authority?

http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=3527172

Oscar Party

I was invited to an Oscar Party. Never before has this been! I don't go to the movies very much and yesterday was packed with things for me to do already. I had church and then a meeting from 2:30p to 5:30p. I almost declined the invitation. But.... I don't get invited many places, so could not bear to turn down the invite to have a good time with great friends.

I had a really good time. I have not seen any of the movies that were up for an award. NONE of them. We all had ballots and I filled mine out based on TV commercials and news reports, and gossip.

It was fun to see the dresses and hair, and the suits. We made a lot of comments about the suits and ties the men wore. Almost as much as we commented about HORRIBLE dresses most of the women wore. (a few were ok).

I have to say this though: What the heck is it with Sarah Jessica Parker. I was afraid for her. She could barely breathe without having a MAJOR WARDROBE MALFUNCTION.

YIKES!!!!! I just hope she was not in too much pain peeling off the massive amounts of double sided tape that must have been holding her into that dress.

Again, I had a great time!!!!!

Grace: 10 of 365

1. invite to Oscar Party
2. fun people to watch with
3. taco bar
4. random Oscar trivia
5. Sean Penn winning for MILK

Thought this was appropriate for many people I know!

2PM Now He Walks the Halls in a Long Black Veil

Peon #1: My husband's Xbox died last night.
Peon #2: Oh, how sad. Were they close?

Sacramento, California

via Overheard in the Office, Feb 23, 2009

My Wordle

this site is really cool... it takes words from your blog and puts them into a kewl graphic montage...

http://www.wordle.net/

Freaky!

In reading over my post from yesterday and the rodents... I realized I use the word FREAK a lot!

Grace: 9 of 365

Ok -- I know I have blogged a bunch today. But, it was REALLY slow and boring at work today!

1. D-CON
2. mouse traps
3. rat traps
4. fly swatters
5. ant poison

And I don't want to hear from any of you PET* people! (astrick included so they can't search me out!!)

You try waking up with a mouse in your bed!

City vs. Country, What's a Girl to Do?

I am a city girl, or at least I like to think so. I grew up in Sacramento. Born and Raised. Some might not think I should brag about that, but I am happy here. For a year I lived in Allentown, PA. I was 13-14, it was okay. I was in exile and that is a story for another time.

While growing up in Sacramento I would have the occasional visits to the family farm where my dad was born and raised. I told myself at the time that I would never, ever live in the COUNTRY. There were bugs and dirt, of the kind that I did not want to ever experience on a daily basis. And, they didn’t have REAL heat or air-conditioning… just a wood stove and the nasty swamp coolers. I put up with the country in those small doses, and then went back home to the city.

I lived at the family farm for few months when I was 18 and once awoke to what I thought were muscle spasms in my forearm and when I opened my eyes found a mouse pinned beneath my arm. I screamed, he squeaked, and when I lifted my arm he ran off. I don’t know who was more freaked out, the mouse or me…?


Well, life happens, and God throws a curve-ball! I ended up living in the country for a huge chunk of my life. I have lived other places too… I lived in Laguna Beach, Orange County, from years 19-22. It was ok, but it was not home, so I moved back home. Ended up in Yuba City, which is a city, but very rural.

But the majority of my life I lived in the country…from the time Charlie was about 1 until just very recently 2.5 years ago… so that would be about 16 years.

When we first moved from Yuba City, Charlie was just a little over 1 year. We moved into a single-wide trailer on the farm. This place had a swamp cooler that worked when it felt like it, no heat to speak of because the heating ducts were all torn out under the trailer. The septic backed up when it rained heavily. There were mice running around the place like crazy. We learned to share our living space with the mice. It was not too bad. I had a constant container of D-CON on the stove top, and I would sit in my chair in the living room area and watch the mice come up thru the gas burners and sit, munching on the D-CON. It was ok, because I knew that would be one of their last meals.

I really freaked out the time a POSSUM came thru the front of the under-sink cabinet into the kitchen. Just pushed the door open, and was gonna just make himself at home, until I screamed like a FREAK. I was really freaking out because I heard some banging of the cabinet door before I saw his head poke through. If you have ever seen a possum up-close or from afar even, they are nasty, fierce looking freaks of nature.




I lived at one time in a 23 ft camp trailer with no running water or toilet facilities for about 4 months at one time, hooked up to electric with an extension cord. At that place when we did have to use the toilet we went outside and into an abandoned single wide mobile home, and used the toilet there; that’s also where we used the shower. It was winter, rainy most of the time and really cold. We (all three of us) slept in the same bunk. Not very comfortable, but it was better than in our station wagon on the side of a road somewhere.

Then we rented an abandoned crack house, (seriously), and lived there for a while, trying to fix it up. That was in the country just outside of Sacramento, directly under the Sacramento International Airport flight path. We were a mile from the airport. That was interesting. From there we moved into a 2 bedroom house, with a fenced yard. We lived there for 8 years. It was great. The landlord was decent, the rent was cheap, it was a mile from the family farm. It still had ants and mice and flies. But it was really nice.

