5 more days until Christmas!

I haven't been in the blogging spirit lately. Maybe because I consider my life pretty boring. But I'm in the mood for a quick update so here it goes....

We're so broke this Christmas it's not even funny. We don't have a tree, we don't have presents, we barely have food and gas. Andrew hasn't gotten paid from his sub-contracting job since Sept and we've been making do with my measly salary (which isn't enough to cover the rent + car payment let alone anything else). I know the economy sucks and everything but we get paid from a Canadian company so they have no excuse! I'm probably going to have to suck it up and borrow money from my parents to be able to buy gas to get around to our families for Christmas! I hate borrowing money from my parents, especially at Christmas time. But it's a little out of my control right now.

In better news I'm really starting to like my new position in Criminal. People talk to me now which is nice and I'm really liking my boss even though I was a little scared to work for her at first :). For the first time in awhile I don't dread going to work! I applied for a court room clerk position a couple weeks ago and I had an interview Wed which went horribly!!! I'm pretty sure I'm not in the running but I'm actually ok with it because I think I'd rather stick around in Criminal.

The candle business is going pretty well. It's slow right now but I did way better than I ever thought I would! The new catalog is coming out in January so I'm pretty excited about that. What I'm not excited about is that 2 different people (one who happens to be related to me!) have given me checks that have bounced!! And even worse than that my bank not only takes the money back from me but they charge me an extra $6! WTF?? Like it's my fault that the check bounced? I wouldn't have deposited it if I had any idea it wasn't good. It's a crock! I do take credit cards but of course I lose a percentage when I do it that way but I'm seriously considering going that route. My webpage is mygc.com/sarahkaba if anyone is interested :).

Hmmm... let's see, what else is new? I'm reading Marley and Me and I can't wait to see the movie!! I bet 90% of the people in the audience will be Lab owners. Oh, I was on the Holiday party committee at work this year and it was a ton of fun! I brought in a bunch of centerpieces which I made out of glass bowls with red and silver ornaments in them and I got to help decorate. We had secret santas at work too and mine gave me a big Hot Chocolate mug with a saucer that I LOVE and a set of bowls that have sugar cookie makings inside. I'm going to break into them tomorrow I think. Monday I have training all day which is cool because it means I only work 8:30-4 instead of 8-5. Extra 1.5 hours to myself! Hooray! And last week I got to observe Misd and Felony arraignments and a Felony law and motion calender which was awesome. I always wonder what's going through the judge's heads when they decide to release or not release people from custody. Oh that reminds me that I'm thinking about taking a Criminal Justice class at the community college this spring just for fun. Sometimes I really hate my job and I think I need to get into a different line of work and then something always comes along to remind me that I love the Judicial system... even with all it's flaws :).

Cocoa's Christmas Hat

I know I'm a horrible blogger these days but I have to share this:

This is why I rock

Because I made this super cool Halloween spider web bean dip and home made Halloween shaped tortilla chips!

Deer Hunting

I just got back from my first adult deer hunting trip. Thank god we didn't shoot anything! I hate seeing animals get hurt. You might ask why the hell I was deer hunting when I don't like seeing animals get hurt. Well it all started like this....

Andrew was spending every damn weekend in the hills with his stupid friend and his stupid family. After the second weekend in a row I visibly perterbed. He asked me to come up to this stupid people's ranch with him the next weekend which I refused to do. First of all, it's a dust bowl up there and there's nothing to look at but dirt, oak trees, and cows. Second of all he was cutting wood. I don't cut wood. And lastly of course I don't like animals getting hurt. He was coming home every weekend talking about his great time and how his friend's mom made such good food and worked so hard cleaning up after everyone, blah blah blah. At this point I'm angry. Why the hell does he notice when Old Stupid Lady cooks and cleans but my efforts go unnoticed? And he wants me to be friends with this stupid woman! Not going to happen. I tell him I have plenty of friends and he shouldn't make me try to be friends with this stupid lady so that I'll think it's ok when he spends so much time with her and her stupid family. Let's just call them The Stupids from now on.

Skip forward through a week of fighing. He claims I never do what he wants to do and we always do what I want to do. He also claims that he would just LOVE for me to come up and hang out with him at The Stupid's ranch. He says he'll take me out to lunch and we can ride 4-wheelers. I stupidly agree (maybe I should join The Stupid Family). So I drive for two hours with Cocoa practically on my lap and when I get to the house he gave me directions too there's a sign giving me directions to a different place! That's irritating. So I find the damn place (we're talking hills, unmarked roads, and no civilization here) and he informs me that we'll be having lunch with The Stupids. OH HELL NO. I insist he take me to lunch as promised so he does. We get back and I ask about my 4-wheeler ride and he tells me he doesn't know where the 4-wheelers are and I should just come sit in the dust bowl and watch him and the Stupid men work. I find this akin to watching grass grow so I blow that pop stand.

The weekend ends and there isn't so much fighting but some discussing. I tell him he tricked me into a wasted day at The Stupid Ranch. He says he loves being in nature and he wants me to be there too. I say that I love nature too (not a lie!) but I don't want to share it with The Stupids and I don't want him too every freaking weekend either. I point out that we are newlyweds and spending every weekend apart isn't cool. I mean I'm not co-dependant or anything and I infact love some alone time but we're talking 3 weekends in a row at this point. The dog poop is not being picked up. The grass is not being mowed. Not to mention the importance of quality time! I tell him I'd be more than happy to revel in all mother nature has to offer if it was just us more often than not. So he asks me to go hunting/camping with him the following weekend and of course I can't say no. I just said I love nature and I would do things if it was just him and I. BOO!

So I dread the trip the whole week but put on a happy face until Saturday morning. I woke up and the weather was beautiful and we were going to cover some ground that my grandpa used to hunt. Somehow I got excited about it! Not about the deer killing part but since Andrew's been hunting deer unsucessfully for about 10 years I wasn't that worried.... We drove up in the Mendocino National Forest and drove around scouting out deer all day. The scenary was amazing! Then we found a little camp site to spend the night in. We were packing light and sleeping in the back of Andrew's Tahoe so it was easy set up and take down. We had both of our dogs with us but I still ended up freezing my ass off that night. I should have packed one more blanket. The next morning we drove around a bit more and then we decided to head out of the forest and back into the foot hills. He wanted to drive around The Stupid's land a little bit to see if he saw anything. I swear to you he's obsessed with this family. Or maybe it's just Old Lady Stupid, I don't know. We end up taking some road thinking it would put us out at a spot on the way home. We were wrong. It went on FOREVER and we ended up back in the damn forest that we left that morning! I was SO done about half way through that last drive. I was tired of being in the car and tired of bumpy switch back roads. We finally made it home about 7:30 and I can not wait to get into bed. It's too bad I have to work in the morning :(.

Here's a picture of the sunrise this morning in the forest.

Fort Bragg

So first of all I just want to ask.... does anyone else feel like a brand new woman after something so simple as an eye brow waxing? If the answer is no than just pretend like I didn't say that.

But seriously, I feel like I have a whole new face.

