 3 boys playing in our parking lot by the cars. I'm not sure what they're doing but it can't be any good. I asked if they live here and they said, "NO." I then asked if they have friends who live here and they say, "NO" again. At that point, I tell them if they do not live here and aren't visiting anyone and are doing stuff on our property, they are trespassing because our property is private and that places on our property like the halls, the back field, and parking lots are for the people who live in the building and that they have their own parking lot and communal grassy area to play at and they can go play there. The little ones look a little scared and confused and the oldest gives me a dirty look and they leave and play in a vacant field behind their complex.

A few days after that event, the kids are playing soccer in our driveway that goes from the street down to the driveway and is probably a good fifty feet or more. It's a long stretch. It's also hard to see people at sunset when the sun is glaring in your eyes as you go up the hill from the lot below and if someone didn't see them, they could easily get hit and injured or killed. They then stop playing soccer to dig in the dumpster on our property, which is again, private property. I've heard people saying before, "Oh but it's just trash, it's not like you want it anymore." True. But it's on private property. They are trespassing and stealing something (I don't care if it's just trash, it's on private property and they are taking something that does not belong to them, ergo, it's theft.) They get some sort of poles or something and start having sword fights in the drive way. I don't know if it was the sword fighting event or when they were playing basketball on their side of the fence, but they broke a slat on the wood fence that separates our complex from theirs. It could have been an accident, or it could be intentional, the fact of the matter is, now they have damaged property.

A few days after that, I saw two of the kids literally trespassing onto our property. Our complex has patios downstairs and there is a small wooden fence that blocks off the area between the patios downstairs and the street so they are private and secluded from the sidewalk and outsiders. Plus there is a hedge in front of the fence on the street side for added privacy. Well, the fat 10 year old and 7 year old were hopping over that fence and running around taking cans and making some sort of ruckus in the maintenance row that borders the back patios and fenced off from street area. The little one was a look out apparently because he made some sort of announcement and the two who were trespassing hauled ass over the fence and the three of them left.

Their behavior gets worse and worse. One day, Jesse is home and they are having sword fights in the driveway. He tells them to leave and they leave. A few minutes later, they are back. Jesse goes back down again and tells them he told them once and he's not going to tell them again, to leave. The oldest fat one says in a smart ass tone that they'll just come back, upon which Jesse tells them if they come back, then they can tell that to RPD because he will call the cops on them. They have been warned.

The fear of being arrested or dealing with cops must have worked. Temporarily. Not too long after that, they were once again playing in our driveway and so loud they woke Charlie up while he was napping. Now I know there aren't any laws about noise during day time and for that I am pretty annoyed, especially if I have a headache or Charlie is sleeping, but we deal with it. And it annoys me that my child can't get the rest he needs because of those stupid kids, but, it is what it is.

They have been back to their stupid antics lately. A few days ago, while pre-teen was out supervising, I saw a red truck driving out of their driveway and the 4 year old hanging onto the back of it, running after it as it drove off. I'm pretty sure the driver had no idea there was a 4 year old hanging onto his truck because if he did, logic would have said to stop. So the truck exits the driveway and proceeds to drive down the street, speeding up to the point the 4 year old can no longer hold on and loses his grip and almost falls to a loving road rash, but his limber little body manages to stay afoot and he continues to run with all his might in the middle of the street after the truck until he gets winded. None of the kids who were outside said anything or tried to call attention to the driver like, "Hey, there's a kid on your truck" and they certainly didn't tell the 4 year old to let go of the truck and not chase it. So for these girls who are in charge of the situation, they're not doing a very good job of it, especially since a child could have been seriously injured or killed if they fell and another car came whipping around the corner.