Then we bought a house which was a converted barn. Really, it use to be a barn. When we bought it (our first home) it was set up as a duplex, with two studios, one apartment down and one up. It was so small that there was not any realistic way to enclose the stairs, so we spent 3 years going outside and up the stairs to get to the bedrooms. Hey, you work with what you have right!?! The septic for that place really, really could not handle any amount of rain. So for two winters, which were horribly heavy rain years, we could not use the toilets. They would back up and it was nasty. We rented a porta-potty both those winters. You guessed it, we would have to go out in the rain in the middle of the night, go down the outside stairs in the rain, and around the side of the house to a dry spot where the potty was set up. One night the wind blew so hard the potty tipped over. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

My hubby and I split up soon about half way thru the 3 years we owned the house and I was quite happy with selling it and moving on. I moved on by moving back in with dad at the family farm. My life is like a concentric spiral. Do you see the pattern????

I lived with my dad for about 8 months before my car broke down and I moved back to town, finally. Is the circle complete? Will I spend the remaining years of my life in the city? Stay tuned. I am sure I will be answering that question in the years to come.

Oh… I started out writing this because I wanted to talk about something completely different than I ended up with here. Strange how that works out. I wanted to write about how this past Saturday, Charlie and I were standing in my bedroom and Charlie looked out the window and said “Mom, I just saw a big mouse out there.” Yep, there is a RAT living under the slab of concrete which is my patio, in the city. It looks a bit like this:




SIGH. Gotta love it.

Thought This was CUTE!

12PM You Should Write This Stuff Down, Sir
Assistant to boss: I need to leave early today for a dentist's appointment. Would that be okay?
Boss: Sure, is at 2:30?
Assistant: 2:30?? No, it's at 3.
Boss: Well, it should be at 2:30.
Assistant: Why?
Boss (chuckling): Because you're tooth hurty. Get it? Two thirty, tooth hurty.
Assistant: Are you kidding me?

Dallas, Texas
via Overheard in the Office, Feb 18, 2009

My 3's

Now , here's what you're supposed to do...

(Do it when and/or if U havetime)Hit forward, delete my answers and type in your answers. Then send thisto awhole bunch of people you know INCLUDING the person who sent it to you.U all know what the theory is, the theory is that you will learn littleknown facts about thosewho think they know you. * Don't forget to send it back to the person who sent it to you.

Three jobs I've had in my life:

1. data entry

2. California Relay Operator (for hearing impared)

3. gas station attendant (3 glorious months! between REAL jobs)

Three places I've lived in my life:

1. Allentown, PA

2. Laguna Beach, CA

3. Yuba City, CA

Three Places I've been this week:

1. church

2. DMV

3. KFC

Three people who email me regularly:

1. karen

2. iris

3. sharon

Three of My Favorite Foods:

1. Chinese

2. Pizza

3. Ice Cream

Three of My Favorite Books:

1. Gone with the Wind

2. any Nora Roberts, JD Robb books

3. any Janet Evanovich

Three Places I'd Rather be:

1. cross stitching

2. at and awesome concert (ROCK and ROLL, BABY!)

3. a warm, not HOT, beach .. prefer with a little breeze and someone making me Margarita's!

Three Friends I Think Will Respond:

1. karen

2. jaime

3. jamie

Three Things I am looking forward to:

1. retirement

2. winning the lottery that I don't play!

3. Death

PASS IT ON!!!

Grace: 8 of 365

1. puffy clouds in the sky

2. umbrellas

3. rain (we need it... a lot... )

4. hot chocolate

5. valentine's candy - on sale!

DMV Drama, not so much, but dang the wait is long

I stood in line at DMV yesterday for an hour. This was just to get a number so that I could sit in the lobby for another hour. Then my number was called and I got to go to Window 17, turn in some paperwork, and then go to Window 15 to pick up the tags for my car. 2 hours to turn in paperwork and pick up tags. I took a half day vacation to do this! and it was the third time I have gone thru this process in the past couple of months.

I was talking with a co-worker about this and another butted in saying "You can do almost everything online." This is NOT true, only partially true. If you know 2 months IN ADVANCED then you can do many things online with DMV. However, for things that happened suddenly, like getting a car and having to get title transferred, etc, then you have to go in spur-of-the-moment.

The first time that I had to go in was because I knew I was getting a car and my driver's licence was expired (over a year) and so I had to go in to get it renewed. I stood in line, I sat in the lobby, I went to a window and got a written test, took the test, took my picture and was out of there. 2 hours or so that visit.