Anywho! Last weekend Andrew and I packed up and went to Fort Bragg for a 3 day camping trip. I hadn't been to Fort Bragg since I was a wee little lass but Andrew claimed to be an expert on it. My friend Carina suggested that we accompany her and her boyfriend, Ivan, on a camping trip to Mackerrricher state park. I'd never been there before and since you had to reserve your campsite online I chose my blindly but I did a damn good job if I do say so myself! I was just trying to be close to Carina and the bathroom but our campsite ended up being huge. Which is good because I INSIST on a 7 person tent for the two of us on top of my screen tent house. And to top it off the weather was absolutely amazing. Amazing is a difficult temperature to acheive on the ocean as you probably know because it's unpredictable and usually windy. But mother nature was on our side last weekend!

Friday we just set up and then went to some expensive restaurant that Andrew wanted to try. I just had a salad since I don't eat seafood but it was delicious. Plus it left room for some creme brulee which I can NOT pass up if it's on the menu. Saturday the boys took off to do some fishing while Carina and I hit up some tide pools and collected glass on Glass Beach. When we first parked Carina thought that she had found the correct trail to the beach although I had my doubts from the get go. I didn't say anything though because a trail is a trail right?? WRONG. Our trail ended up snaking around through some 5 ft tall bushes for like an hour. At one point we were crawling on our hands and knees to get through the brush. I was laughing and telling Carina that we HAD to be on the wrong trail. I wish I had taken a picture. Anyway, we were on the wrong trail and there was a nice, wide, semi-paved one that led straight from the parking lot to the beach. But oh well... it gives us something to remember it by. Glass beach is called Glass Beach because back in the day people used to dump their garbage (including appliances, cars, etc) into the ocean. Over time the ocean broke the glass up, smoothed it out, and it has been depositing peices on Glass Beach every day since. I will post a picture so you can see the peices of glass mixed up with the rocks. After we got back to camp we went on a search for my famously late husband who always "loses track of time." When we finally pulled his happy ass out of the ocean we had lunch and then took a little drive to Mendocino. If you're a country fan you've probably heard of Willie Nelson sing songs about Mendocino. On the way back we stopped at this light house that I really wanted to see. It said the hike was only 1/2 mile but I'm pretty sure they lied. It was straight down hill one way and straight up the other and of course I didn't plan the stop so I was wearing my slippers without socks. My feet hurt so freaking bad by the time I got to the bottom I almost didn't make it back up. Plus I had my gimpy other half trucking along beside me.

Sunday was a perfect day to leave because the fog was rolling in and the wind was picking up. We left at about noon and I almost barfed about a million times with Andrew driving home. The road is switchbacks of 20-25 mph which he took at like 40. I was convinced that we were going to die and they'd find me with puke all over myself. Great way to go. But we made it and next time I'm having him drop me off at the Skunk Train station and I'm riding the train into Fort Bragg. He can pick me up at the Depot... if he makes it alive.

Glass Beach

Long and Busy Weekend

It's currenlty 7:30 pm Monday night and I'm stuck wondering where in the hell my 3 day weekend went. Saturday I just cleaned the house in the morning and then went to my parents house for dinner in celebration of my dad's birthday. When that party was over we hit up my friend Lindsay's End of Summer Luau party. We didn't stay very long but I did manage to get dinged in the forehead by a Beer Pong ball gone astray. That's so my luck.

Sunday I met my friend Michelle at Mimi's Cafe in Fairfield (oh how I love Mimi's!) to plan the craft shows that we have coming up in October and November for her line of soaps and bath and body products. We ended up doing a little shopping at Michael's where I bought some mini-cupcake pans which I'm going to use to promote her business by giving away the mini-cupcakes at the shows. Her business is called Cupcake Bath Shoppe so I thought it was a cute idea and everyone always flocks to the booths with free food or samples. At least I know I do :). After Michael's we hit up Babies R Us where I bought a gift for a friend and then I speed home to meet with another friend to build a diaper cake. I'd never made a diaper cake before and I had my doubts about how the whole thing was going to go down but in the end I was mighty impressed with our work. We were going to go the state fair that night but since I was beat and Andrew wanted to go hunting in the morning we have our tickets to my brother.

Today I've just been bumming around. It's a bit windy and I like it because it makes me think that Fall just might be here already. I'm sure tomorrow will dash my hopes with 100+ weather. I made some snickerdoodles which taste yummy but the bastards would NOT come off of the cookie sheet. What's the deal with that? Does anybody know? Is there a trick to snickerdoodles? Andrew took Gidget hunting this morning so me and Cocoa have been lounging around and doing alot of cuddling. It turns out she's a much better behaved dog when it's just her. Before I know it I'l be back at work. Luckily I only have a 3 day week this week and Friday I'm off to Fort Bragg! Hooray!

Sewer Rat

Remember the dead mouse I kept smelling at work? Well the maintenance guys finally came over to check it out and guess what their conclusion was? The urinals in the men's bathroom weren't getting enough water flushed down them so they were starting to smell and the reason that I was the only one that could smell it is because I share a wall with the men's bathroom.

First of all, EWWW.

Second of all, since when does sewer smell like a dead mouse? I'm from the country, I know the difference! I still think there's a dead mouse somewhere although I haven't smelt him lately. He's probably going to get good and ripe over the 3 day weekend for me....

Third of all, if the men's bathroom was so stinky that I could smell it THROUGH THE WALL then how is it that none of the men who used it said anything? It's the public bathroom but the security guards and baliff's use it to so how come they didn't say anything?

I don't know but it all sounds a little fishy to me. I guess only time will tell.

And it better tell me that my desk smells fresh and clean come Tuesday morning, damn it!

Dog Days of Summer

Last Sunday Andrew and I were enjoying some peace in quiet before my cousin moves in (we are seriously a half way house for women who want to leave their men) and we decided to take the dogs for a swim. We drove up the Capay Valley which is my old stomping grounds and basically where I grew up. We wanted to let the dogs swim in the creek but I wanted to find a spot that didn't have too many rapids and wasn't running to swift because you never know how Dumb-Dumb (Cocoa) is going to react. She got shorted in the brain cell department but luckily she makes up for it in the loving department. I mentioned to Andrew that in high school my friends use to go to this place called "the top of the world" and I've never been. Now when I say "the top of the world" I mean that in the oakiest of ways - I mean the top of a mountain and a very windy (<--like lots of switchbacks, not like the weather) dirt road to get up there. It was beautiful at the top though! Hotter than hell but beautiful!
Here's a few from The Top of The World:

Here's the bastards at The Top of the World


Anyway, we eventually found a swimming spot for the dogs which I thought was still pretty scary but they did alright. They didn't get too far from the shore because they spent the entire time jumping in and getting wet and then jumping out and shaking all over us. Poor Cocoa kept slipping on slimy rocks but she didn't learn and kept jumping on them instead of taking the dirt route. At any rate it was a nice afternoon and it was fun to get out and about. This weekend we're plannin on going to my parents Saturday for my dad's birthday, then to my friend Lindsay's for a Luau, then my cousin is moving in so it's a good thing I've got 3 days off! Hooray for Labor Day!

Otter Dog, Otter Dog. Does whatever an Otter Dog does...

Daddy, you look hot - let me cool you down with a little water....

Can we go home now?

I smell a rat....

