A Boring Post.



Sweetpea wanting attention.
Crappy pic from phone.



Well I survived the weekend without any more calamities. The weekend was quiet and I spent it cleaning, doing paperwork for the month, enjoying the light show from a huge storm on Sunday, and working on my project.
The project is coming along nicely and as soon as I can I will let you all know what it is. Can't say right now but I promise to announce what it is when it is done.

As for cleaning, I went gangbusters and did a deep cleaning of my place. That included dust bunnies under the bed and behind the dresser, cleaning the oven (YUCK!), and sorting through the pantry and tossing items to donate that had been sitting in there too long. They aren't expired, I wouldn't do that, but still good and since they haven't been used in a while I donate it to someone who can use it. Why let it go to waste.

One pain in the butt chore was setting up the new internet modem I got since I upgraded the internet speed. They said some mumbo jumbo that the current one I had wouldn't work. Bad part is that my main computer doesn't have an ethernet modem on it. Working on the resolution for that one but got the other stuff hooked up on the wireless network. Haven't played any games to really see if there is a difference but watching videos I have noticed fewer stalls.

When good comes around, bad is right around the corner.

I have been having an awesome week. Too good in fact and was nervous. Something was bound to go wrong. It is expected since my luck is tangible at best and whenever something good happens something bad happens to cancel it out.

For example: I was dead broke a few years ago because I had just moved and took a lower paying job. One month I actually had some money left over at the end of the month. Thrilled with the money I decided to keep it and wait to see what I really needed/wanted to spend the money on. Of course two weeks later I got a flat tire that was not repairable. Gone was the extra money!

This week was awesome because I:
Got 6 months free Direct TV service
Negotiated for a higher speed Internet for a much lower rate than I am paying now.
Got a new Kindle no charge to replace my broken one.
Got offered a chance for some overtime (Hospital has requested us not to log any overtime because of budget deficits.)
Negotiated a lower rate on my apartment lease.

Bad:
Apartment complex decided to paint the carports. They neglected to notify me so I could move the car so it got paint over spray all over it.
Spent 3 hours at car detail place while they removed it. They were unable to remove it from the rubber and plastic parts because they were afraid to damage it.
A couple of keys on my laptop keyboard is sticking and I know the warranty service will want me to ship it to them to look at what is wrong. I don't want to give it up!
Have had a Migraine for the last two days and meds are not working. Gee I wonder why?

So-So Bad
Spent 150 bucks to have the car cleaned but when I turned in the receipt and complained about the damage they agreed to pay the full receipt and throw in a 100 bucks for time/emotional distress.

It is Friday and I still have the weekend to go before this week of wackiness is over. Keeping my fingers crossed and staying home to avoid any hijinks's fate has planned.

Direct TV is crazy.

If you didn't read yesterdays post. Read it first before you read this one.

When I originally cancelled the service the guy kept trying to get me to keep the service. He offered twice, a lower rate to get me to keep the service but I kept telling him no, I don't want to pay for cable anymore and to disconnect it. He finally agreed and it was all done.


Since I had worked an overnight shift at the hospital I was sleeping during the day. I woke up yesterday afternoon and had several missed calls from an unknown number. While making my dinner/breakfast I got a call again from the number. It was a Direct TV rep and she was trying to get me to keep the service and started making offers. Every time she came up with some thing I told her no thanks, I don't want to pay for it any more.  The fourth and final offer she gave me I couldn't refuse.


They gave me a month to month deal, 6 1/2 months free service, then a discounted rate after that on the programming I had with them before I cancelled my account. Well I am not dumb and took them up on it. Who wouldn't with $250 free money. Plus I can cancel anytime without any penalties. She even said if I still didn't want the service after 6 months I can cancel. Are they crazy or what! You all know what I am going to do!

I am still going to set up the home entertainment network because it is a learning experience and because I still don't want to pay for cable. Now I will have time to really tweak it and get some stuff that will upgrade my computer system that I wasn't going to before.

Now I have to do the pain in the a** job of pulling everything out of the boxes I had packed it in and re-install it! Guess I shouldn't have been so quick to tear everything apart!

I have gone mad!

I took the plunge and decided to cancel my Direct TV service. I have been cringing at the money I am paying every month so I decided to take a dive off the deep end and cancel everything.

To make up for it I am setting up a home entertainment network with a spare computer and Xbox 360. It is a learning experience figuring out ways to make things work and get the required computer components. I used to be up to date on computer stuff but have realized how back in the dark ages I am. Technology changes at light speed. We will have to see how it works.

I noticed that most networks play their shows fairly quickly after it is on network television and I can watch it on the Internet. As for news I only read what is online and what I want to know which is usually good stories and weather. Most news stories are really depressing hence my selective picks as to what I read and watch.

