Mini-Posts for 2008-05-25
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Mini-Posts for 2008-05-24
- i’m tearing up watching ‘the patriot’ - “Papa, please don’t go! I’ll say anything!” WAHHH! #
- trying to debate on what i’m hearing outside - thunder, fireworks or gunfire? #
- i raise my arms in victory after configuring my cable remote to control my new vcr/dvd recorder combo. go me! #
- @tombert tell me about it! twitter has totally been off its game lately #
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I Fought the Law, and I Won
Over the last couple months I’ve been able to get out some sticky situations, just by saying something. Normally, I’d just accept these things or pay up, just to be done with it, but I’ve realized that sometimes, if you question things, the other party is just as willing to say, “It’s ok, nevermind.”
First, I got a notice for me to come to Jury Duty. My dad brought with him when he came for a visit because sometimes I still get mail at home. I was pretty bummed to go to jury duty, especially since it was scheduled for Ben’s birthday. I debated on whether or not I should call and reschedule when I realized that it was a request for me to come to Cook County court - I’m a resident of DuPage county. (yes, I know that technically I can’t call myself a Chicagoan especially since I don’t even live in the county but I don’t care if I become one of those annoying suburbanites that says they live in Chicago! I was born there!) So I called the hotline number and said that I got the jury duty request at an old address and I was currently a resident of another county. The lady told me to send them a copy of the jury notice and a copy of my driver’s license and I could request to be get out of it. I did it, but still hadn’t heard anything from them the day before I was scheduled to go, so I called again and I was told I didn’t have to go. Yay!
On Easter, we went downtown for lunch. Since I work at home, I don’t go out much other than quick shopping and errands. When we got back to my car, there was a ticket on it. Why? Because my license plate stickers were expired - by 5 months! There was a bit of arguing between me and Dave as to whether or not I had actually paid for new stickers, as well as the aggravation that even if I did, I didn’t put them on the car. I remember seeing stickers, but not sure if it was for Dave’s car or mine. I wasn’t thrilled at the thought of having to pay the $30 fine. When we went home we searched for new stickers and fortunately found them. But did I still need to pay the ticket? Or does the law say that you’ve got to drive around with updated stickers? Still high off my Jury Duty victory, I decided to try contesting my ticket, even if it meant going to court. So I made a photocopy of the updated stickers along with a letter saying that we hadn’t put them on the car yet and sent it along with the ticket. 2 weeks later I got a letter in the mail that said that since I provided proof of sticker, I was in the clear. Yeeeeah!
The last instance was with our I-Pass. In Illinois we have a toll system, and you can get a little box you attach to your windshield that is connected with an account so you don’t have to pay with cash. That account is pointing to a credit card and it pulls money from your card whenever it needs to be recharged. So I was surprised when I got a $450 bill in the mail because we’d been missing tolls (Dave takes the tollway every day to work). That bill included the cost of the tolls PLUS a penalty for each toll missed. Turns out that I never got notified that the card on the account had expired and I needed to enter a new expiration date. The last time that happened I got an email to tell me to renew - not this time! I called in to ask about it, and they said that the credit card always needs to be kept up to date. I realized that this was a fight I wasn’t going to win, so I sent a check in the mail (after updating my card information for our account). Ironically, I forgot to write in the amount for the check so it got returned with a letter that I could send in a money order or pay by phone. When I called to pay, the lady asked me, “Do you have an I-Pass account?” I said that I did, and let her in on my sob story. She told me she’d apply the fee to my account so we didn’t have to exchange credit card information. I thanked her and got off the phone. A couple days later I checked my account to see the damage, and guess what? She only took off the cost of the missed tolls - not the penalty fees! Instead of $450, it was only about $15.
So I’m feeling like I should be playing the lottery or something. I was thinking that I’d play 4-8-15-16-23-42 but then I remembered that the numbers are bad, so I’ll have to think of something else…
Mini-Posts for 2008-05-23
- just came back from eating at cafe iberico, and my tummy is very very content #
- there is some sort of animal hair furball on my deck. gross. #
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Mini-Posts for 2008-05-22
- ryan seacrest has too much eyeliner on. it’s nice to see chickeze again #
- damn you oprah, you make me cry with your dream house makeovers #
- time for lunch! wonder what i should have today… #
- ellen degeneres is grilling john mccain on gay marraige. he has an interesting answer and she respectfully disagrees. you go! #
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It’s In the Air
I finally feel like Spring is here. There’s a cool breeze in the air, the flowers are blooming, the sun is shining and things are good. Here’s some pictures that I took the other day at the botanic garden that I hope you enjoy!