Literally. My desk smells like a dead rodent but I'm the only one that can smell it! It's lunch time and I've already got the worst headache and I felt like barfing once. I couldn't smell the dead rat anymore though so that probably means that I got used to it and when I get back to work it will assault me again! I know this is gross but I hope the smell gets worse so that someone else smells it and rectifies the situation!!!! I think the bastard died between my desk and the wall because I can't find him anyway.

Moving On Over....

To the Criminal department!

I applied for a transfer a few weeks ago because I just couldn't do Traffic anymore and they accepted me! I knew they would because that office works closely with my mom's office and my mom is the supervisor so naturally she's in contact with the Criminal supervisor all the time. Luckily for me the supervisor in Criminal (Pam) really likes my mom so naturally she'll like me.... or so I hope. I had a hard time deciding to make the switch because I really like most of my coworkers in traffic and my boss is so easy going. But on the other hand I'm sick of the work and I'm not going to go anywhere there because you need experience in the court to be able to move up so I had to do what I had to do! I don't know when I start over there yet but I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. It's normal stuff though like I'm worried that I won't make friends over there and I'm nervous about going from knowing a heck of a lot about what I do to not knowing very much and having to learn all over again. But it should be a new challenge and it should be fun and I'm definitely ready for change!

Andrew and I went to a birthday party for my friend's sons today. They turned 3 and 4 - she's crazy, I know. It was pretty fun and the kids liked our gifts so that was a bonus. Andrew is bugging me again about having kids. He just doesn't understand how much work really goes into a kid. They are not cute little well behaved babies 24/7. And you KNOW I'll be the one that has to get up at night to take care of them because he won't wake up and I'll be the one that takes care of them 90% of the time because of his work schedule and that's not even considering the 40 weeks of pregnancy and LABOR! The idiot gave a one year old some play dough today at the party and before I could say "Don't, she'll eat it" she put it in her mouth and I had to fish it out and I'd just met the kid 1/2 hour before! Luckily her mom was easy going...

In other care-giving news Cocoa ate an entire bar of soap and the proceeded to vomit it up all night long. Luckily my friend had made the soap and it was all natural. She owns this business called Cupcake Bath Shoppe where she makes all her own soaps. I'm actually going to be doing some craft fairs with her shortly so I'm pretty excited about that. One is in October in Yuba City and the other is in November in Colusa. I don't know how the Yuba City one is going to go down but the Colusa one is huge. It's like one of the biggest things that little city sees all year so I'm pretty excited about that. Plus my in-laws live there and know a ton of people so hopefully my last name will sale a few things :). Oh, my bastard dogs picked up Kennel Cough at the park so they're popping more pills than Amy Winehouse right now (I don't even know if she pops pills but it's the first druggy I could think of). I should seriously buy some stock in Kraft Cheese because we go through it by the ton whenever they get sick. One of the perks of having labs is that they'll eat anything and they rarely chew which makes it great for giving them meds. I mean, after eating an entire bar of soap (which takes some serious effort) those pills probably taste pretty damn good!

The zoo is not just for kids anymore....

Sunday Andrew and I got up at the butt crack of dawn to meet my friend, Michelle, and her family at the San Francisco Zoo. S.F. is only about an hour and a half away from us but who wants to get up at 7:00 on a Sunday? Ok, I admit it - I do if an outing is involved. Andrew... not so much. I was excited though because I hadn't been to a zoo in years and the last one I went to was the Sacramento zoo which really sucks these day. Their animals keep dying and they don't replace them. Plus the S.F. zoo is right on the ocean and the weather was an amazing 78 degrees. Y'all might have heard about the S.F. zoo last Christmas when one of the tigers jumped out of it's 12 foot cage and ate a teenager. It wasn't the dead teenagers fault though, it was the fault of his dumb friend who was antagonizing the tiger. IDIOTS.

Anyway, the zoo was loads of fun but of course they rainforest exhibit was closed which figures because that's the one I wanted to see the most. Here's some pictures for your enjoyment.



The county fair opens up tomorrow and for us small towners that's a big freaking deal. Our county fair is the last free county fair in all of Califorina! Pretty special huh? I think what it really means is that we spend so much money on booze and food that they don't need to charge admission. But whatever, I'm ready to eat me some corn dogs and watch a good ol' fashioned destruction derby!

Wow, I suck at blogging

I just haven't felt any urges to blog lately. I read blogs... but I never post my own. Sheer laziness I guess. So I guess one could say I've been busy. Work is pretty all consuming right now and doesn't leave me much energy after work to do much. We bought an eliptical machine and a bike for Andrew in an attempt to not be so fat. The idea is that eventually I'll lose some weight and then maybe I can have a baby but for now that's a pretty far off goal. I have been getting up early about 3 times a week to pump out 10 mins on the eliptical machine. 10 mins is hard, ok? It kicks my ass! Eventually I'll work myself up.... or I'll just start sleeping in. One of the two. Gidget is on a diet too so we bought a "chuck it" and have been taking her to the dog park. I even started monitoring their food instead of letting them pig out like I used to. It's a sad time at Casa de Kaba.

Last weekend was a blast though. We went to The Punchline Comedy club for my friend's birthday and saw John Capparillo. I had no freaking idea who he was but my friend informed us that he's on CMT's Mobile Home Disasters. I was a bit surprised as I'm a die hard country fan and she's.... not so much. But whatever, I laughed my ass off!! All three of the comics were hilarious which doesn't usually happen too often. Usually the first guy gets a few chuckles, the second guy has a few really good ones, and the third guy splits your gut but this time I had a stomach ache before the headline even took the stage! Andrew was DYING. I literally thought he was going to laugh so hard that he would forget to breate and he would die. He made it ok though.

Sunday we went boating with my family and they had this new toy which is basically a floating couch. It seats 3 people and when you get that much weight on it and you start hitting waves you catch some serious air. It was a blast but I paid for it the next day in my arms! It actually managed to help my back though because I'd been having pain in my tail bone for the last few months and after getting jerked around on that floating couch thing the pain went away! So much cheaper and more entertaining than seeing a chiropractor...

I applied for a tranfer at work to the Criminal department. I just told my boss today that I had applied. I was scared to tell her but she was really nice and encouraging about it and she said she understood me wanting to get more experience and they would be lucky to have me. She's probably on the phone with someone cussing me right now but oh well, I hopefully won't have to deal with it for too much longer.

This weekend I have a going away party to attend for my last partner at the counter and then Sunday we're going to the San Francisco zoo with my friend and her kids. I'm pretty excited about it! Yeah so the tiger ate someone on Christmas last year... I'll just have to refrain from dangling my feet over it'2 12 foot cage like the last guy did. In any case, it should be fun :)

Everybody's Working for the Weekend...

At least that's how I feel lately. And the weekend is finally here!! WOOHOO!!!! The weekdays are become unbearable. I want to look for a new job so badly but then again I don't want to be the "new" girl who doesn't know shit. But in any case it's SATURDAY!!!!!! And I have a full 48 hours to do whatever I want!! And what might I have on the agenda you ask? Well this morning I'm taking Gidget to get a booster shot, then I'm cleaning the house which will probably take the better part of the day, then it's dinner with Andrew and maybe a movie. Tomorrow I'm going to sleep in until I can't possibly sleep anymore, then I'm going to lounge around the house reading and watching movies and trying to make the last few hours of my freedom last as long as humanly possible. For those of you who work full time you know that this means that right now it might be 8:07 am on a Saturday but in about 15 mins it will be Sunday night and I'll be dreading the coming week.