The second time was after I got the car. I had to go in and pay the title transfer fees, and stood in line and sat in the lobby, paid $166 and was told that I need to get the car SMOGGED and bring back the paperwork, or I could mail in the paperwork. I was also told I had until Feb. 18 to get it done. No Problem. That was two weeks ago.

I took the car to the SMOG shop and it failed. So then I had to figure how to get it fixed and smogged. I talked with the lady that sold the car to me and we took the car into the shop where she had it serviced. I needed a sensor/computer thingy (or 3 possibly!). The shop did not have any in stock and it may take a few days. So, I waited and got the car back from the shop after 2 days.

Because computer thingy was replaced, the computer memory needed to be reset before I could get it tested at the smog shop again. This, I was told, required me to drive the car at least 100 miles. Not always an easy thing to do during the week, when I have nothing much planned and the worst storm of the season playing out.

I finally hit the 100 mile marker. I let Charlie get a lot of practice driving during the past week! Took the car in and it passed smog. Yippee!!! Now I could take it into DMV and get my title transfer complete and my new tags! But.... it was a holiday weekend AND with the budget in CA sucking the way it does right now (meaning NO BUDGET figured out) and with CA doing work furloughs, DMV is closed on the 1st and 3rd Fridays each month.

So, I stood in line on a Tuesday of a 3 day DMV work week.

Oh, we (Charlie and I) also found out that their behind the wheel tests are booked out over a month already. That would explain why when we DID GO ONLINE to make an appointment for Charlie to take his behind the wheel test -- THERE WERE NO APPOINTMENTS available for the office we need.

We can make an appointment for YUBA CITY or SOUTH SACRAMENTO for March 16 and beyond. Charlie does not know the area for S. Sac and would be hecka nervous driving there. Yuba City, he knows the area, but it is a 100 mile drive round trip... so, we wait.

He needs more practice anyways!

Grace: 7 of 365

1. Windshield wipers

2. the hawk I saw from my bedroom (don't see them often "in town")

3. RAIN! (we need it soooo much)

4. brake lights!

5. naps

Rough Day

I was talking with a friend who also has a child with PDD-NOS under the autism spectrum. We started talking about the frustrations of dealing with homework and school, and what will our child do in life...

Then the conversation progressed to daily living with our child. And the lack of friends that our children have. It makes me so sad. I started to cry and had to go back to my desk where I sobbed for a couple minutes.

Some people just don't understand what it is like to have a special needs child and I HAVE TROUBLE WITH UNDERSTANDING IT TOO. Some days are wonderful and we have a great relationship. Charlie and I can talk about all sorts of things. Then there are those days that are a trainwreck, and we have to go to different locations in the house to calm down.

Every parent wants their child to be happy and productive and it hurts so much to see him unhappy and unproductive, and floundering. Of course I am also unhappy, unproductive and floundering -- and twice his age.

I told my friend that I had really dropped the ball with raising my son, getting him benefits and help that he will need to get him through life. I will be honest. I have trouble getting through my own days sometimes, much less dealing with getting through my son's day.

I hate seeing my son feel crappy. He says "everyone I know blocks me out and shuts me down when I am talking" ... and we do. I know it, he knows it, everyone knows it, but still we behave badly. And then we go on... behaving badly.

I guess the first step is knowing, the 2nd is actively working on change...

I remain...

Grace: 6 of 365

1. my new car

2. church lady who sold me the car

3. my friend/pastor

4. cell phones

5. text messaging!

Sometimes this just seems too silly, but while on the surface some things seem almost too stupid to put on my list, they really made a big difference to my life!

Grace: 5 of 365

1. TGIF (not the movie but the sentiment)
2. TGIF's - the restaurant
3. Boneless chicken wings
4. Bleu cheese dressing
5. mouthwash

Water vs Snow

I was watching the local news the other day when they measured the snow pack to see how much trouble we will have with drought. The snow pack was quite low and they are talking about drought measures that may need to be taken... things like watering lawn, not flushing as often, no boating on the lakes.

I had a random thought pop in my mind as they showed the background of the story -- skiers going down the snowy mountain side. I thought to myself "I wonder how much water it takes to make the snow that they are skiing on." Because of the lack of snow so far this season many of the resorts make their own snow. I want to know where they get that water??? Do they drain local reservoirs? Take it out of Lake Tahoe? American River run off?

I would like to see the numbers. How many gallons of water is wasted so that people can ski?

Autism Sunday

This Sunday, February 8, is Autism Sunday.

Please visit this site for more information. It is pretty easy. Just pray for those with Autism, in all its forms. This can be an organized prayer, or individual. It seems more and more people are being diagnosed with Autism. It is likely that you know one or more people already who are Autistic.

Grace: 4 of 365

I am falling a little behind here.

Still sick, but it seems to be getting better, except for the stuffy head.

1. after prodding I must add Orange Juice to my list...
2. electric blankets
3. my kitty cat
4. weather that is so nice I can open the window and let the apartment air out
5. water cystals!