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Yay!
Ben and His New Best Friend
This blog needs more Ben!
Ben is slowly getting into the terrible twos which sometimes is the terrific twos. He cries whenever he doesn’t get what he wants, he throws toys over the second floor balcony, and he hates his vegetables. Whenever we’re watching TV, he asks “What’s that?” or when we’re reading books, he says, “What’s this?” He’s learned to move around his little stepstool so he can reach the balls on the pool table. He has a favorite numbers puzzle that he loves so much that sometimes he sleeps with his number of choice - even asking me to kiss his number goodnight. I feel silly kissing aa wooden number 7, but it makes him happy. When he’s playing, he sings the Blue Danube Waltz to himself. He loves watching commercials. He’s a big fan of Dancing with the Stars, especially when people get scored, shouting out “8! 9!” when the judges are flipping over their paddles. He likes playing hide and seek. His favorite show is a cartoon called Caillou. He loves rolling around in the grass. When we’re eating cereal at the same time, he says, “Mommy cereal too!”
The good definitely outweighs the bad. Even though I don’t get any “me” time until after 10 o’clock, I wouldn’t change it for the world!
Mini-Posts for 2008-05-21
- i’ve had the hiccups for the last 20 minutes. *hiccup* #
- up at 4am doing catch-up stuff for work because i KNOW i won’t be able to get to it during work today since my schedule is PACKED. eh. #
- running l8, didn’t get 2 drop off ben. was in a conference call and the client said “Whose cat is that crying?” I said, “It’s my child” #
- whoopi is throwing down the ‘aren’t you exploiting your children?’ question to denise richards after she said she was ‘protecting’ her kids #
- i feel like buffalo wings for lunch. off to the kitchen i go! #
- my lips are all a-tingly from buffalo wing sassiness #
- @patloika hug #
- American’s charging $15 just to check in one bag on the airplane. Boo! #
- the hold music on our conference call line is something they used in “Little Einsteins”. i watch too much kids tv. #
- it’s hot in my office. i’m all sticky. #
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Happy Birthday, See-Star!
Many birthday greetings to my youngest sister, Fatima!
Girls Rule!
Sorry if this is a spoiler, but a woman finally wins Dancing with the Stars after a 5 year drought. And truthfully, I don’t think Kelly Monaco deserved to win the first one.
Anyway, I think we all knew the Kristy Yamaguchi would be the best celeb dancer on the show, but the question was, would America love her enough to keep her on? Sabrina Bryan was a favorite last year and was ousted weeks before the finals, so Kristy’s win wasn’t a given. But she persevered, and she got the coveted ugly mirror ball trophy, and it was well deserved. Her jive was awesomeness, probably the best dance I’ve ever seen on DWTS (with Apolo Ohno’s paso doble coming close).
This has been a great year for DWTS. First, Marlee Matlin was inspiring. When she got out there and did her first dance, I got all misty. It really gives some perspective when I think there are things I can’t do. Something I WON’T do, though, is inject crap into my lips. Priscilla Presley used to be a gorgeous woman, I have no idea why she felt the need to change herself. But even with her unrecognizable face, she still wowed us with her moves (the splits!) and elegance. Then, all of the hospital stays - Derek Hough, then Christian’s elbow. Men dancing the tango together for the encore performance. Adam Corola, who usually made irritatingly funny comments, left the show with the sweetest one - “I may have lost 20 lbs, but I gained 105 lbs of angel”. The show-mance between Shannon and Derek was intriguing, though even more intriguing was the bro-mance between Jason and Christian. Also, I was surprised that Jason was so good. Sure, there were times that he was a little awkward and he’d watch Edyta too much for cues, but you can’t deny his smooth elegance. Even if Kristi didn’t win, I would have been happy that Edyta, “the hottest body on the show” according to Dave, would have finally ended her 5 year losing streak.
But Kristi won, and I’m happy with that!