I'm really itching to go to Tahoe now thanks to Carina. I want to lounge around on a porch in the fresh mountain air and read a book or go to sit by the lake and relax. I have to get out of this smoky valley! I wonder when California will stop burning? It seems like every year it gets worse, and worse, and worse. I heard on the news that the Butte County fire might have been intentionally set!!!! Butte county has been on fire for the better half of a month now. If someone set that shit intentially they are going to go away for a long, long time. Why are people so stupid?? I also want to take a roadtrip to Oregon and go to a drive thru animal park and ride dune buggies on the sand dunes. On top of that I want to take Andrew to Disneyland since he's never been. I just need a vacation!!!

I See Stupid People

I've had that saying stuck in my head all day!!! Probably because I do see stupid people every day that I have to go to work!

Sooooo.... anything interesting happening out there? Nothing here. It's almost too mellow. I might have a break down any day now from sheer boredom. Work sucks very much bad but you already knew that already. Andrew's official last day at his job was yesterday. He's officially self employed. Keep your fingers crossed that it works out. Better yet cross your fingers and hope that he makes so much money that I don't have to work and I can live out my dream of staying home and baking cookies and pushing my offspring around in jogging strollers (of which I will never use for actual real life jogging).

I just finished reading this book called "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides. It was oddly intriging. It's about a Greek girl who is genetically a boy but lives as a girl until she's like 14. It sounds crazy and when I first started reading it I was thinking "what the hell have I got myself into" but I ended up really getting into it. It won a Pulitzer Prize so apparently I'm not alone. It turns out a friend of mine has also read it and enjoyed it as well. Currently I'm reading "The Memory Keeper's Daughter." I'm having a hard time with it because I cheated and watched the Lifetime movie that was based off the book. Actually I might have watched it twice. What? My mom wanted to watch it and it was on my DVR. I had to watch it with her otherwise that would have just been rude. Next up is "The Glass Castle." I read alot. Oh and my new obsession is E True Hollywood Story.

OHHH!!! Speaking of stupid people - someone spit gum on my truck today!! ASSHOLES!! And of course it's like 90 something degrees so it melted and ran down the side of the door and when I tried to clean it off it smeared everywhere. Andrew is NOT going to be happy. Why do people do that shit?? I mean seriously!?!?!? Why??? This is a prime example of why I hate people. Bastards.

I'm Sirius, Man!

So I finally broke down and bought myself a Sirius radio. My mother in law had given me a gift certificate for Radio Shack like 6 months ago to buy one and I never got around to it. I figured they'd be having good sales today so I got all pumped up and did my research and everything and of course there's no sale. Bastards. I got a Starmate 4. It's not the newest or the fanciest model on the market but I like it because it's on the smaller side and as long as I can rewind and listen to my classic country I'm good. So I'm pretty excited about that.

I should have known that there wouldn't be any good sales today because I already had my stroke of good luck for the week. I went down to the Social Security Office to apply for my new name and there was like a bazillion people in there. Some old dude was bitching about his 45 minute wait so after I told a computer why I was there and received my number I settled in for some cell phone Tetris. I only got through one game and they called my number!! I thought they had screwed up because I was the last person to arrive and surely the people behind me were going to rip me away from the window by my hair (they were seriously ruder than the customers at my office!!). I asked the guy if he was sure he called the right number because there was plenty of people that arrived after me and he said that he was new and only knew how to do the change of name applications!!! Woohoo!! That totally rocked! Only bad part was that it takes 24 hours for it to roll over to DMV so now I have to take more time off work to go to DMV. Grr... I think our DMV is open one Saturday a month though.

Tomorow we're going to Indian Valley Reservoir for a day of boating and BBQ'ing. I have a feeling the water level is going to be waaaaay down and there's probably going to be more boats than water but oh well... it will be nice to get away for a day and spend some time with the family.

My green review

I finally ran out of a few cleaning products and was able to try some new "green" products. I bought them both at Costco although the Green Works you can buy almost anyway. My first purchase was this random green laundry detergent I found after getting irritated with Costco for not carrying the Tide with baking soda detergerent that I love.


It has a nice, clean scent and it's made for high efficency washers (of which I am now a proud owner!). It seems to do the trick ok although I have to admit that I've only used it on my clothes so far and my clothes don't get that dirty. Once the other kind runs out and I start using it on Andrew's clothes I'll be able to give a better perspective. But so far so good.

My second purchase is one that I think most everyone has tried - Green Works by Clorox.

I was a little skeptical at first because I'm a die hard 409 fan but so far so good! I haven't found anything that 409 can do and Green Works can't so I give it a thumbs up. I've only been using it for a few days though so again, I might have a better perspective in the future. It smells like a real life lemon and it's made from all natural ingredients. You know what that means...... these bastards can lick the shower as much as they like and I don't have to worry about them dying.

What the hell is WRONG with people?!?!

DUNNIGAN, Calif. -- A parolee accused of killing a Yolo County sheriff's deputy in Dunnigan was captured Monday morning following a massive manhunt that lasted several hours.

Police arrested 35-year-old Arbuckle resident Marco Antonio Topete on suspicion of shooting to death 37-year-old Deputy Tony Diaz, Sheriff Ed Prieto told reporters.

Diaz was airlifted after the shooting to Woodland Memorial Hospital, where he later died. He was the father of three girls - ages 2, 4 and 16.

"It's just tragic," Prieto said during a news conference. "It hurts your soul."

Prieto said Diaz was shot in the shoulder and was able to report his own shooting to dispatchers. Prieto added that police will be studying dash video captured by the deputy's police car for evidence related to the shooting.

Prieto worked in information technology for Yolo County for several years before becoming a deputy. Prieto described Diaz as a "very gentle man" and "easy-going."

Prieto said Topete had ties to gangs and served 12 years in prison for shooting another person.

"He is not a stranger to violence," Prieto said of Topete.

Topete was captured shortly before 8 a.m. in a rest area near Interstate 5 in the Dunnigan area. Investigators said they found a rifle that was used in the slaying.

Prieto said Topete recently moved to Arbuckle from Davis.

"I'm just thankful we have this individual in custody," Prieto said.

Topete was taken to jail in Yolo County for questioning, Prieto added.

Prieto heaped praise on other local police agencies that helped in the search. Dunnigan was swarming with officers from Sacramento, West Sacramento, Davis and elsewhere during the height of the manhunt.

A 10-mile stretch of I-5 was shut down in the area for several hours during the search. The road has since reopened.

The shooting occurred around 10 p.m. Sunday during a traffic stop at County Road 6 and County Road 99W. Police said Topete fled on foot.

Police said the incident began at about 9:30 p.m. in Davis when police tried to pull Topete's car over after a report that he was drinking and driving. Officials said Topete drove way, and a police pursuit continued north to Dunnigan.