I have a membership with Hulu (Yeah, they have commercials but shorter than on cable) and a ton of shows have closed captioning on it. As for netflix I tried them but almost no shows and movies have closed captioning. I am on the trial plan right now and will probably dump them if I don't figure it out before it expires since I am disappointed about that. I discovered it is a problem they knew about for several years and have done nothing to resolve it. A recent lawsuit was filed about it and I hope it gets them to make changes.

Kindle is awesome.

A while back my sister had bought me a kindle as a post-surgery gift to help keep me company while I was recovering since I was going to be sitting on my butt for 4-6 weeks.




I have been addicted to the thing since I got it. It has exceeded my expectations and I have a ton of books on there. Gone is the huge pile on the nightstand, trips to the library, and trips to the thrift store. Most of the books I get are free or just $0.99. Much better than a hardcover at 8 bucks or more. Yes, there are some days that I miss holding a book but the benefits outweigh the cons. On the left is the latest book I got. It is a series of 3 books and was awesome. It was not a short story.



Yesterday I cried when I pulled my kindle out of my bag and when I turned it over it had streaks and missing areas on the screen. I don't know what happened to it. It had been sitting in my bag for a while.

I contacted Amazon customer service and they were awesome. They would send me a new one by expedited shipping and I could send the old one back after I had downloaded all my books onto it. I was surprised. I figured I was going to have to do some arguing, pay some big bucks, or be stuck with a broken one. After talking with the guy and figuring he was making it sound too easy, I asked again for the 5th time:

"That is all I have to do? No charge, no hold until you see mine, you are just going to send me a new one?"

The guy reassured me that yes, I would be getting a new one, no charge, and it would be here by Tuesday.

I will never give up my Kindle. :-)

Life is busy when you have two teenagers!



Morgan at 4yrs. old

 
I have been a busy bee. Had the kids over for a short vacation. They were only able to visit for a week because of track, camp, football pratice, and other plans for the summer. I hated only having a short time with them but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Nicole at 3 yrs. old

I have slowly realized that having teenagers is sooooo different then kids. They are harder to please and only expensive electronics keep them happy. I had ordered a new Xbox 360 from a discount warehouse only to receive it the same day they left. Bummer since I had gotten it for them to enjoy when they were here. They did have fun but spent more time online facebooking and texting friends than swimming in the pool. When they were younger I had to bribe them to get them out of the pool.

16 and 6'4" tall already!

A couple of friends of theirs had moved away to another complex and after a lot of pleading and begging I let them go over to visit and stay overnight. They promised to come back the next morning since it would be our last day together but I was a nice Mama and let them spend the day there so they could spend more time with their friends. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices to make our kids happy. If it made them happy than I was willing to do that for them despite my missing time with them.

14 already! Geeze, I'm
gonna have to buy a shotgun soon!

During the last month or so I have been working on a project. I have now finished the first part of it and sighed in relief when it was done. It was a labor of love and I am nervous as to the response to it. It will update the blog and let you know more details as I get further along.




Figured I would keep you all guessing as to what it is.

Hot and Humid here.

Humidity. I can do without it. I don't mind the heat but I am out when it comes with humidity. I hate the suffocating feeling of a hot, wet, thick blanket around you. The humidity is here early this year. It even beat the usual monsoon storm. Usually we get the storms and then the humidity follows. I have been working so I have only glimpsed the light show the last couple of storms had on the way to work. I love watching the storms and the fury of mother nature, as long as it doesn't damage anything.



Video capture of dust storm.

 We had a huge dust storm come in which I missed but saw the lightning storm on our side of town while driving to work. It was amazing. It seemed like there were zaps of lightning constantly with no break between them. I haven't seen a good lightning storm in a while.


One good storm a few years ago took out a eucalyptus tree. I lucked out because when it fell it landed in front of my place and was just 3 feet shy of my front door. No broken windows. Imagine my surprise when I opened my door that morning and saw a wall of leaves and the smell hit me hard like I had walked into an Indian spice shop.

The monsoon then leaves us to clean up the mess. I have had to do that too many times. You have to go find the patio chairs that were blown away, clean up the dust because you left a window open (Yeah, dumb a** move I am guilty of!), cook on a BBQ with an umbrella because there is no power, wash the car that's leopard spotted because it rained then was thoroughly dusted afterwards, but it is all worth it.

We are rewarded with amazing sunsets, sunshine mostly year round, and no snow! My favorite sunset is the one where the sky looks like it is on fire. So many demensions and variations on sunsets around here. Summertime around here is not boring!