A few days ago I pretty much had the last of it. The 7 year old and 4 year old are walking home from school. Take in mind they live directly next door to us in the next complex. They run to the side fence that closes off the balconies from the street and I see them to see if they're going to hop it again and instead I see a stream of piss. That's right. They decide to pee on our fence. I was asked by a friend, "Oh like you've never peed on a fence..." No, I haven't. I may have peed in nature while camping, but I never peed on someone's property. And why did they have to do this when they live RIGHT NEXT DOOR!? Clearly it was an act of disrespect and juvenile hostility, like a dog that pisses on a fence as if to claim his territory. So I predict if they aren't doing so already, they will be marking their territory with Krylon and Sharpees soon.

Today, the younger preteen was casing the patio downstairs like she wanted to steal something from there. She kept walking up and down looking over the fence, then walking towards her property and back to the patio below us. She must have seen me watching her to see what she's doing because she backed off and left, came back again a few minutes later, and left a final time when I made it pretty clear someone was keeping an eye on whatever crime she was planning to commit.

Clearly their parents have no idea of what their kids are doing and if they did, I strongly doubt they care. So many parents are so quick to take the "It takes a village to raise a child" and take it in it's most literal essence and think, "I do not need to raise my child, simply pop it out. Everyone else will take care of it for me." You know what my problem is? My child. I have enough work to do raising my child, I'll be damned if you expect me to raise yours. If you truly want me to raise your child, I will call RPD every time your children are on my property when they have no reason to be. I will call RPD every time your children trespass onto fenced in areas when our maintenance man and repair people are really the only ones who belong back there. I will call RPD every time your kids chase cars, play in the street, piss on my fence and till there are enough nuissance reports that Child Protective Services gets involved because right now they won't because you have assigned your preteen girls to do your parenting when they are clearly no more capable of making responsible choices as the 4 year old. If I spoke Spanish or knew for a fact we would not wind up in a heated debate, I would go and tell you to take care of your kids, but the reality of it is, you would either not understand what I'm saying or you would defend your children saying they're not doing anything wrong when I've seen them commit crimes and vandalize property on multiple occasions. So if I need to have your 10 year old arrested before you think about taking a proactive move as a parent, then SO BE IT. All I can say is, these parents who don't watch their kids and have no idea of what their kids are doing or where they're at are the first ones to come crying, "My baby! My baby!" when their kids get abducted or murdered or whatever. They're also the ones to swear to the cops that their baby would never steal a car or vandalize property or assault someone for money or just to be a little shit with a power trip. They also are the ones who cry, "Why? Why?" as if they have no idea why their baby would break their heart and do horrible things. Why? Well, it's kind of a no brainer. It's because you sucked as a parent when your child needed the most discipline and rules. Because you gave them too much freedom too soon. Because you didn't teach them how to make proper decisions. Because obviously they didn't know the difference between right and wrong, or they did, but didn't care. Because your child has a lack of authority and they don't fear you, and they won't fear the law. These are our future gang members, druggies, criminals, murderers, what have you. Sure, they might wind up ok as adults, but more than likely, they'll wind up on a criminal path. You'll wind up dealing with juvenile detention authorities, having grandkids when your kid is 16 and you will constantly think that you did something wrong and blame yourself and at least then you'll realize where you fucked up. But by that time, it'll be too late.

The village it takes to raise a child, it doesn't mean leaving parenting up to the gov't and schools. It means you raise your kid. Us, your neighbors, coworkers, family members, etc. We set good examples of what moral people should be like when you grow up. We set examples of what is good and right in the world. We also set examples of what you shouldn't be (like the criminals, druggies, etc.) But we are by no means the ones who should set your rules or discipline your kids. That is up for the parent. You are your child's first line of authority. Have them grow up to respect you and your laws and they will grow up to respect those of the world around them. I'm sick of parents not being parents. Step up. You're capable of popping a kid out, now finish the job and raise them properly. If you can't do it, then put your kid up for adoption so they can go to someone who can. Sounds harsh? Maybe some parents need a swift kick in the ass to make them more responsible so their children can learn to BE responsible as well.