Deputies looked in Topete's abandoned blue Ford sedan and found an infant girl around 3 or 4 months old, who was said to be doing fine. She was identified as Topete's child and was returned to her mother Monday afternoon.

Diaz is the second Yolo County deputy to be killed in the line of duty.

**This is 10 mins from my home people! And it's the second officer to be shot since I started at the court.

I know it's not Thursday but.....

This things on the road just couldn't wait. And with my sporatic blogging activity I might let it pass and we just can't have that. I bring you.....

CLOSE MINDED REDNECKS!!!!





Yes, it's true. We even have these kind of people in California (which has the highest percentage of gay and lesbian couples in the nation!). Idiots.

How hard can it be?

I recently put Andrew on my medical insurance since my copay is a lot cheaper and my coverage is alot better. Plus he's considering going into business for himself full time but that's a whole 'nother blog. So I tell my HR department that his doctor is Josie Santana and I know she's in the network because I've seen her myself a few times. They say they will double check everything and they will let me know if there is any problems. I got our new cards in the mail yesterday and they have his doctor listed as Jyoti Saxena. What the hell? Did they just assume that since this doctor has the same initials as his doctor that we wouldn't notice the difference? So I went online and of course his doctor is not listed but I know for a fact that she accepts my insurance because I've seen her numerous times (she's absolutely amazing by the way). So frustrating!!! And to make matter worse they are not open on the weekends so I can't call them up and get it straightened out. And to top it off this is not the first time this has happened to me!! When I worked at a local winery I was HR so I know I filled the forms out correctly and they sent me a card with a doctor that was 100 miles away (and not even in the Chico area which I previously lived in so it would make some kind of sense. No, no, it was like 100 miles in the other direction). When I got to the doctor one afternoon to be seen for a horrible sinus infection they turned me away because they weren't listed on my policy! IDIOTS!! I mean really, how hard can it be?

The Fitted Sheet

Seriously - does ANYONE know how to fold the fitted sheet? Mine always comes out looking like a 3 year old folded it. Then I cram it into the closet making matters oh so much better. I was hoping that would be a skill that came with age but apparently I'm still not quite old enough...

So... life is pretty boring here. I'm hitching to go to the grocery store and then tonight I'm having dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with my long time best friend, Andrea. I'm pretty excited about that! Although picking a meal off of their menu is like picking a favorite child - it can't be done. There's too much goodness to choose from! Today I vow to not fill up on bread in the beginning (even if it is fresh from the oven) so I can have my lemon raspberry cheesecake dessert. Mmmm.... cheesecake. Wow, I have issues.

All Hitched Up

Whew! What a busy last couple of weeks! I can't believe I have to go back to work tomorrow. Grrr..... I'm not happy about it.

The wedding was ok. Not amazing, not what I dreamed about, just ok. First of all it was 103 degrees in MAY which never happens and of course my wedding was completely outside. Alot of people didn't even show up on account of the heat and then there was quite a bit that left immediately after the ceremony. So here we were with a little less than $4,000 invested in food and drink and hardly any guests to eat or drink it. Luckily we got to keep the leftovers (if I ever eat parmesan chicken again it will be too soon). So I lost my ass big time there. Plus guests where dropping like flies because of the heat so I missed out on all kinds of traditional wedding stuff. I won't bore you with all the details but it was a very hurried, very disappointing reception. Then the DJ's equipment took a shit right when Andrew and I were supposed to have our first dance. Luckily the photographer listens to country as well and happened to have our song and the song for me and my dad on his Iphone so he spliced some wires and made it happen. Andrew and his mom weren't so lucky though. Oh well, she was on my LAST nerve as was his brother (who is still on my shit list).

In the end it accomplished what it was supposed to though, I'm now proud to say I'm a married woman. The night of the wedding we stayed at the Hampton Suites here in town where we promptly fell asleep and sleep until noon. The next day we had dinner and stayed the night on the Delta King which is a historic steam engine river boat that used to shuttle people and goods between San Francisco and Sacramento back in the steam boat days. It's docked permanently now but it was so much fun! We ate a horribly expensive dinner complete with 3 drinks a piece and then we drank our complimentary champagne on the balcony outside our room. It was awesome. The weather was still in the hundreds and we had a little money left over so we decided to go on a roadtrip/camping trip in the Redwoods for 3 days. The redwoods are right along the northern most coast of California so we thought we'd get a nice break from the heat. Wouldn't you know the temperature dropped 40 degrees and the wind picked up the VERY DAY we decided to leave. We still had a great time but we froze our freaking asses off! Figures!!!!

All and all I did enjoy my time off of work and it was awesome to spend an entire week with Andrew since we never see each other. I wish we could get married more often :). But honestly, other than the additional ring on my finger being married is just like it was when we were engaged. Which is just like it was when we were together. I guess that's a good thing :)

So now we're back to normal. Good ol' boring normal.....

It's finally here!!!!

I'M GETTING MARRIED TODAY!!!!!!!!!

As long as I don't kill someone first.....

The Wheather Man must die....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Sacramento, Stockton and Modesto will start baking today as part of the first big heat wave of the season.

KCRA 3 WeatherPlus meteorologist Eileen Javora said temperatures will reach into the triple digits today in all three cities, breaking records for this date.

Sacramento and Stockton will both reach 100, while Modesto will see 101 degrees.
Sacramento will hit 101 on Friday, 100 on Saturday and 98 on Sunday.

The last time Sacramento saw 100-degree heat was on Sept. 2.
*********
Seriously? In the middle of May? On my OUTSIDE wedding weekend??? WTF people?!?!! It waws in the 80's all last week and it will be in the 80's all next week but this week and this weekend it's in the 100's! I urge the men out there to avoid the garter toss at all costs as it may be drenched in sweat. I just had a thought.... I'll go into the rest room right before the garter toss and sneak it on so that's it's not acting as a sweatband for my leg. Damn I'm smart.

Don't worry, I haven't died..... yet

I haven't posted anything lately because I've just been busy with crap nobody cares about but me. Picking vows, learning how to decorate cupcakes in semi-professional way, spending $80 on color coordinated m&m's and jelly bellys. That's right, I said $80. But seriously people, that's nothing in the grand scheme of things. And no they're not my favors. They're just for decoration on the dessert table. I'm hard core when it comes to sweets ok? We can skip the chicken for all I care. Just cut the cake! I'm having cake AND cupcakes at my wedding. I wasn't kidding about the sugar facination. And I decided like a fool to make my own cupcakes because it would be sooo much cheaper. Which it totally is. But now I'm trying to round up volunteers to help me decorated all 60 cupcakes. Any takers?

Work still sucks. We're still short staffed and I'm hating it. HATING IT. Like in my body feels like I got ran over by a bus from all the tension and all the bending over the counter. Like in chocking back tears over the stupidest things. Like in getting a mysterious stomach ache on the drive to work that miraculously disappears at 5 pm. My reformed pessimist co worker keeps telling me to be happy. She says "at least you have job security." I liked her better before her seminar. She's asked me if I want to borrow her motivation tapes. I wanted to tell her where to stick her motivational tapes. I only have to make it through 12 more days in hell and then I'm on VACATION!!!!

And not just any vacations, my HONEYMOON!!!! Woohoo. And hell no we're not going anywhere special. We just spent an atrocious amount of money on our "budget" wedding. If we get a tent we'll probably go camping. For one day. 'Cause that's all I can handle. Seriously. But don't worry, we'll take a big trip for our anniversary next year. I'm thinking Hawaii. He's thinking Alaska. Maybe we'll go to Mexico. We'll see :)

Let the festivities begin!

I officially have less than one month until my wedding which means that I'm a busy, busy girl! Friday night my friends from work took me out to the Thunder from Down Under. Oh boy... what a night! First we started with a pre party at Morrison's where they gave me a blow up penis necklace, a pink boa, a veil with devil horns, and a bachelorette sash to wear for the night. The we hit up the show. Ladies, if you ever get a chance you must see Thunder from Down Under!! They are sooo hot! And it's entertaining because they do group dances and stuff while stripping so it's not like one guy dancing around a pole. And of course with all my garb I was the first one called on stage to get a private session with a stripper. I almost died. Literally. I think I died. And not because the guy was so dreamy I couldn't stand it - because I was embarrassed beyond belief! After he made me grab his butt, rub him down, strip his pants off, and dance with him he finally let me go. Oh wait, he ripped by penis necklace off too. Bastard. Anyway... after that was over we moved the party to another bar and did a little karaoke. I finally got home around 1:45 and I think it was probably 2:30 - 3 by the time I fell asleep.

Then I was back up at 8 for the bridal shower! Which was also super fun. We played wedding bingo and then we had everyone tell a story about me which ended up with my mom finding out about a bleached out spot on the carpet of my old bedroom that she never knew anything about. Damn Michelle. I got all kinds of nice gifts and it was a really nice turnout. I was really surprised and happy that everyone could make it.

Now I've got bachelorette party #2 coming up and I'm hearing rumors that I might be in for some more embarassing fun. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't involve any more strippers.....

Then it's the big day! Yeah!!! It's finally here! All that work and it's finally coming into reality. Everyone always asks me if I'm nervous but I'm surprisingly not nervous. At least not yet... As for the relationship we've been living like we're married for over a year now (sharing money and everything) so I won't have much adjusting to do after the marriage. Just gotta get used to signing my new last name is all. The only things I sometimes worry about is that everyone will have a good time at the wedding.

Here's some pics for your viewing enjoyment :-)

Where I come from

The boy and I decided to take a drive today seeings how it's like 90 degrees here in the Sacramento Valley and everything is in bloom. We loaded up the bastards in the back of the truck and headed North West into the coastal range towards East Park Resevoir and Indian Valley (Carina, that's the lake you and I went boating at with my aunt and uncle). Andrew wanted to show me some roads that he used hunt off of instead of taking our normal route through Maxwell so I said sure. At first it was just another bumpy country road and then when he pointed out a particular ranch I realized we'd taken this road before and I hated it because it was in horrible condition and it was extremely narrow along a canyon (as most roads are around here) and he drives entirely too fast for my taste. But it was far too late to turn around so we plugged along. The good news is that the last time we took this route it was summer time and it wasn't nearly as green and pretty as it was this time of year. I have to admit it was gorgeous!

One of the things I love most about where I live is that even though the city of Woodland is getting far too out of control population wise the country is right in our backyard. And save for the scary wild animals that live in the country it's where I much prefer to spend my time during day light hours. I have an unnatural fear of the country at night time because I think a bear/mountain lion/coyote/rattlesnake is going to eat either myself or my dogs. The town where I grew up is at the base of the hills that are at the base of the coastal range. And by the base I mean that the town of Esparto is all mostly flat land but if you drive 1/4 -1/2 mile west you started gaining elevation. Most of my best friends growing up lived in the hills known as the Capay Valley and that's where I spent alot of my time until just recently.

I always love a drive into the hills because it reminds me that the country still exists in this nation. It seems to me that cities are growing at unnatural rates anymore and I fear that my children or grandchilden won't be able to see the beauty of nature the way that I did. I know that even since my parents grew up that sooo much as changed. My dad remembers when there wasn't a freeway that ran through Woodland at all and if you wanted to go to Sacramento (a short 20 min drive these days) you had to drive your car onto a ferry that would transport you across the river. My mom remembers when the highway that is the heart of Yolo County used to be on the other side of the cache creek canyon and when deer outnumbered residents. Even Andrew remembers when he first came to California at age 10 (he's Canadian) that the deer and pigs and ducks where plentiful and now they've been hunted so much that you're hard pressed to find one at all. All we saw today is 5 hours is 1 deer, 3 turkeys, a handful of quail, and a million squirrels. And we went so far up into the mountains that we literally had to turn around because there was so much snow on the mountain still that we couldn't pass through. Crazy!

So here are some pictures of the America that is in my backyard. The sun was high and bright when I took them so it washed the color out and the pictures do not do the landscape justice AT ALL. Notice how the California flower, the poppy, grows like crazy up there! For those of you who have never seen a California poppy they are the prettiest, most vibrant orange you'll ever see. And here's a fact for the day: It's illegal to pick a poppy in California. Looks like these folks better invest in a goat!

It's that time of year again....

For me to post pictures of my dogs and plants because I have nothing better to write about!!!!

I <3 Jasmine

This is the first year my barrel has looked this good!

The coneheads

We'll just stay here while you go to work......

You know you're on meth when.....

You engage the cops in a high speed chase through town and then start shooting at them with a BB gun. Hey smart guy - first of all, a BB gun??? Seriously, why even bother? Second of all, you just opened fire on the police. They are going to shoot back. They have real guns and seeings how they are NOT on meth and are highly trained individuals it's probably not going to work out in your favor.

I regret that I don't have any information on how that one turned out. I would have really liked to know!

So I'm home from work this morning with a backache from hell. I told my boss that I'd try to go in this afternoon and now I'm trying to decide whether or not to actually go. On one hand, if I don't go my work will pile up like crazy and I'll feel bad because Karina is doing the counter by herself and it's her last week. On the other hand, going will probably only make my back hurt worse tomorrow and I keep trying to tell myself that I have to stop being so loyal to those assholes because they don't give a shit about me!

I know y'all are wondering how in the hell a desk job can hurt you back so much. It does. Whoever designed our new counter was on crack I think. First of all our desks are at an angle which kind of makes sense because you don't really want your computer blocking the window. But it's one of those desks that has a space cut out for your legs and the rest is drawers and stuff so there's not a whole lot of leg room if you turn to face the window the right way which means you're always kind of helping people with your back twisted. Plus the counter is like 3 ft away from your desk so everytime someone tries to hand you something they just lay it on the counter and I you have to bend over your desk to get it. So lots of bending forward and turning your torso away from your legs. Multiply that by 100 customers a day, 5 days a week and eventually your back needs a rest. I think I'm going to stay home.

My job sucks right now

Let's see... I hate my job right now. Nothing new there. I just found out that they are putting the NEW girl who starts Monday at the counter with me. New = knows nothing = me doing all the work. How and why they came to this decision I'll never understand. I guess I should be flattered that my boss trusts me to do EVERYTHING but sometimes I can't help but wonder if they're trying to run me out of there. If this wasn't the pattern to my life I would 100% think that.

But here's how things roll in my life: I do what's asked of me (I'd like to say I do it without complaint but I'm not much of a liar). I do it right for the most part. I mean everyone makes mistakes. Everyone else is a slacker so like a freaking idiot I offer to help. Suddenly I start finding myself with more and more responsibility but no extra compensation. Before long I'm busting my ass trying to do my 10 things while my coworkers/classmates/friends/whatever take their sweet time with their 1 thing. I get bitter and pissed off but refuse to ask for help or admit that I can't handle it because I'm afraid of the answers I might get. Then I get completely overwhelmed and start making mistakes. Suddenly my ass is being ridden over stupid little stuff that I know my coworkers do all the time but they don't hear about it because it's "expected" of them. It's not expected of me. I'm expected to be perfect. Always. Just like when I was a kid and my little brother got away with crap that I didn't because I was older and should have known better. Or in school when teachers let slackers fail classes without so much a hiccup but if I don't do my homework or if I get a detention it's a BIG freaking deal. Or when teachers/professors make you work in groups and I'm the only one that does my part and then I end up doing everyone else's part last minute because I don't want to fail on their account. I could name a 100 other examples.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to pat myself on the back or say that I'm super woman or anything else. And I'm not saying that everyone in my life is totally ungrateful either. I'm just saying I'm fried. I'm done. I need a break. I can't handle going to work and doing the job of 3 clerks while waiting on the counter (where 2/3 the customers are assholes) and then coming home and having to be a wife and doggie caretaker. Work is sucking the life out of me. I think I need a career change.

So I know nobody likes these "I hate work" blogs but it feels good to put it in words sometimes. It makes me feel a tiny bit better.

Dear Fate.....

Dear Fate,

I've got a few questions for you. First of all, why do you give me a sinus infection every time I have a three day weekend? And why do you make it worse by making it the three day weekend that was on Andrew's birhday and the three day weekend for my birthday? It just doesn't seem fair. Don't I put up with enough crap while at work? Why should I be miserable when I'm supposed to be enjoying myself?

Secondly, I realize it's kind of funny that both my dogs are wearing cones but it's really starting to bug. Have you ever been plowed into by a dog wearing a cone? I didn't think so. It hurts. Also, I'm having company today and I don't appreciate that I have to set my garbage can on the counter because the cone heads knock it over every 5 mins along with the dining room chairs. I find it especially upsetting that the medication I'm supposed to be giving Cocoa is making her barf and giving her the shits. I refuse to give it to her any longer. And if I wake up a million times tonight to the sound of Cocoa scratching at her cone I'm going to lose it.

And lastly, why did you throw $850 in vet bills at me when you KNOW that overtime money was supposed to help pay for the wedding? Now my parents have to pay for table and chair rentals after we promised we'd pay for it. That's just not nice - not only to me but to my parents. I mean really, what have they done? They're good people, they pay their taxes.

So seriously, lets make this next week a little better ok? Maybe I could win the lottery or something? It would really help. Or if you could just lower gas prices I'd be happy. Everything little thing helps.

Yours Truly,
Sarah

Birthday Recap

Ok listen up 'cause you're only going to here me say this once in my life:

I'm glad my birthday is over.

Not because it was a bad birthday and not because I'm a year older but because I feel like crap and it's been a struggle to get through the day. I don't know if it's massive allergies or a vicious cold but I've had one runny nostril all day, plugged ears, watery eyes, and a head that feels like exploding. And on top of all that my stomach hurts from sniffling while searching for a tissue. I didn't let on that I felt as bad as I do though because alot of wonderful people did alot of special things for me and I didn't want their efforts to be a waste.

To begin, my boss decorated my desk this morning with 3 banners and a shit load of confetti which you know I left on my desk all day long. One of my coworkers, Sue, gave me the cutest wooden angel I've ever seen in my life and brought a massive cake. My counter buddy, Karina, gave me a card and a gift card to Walmart which really surpised me and then I got the usual card that everybody signed.

My mom picked me up for lunch and took me to Judy's where we eat every year on her birthday and mine although she's dieting for my wedding this year so she skipped the greasy burger and fries. I'm not dieting for my wedding. I know this should be a problem but my theory is that I've been fat since I was 8. Andrew met me when I was fat. Andrew loves me even though I'm fat. I'll be fat after I get married so why stress over trying to not be fat for the wedding? As if I don't have enough stuff to stress about?! Anyway....

My two friends took me out to a deliciously expensive dinner at Tazzina Bistro tonight where I had Gnocchi and cobbler. So yummy! We skipped the after party on account of my health.

Andrew gave me a cd and a movie last night and a beautiful card this morning. He works swing shift so I didn't get to see him for lunch or dinner but he's going to take me out tomorrow. Sunday we're having the big dinner at Chevy's with my parents for my birthday and my brother's birthday. Hopefully I'll feel better by then. I plan on vegging out all day tomorrow.

Cocoa AND Gidget are staying over night at the vet. I swear those bastards know when we have extra money 'cause every time we do they end up in the vet. Cocoa is going to be fine. Her swelling has decreased greatly and her sores are from having the wrap on too long. Apparently we were only suppossed to keep her foot wrapped for 5 days but we both heard 10-15. What she has is like bed sores - her foot wasn't getting any air and bacteria was growing in there and all we have to do to fix her up is put neosporin on her foot every night and keep her head in a cone for about 2 weeks. Much better than the $500 tests the emergency vet here in town was going to do. I do thank them for the new antibiotics though because I really think that's why her swelling went down so much so quick. In the midst of all of this we noticed that Gidget kept licking the shit out of one of her back feet so we took her in too. She sliced her foot between the toes along the nail. How she did this I have no idea. I don't even know how the vet found it because Andrew and I both examined her foot and found nothing. That's why they are vets and we are not I guess. So Gidgie had to go under to have her foot sewn up and she too has to wear a cone for 2 weeks. Plus neither one of them can play outside while we're at work until they're all healed up so the poor babies will have to live in their kennels while we're at work. I feel bad 'cause the weather is so nice right now. So I'm going to have two cone heads running around for the next two weeks. Ought to be fun....

Tomorrow may be my birthday... but today it's Things on the Road Thursday!

It's been awhile since I've done Things on the Road Thursday (brought to us by Barnmouse) but this week I have a real treat for y'all. Now bear with me 'cause my camera phone takes shitty pictures and blogger always puts a big white box next to them.....

First off we have the completely saran wrapped car I spotted outside of a Red Robin in Yuba City. Apparently it's this guy's birthday or something because they wrote all kinds of stuff on it in ketchup but I didn't get close enough for a good picture. We actually saw the culprits in action while going into the Red Robin and we got to see the final project when we left. Now if only we had seen the guy's face when he found it.....

Second, we have ourselves a 3 door car. Yes, a car. Not a limo. Not an SUV. Just a ghetto 3 door car. Damn those Yuba City people are creative. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the flames that were painted on the hood or of the 2 trashy looking ladies sporting this fine peice of machinery but you get the point. Someone put alot thought and effort and probably money into this pile of crap.

In other unrelated news my birthday is tomorrow. I'll be 27 in case y'all were wondering. Nothing horribly special planned. My mom is taking me to lunch, my friends are taking me to dinner. Andrew works swing so we'll probably do something on Saturday. Then my folks are taking us all out to Chevy's on the river to celebrate my birthday and my brothers 'cause they are only 2 weeks apart.

Cocoa chewed the wrap off of her foot from her toe nail removal today. All I can say is HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. I couldn't take pictures because someone might have eaten before reading this and they would certainly have lost it. Needless to say we took a $200 trip to the vet down the street because her foot was twice as big as it should have been and had 2 open wounds that weren't anywhere near the stitches. The bastards at the vet made me feel like I abused the poor baby so I choose to just get a new wrap and a new cone and take her to our normal vet. They don't understand that she never once showed signs that it hurt her or bothered her at all. In fact everyone kept commenting on how well she was doing. She hated that place which made me hate it because she normally loves going to our regular vet. So she's going back to our regular vet tomorrow for probably $200 more in work. I have no idea how it got that bad!!! I wish she had just once limped or walked without it or something so I would have known! Poor baby :(

PlanetPluto.com

This nice, lazy eyed fellow just came to my window and told me that he went to the planet Pluto and there was a bunch of women there that were having hot flashes and they went to Pluto to cool off. He asked them how they got there and they said they went to PlanetPluto.com but the trick is that you have to put the .com on it. If you don't you'll fall into the black hole. He thinks they went there because Pluto has recently been recognized as not a planet at all, but just a big ball of ice.

I much prefer the dillusional customers over the mean ones.

Happy Easter!!!

Easter is so ridiculously early this year! But it's a beautiful day here in sunny California and I'm baking a banana cake so I guess it's all alright with me :)

My amazing friend Rashell came over last night to help me finish up my invitations. They are so cute!

The detail on the map and the response card is super cute too but I'm too lazy to take it all apart. Today I have to repo my envelopes from Andrew's mom and tomorrow (hopefully) they go in the mail! Andrew's mom was supposed to calligraphy the envelopes for me so I gave them to her a month ago and as of like Monday she hadn't even started so I'm pretty sure we're going with regular ol' address labels. Oh well, you can't have everything perfect :-)

If dogs could talk....

I would ask mine how in the HELL she managed to get the inside of her cone so filthy in a matter of hours......

Poor baby has allergies really bad on top of her wrapped leg and her cone :(

100 posts and a new Hemi

So this is my 100th post!!!! And just to think that I never thought I had a future in blogging. I never cease to amaze myself. Originally I had planned to have a Happy Spring 100th post and give you some awesome pictures of Woodland in the Spring time but then I had some vehicular drama in the meantime. I'll get to that but I'm going to start with my spring pictures.

Almond trees are HUGE around here. My hometown is home of the Almond Festival

The Trees in the parking lot at work. So pretty but cause so many headaches....

Some random honeysuckles growng wild in my unkept yard
My iris peeking out

Looking out my front door.....

Ok, now on to my vehicular drama. It all begin in the fall when I started noticing a funky smell in our Kia. I kept telling Andrew that it smelt like ass in there and we needed to clean it out really well. I even shampooed the seats thinking that the smell was from having the dogs in there. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned to no avail. It still reeked. Fast foward to the end of February. Andrew and I make the hour drive in pouring rain to have dinner with his folks for his birthday. Dinner is delicious, I have creme brulee (my favorite!!!!) and we drive home in the pouring rain. The next day I go to the grocery store and while I'm packing groceries into my back seat I notice that there's STANDING WATER on the floor boards in the back seat. I immediatly look around to see if there's a water bottle that might have spilt or something but common sense is telling me that a water bottle couldn't possibly have made that much of a puddle. It was the whole back floor board and most of the way under the front seats but there's a raised spot that held the water and stopped it from going into the front where we would have noticed it. I smelt it just to make sure it was water and as far as I could tell it was. Like I said, the whole car smelt like ass so it was hard to say. I got home and alerted Andrew who checked out the situation. He was equally as baffled and while rummaging under the seat he found an old receipt that was 90% black with MOLD. Suddenly the smell of ass makes sense. We then came to the conclusion that there was a leak on the floorboard and that when we drove though the rain our back seat filled up. Since there's only two of us we never really noticed the back seat floor board. So we dry it out the best we can and sure enough the carpet reeks like ass. Now at this point this has been going on for about 5 months and God only know how much mold/mildew has been growing under the carpet between the floor board and the actual carpet. Andrew shows the mold to the mold abaitment guy at work and he says that it's bad mold and it could make us sick and/or kill us. Nice! We don't fret though because we have a Kia and the only good thing about a Kia is the 100,000 mile warranty. So we take it to the Kia dealership and explain the problem. They say no problem, we'll call you in a couple weeks. A couple weeks go by, we get the call, we go to pick the car up. Kia tells us that they could not get the authorization to take out the carpet but they did discover that the door seals were leaking and they changed those. The car now smells like orange flavored ass. So here's the dilema: nobody has pulled the carpet up to dry it out or bleach it out or anything else. The water had been leaking for quite some time and since it was standing when I noticed it it's safe to say it soaked down to the floor board. Mold/mildew thrives in dark, damp environments which the spot between the carpet and the floor is. It still reeks which tells us that there's probably quite a bit of it growing down there since you can smell it through the carpet and it's not exactly a subtle odor. So we talked. And talked. And talked some more. I wanted to keep the Kia and get someone else to change the carpet. Andrew wanted a brand new car. We talked some more. We visited dealerships. The sales people got sick of us because we only looked and never bought. We talked some more. I don't want to eat shit on the Kia which we would do if we traded it in. We talked some more about what kind of vehicle we'd like for our future. We talked about our finances. We talked about how we're paying $700 in car payments right now for two cars (one of which always sits). We talked about how nobody would buy my mistsubishi. Finally we came to this conclusion: Give the dealer both our cars which gets us out of the mitsi with no hassle and no money lost (I owe almost exactly trade in value) and take home a pickup or SUV with at least 4 doors and a tow package. We ended up with this:

It's a HEMI!!! I'd like to say I'm thrilled but I have mixed feelings. On one hand it's an awesome truck. It's used but it has low mileage (it was a lease trade in) and it's fully loaded. It has leather seats that heat up, different air controls for the passenger side and the driver side which I love, a 6 disc cd player, an infinity stereo system with controls on the wheel, cruise control, power everything, a digital thingy that tells you the temp, how many miles you have left on your case tank, what your gas mileage is, what direction you're going, etc. Even the pedals have a control to move them closer or farther away. Dodge's are known for transmission problems so we got a 5 year warranty. It's got a tow package too so we can tow any boats or trailers or anything we might accumulate in the future. And it's fun to drive. My biggest problem is that while it's fun to drive, it's not so much fun for me to park and this is now my everyday vehicle. I'm sure I'll get used to it but for the time being I'll be parking in the south forty and hiking it to the store. I'm content because it will fit the kids that are hopefully in our future and the dogs and all our junk. Andrew's happy 'cause he's a country boy and all country boys need a truck. So we'll see how I feel about it in the future. I'm hoping I come to love it. I already love the amenities :)