Friday, December 21, 2007

Ridding the World of Pests, One Gnat at a Time

For months now, I’ve had a gnat problem in my house. I have done EVERYTHING possible to try to get rid of them, and though I have lowered the count considerably, there are still some stragglers. What’s even more frustrating is that now they’re showing up at work. Am I bringing them with me…possibly. Not sure how exactly. Regardless, they are becoming quite annoying.

Since treating my house plants, getting rid of all fresh fruits and vegetables in the house, pouring Drano down my drains, and putting out bowls of water mixed with vinegar and dish washing soup isn’t ridding me of these pests, I have resorted to hand to hand combat. I have in fact begun slapping at them in the air and killing them by hand. I have already gotten 6 today at work and 4 at home last night.

There has to be a better method, so I’m open to any and all suggestions.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

This is NOT the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I feel I’ve done pretty good keeping Scrooge at bay this holiday season, but today just about did me in.

Because I am doing a little traveling over this holiday season, I decided to take my car in before Christmas and get the oil changed and the tires rotated. My $20 oil change just turned into an $850 one (Tamra, I’m feeling your pain now).

They first called to say that they couldn’t rotate my tires because the steel was showing through on one of my tires (of course it was the cheap tire that I purchased to replace the blown out tire I received on the float trip several years ago.) If that wasn’t bad enough, they told me that all of my struts need to be replaced because they’re leaking grease. One would be tempted to get a new car if it weren’t for the fact that no roommate = less cash flow.

I think what really got me is when I realized that I could replace my stove for half of what I have to pay to fix my car. I guess its better that I found this out BEFORE I took my trip, but it still stinks. I keep telling myself that at least I have a car, and at least I have the money in savings, but I hate taking that much out of savings (of course, that’s what it’s there for). Can you write car repairs off on your taxes? =o)

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Don't Get Excited

Yesterday I spent my entire afternoon looking at wedding rings. Normally, when a single person says something like this, it's supposed to be an exciting thing. Instead, I was looking at wedding rings for a billboard I'm working on for a marriage seminar. There is something very dangerous about asking a single person to design a billboard for a marriage seminar. I'm actually taking a break from said marriage seminar billboard because I still don't like it and I'm hoping taking a break from it will inspire me somehow. I'm not holding my breath.

Monday, December 10, 2007

I Bet You Never Thought You Would Hear Me Say This

To anyone who knows me WELL, you will find the true humor in all of this. On Saturday I made a purchase that I honestly never thought I would make in my entire lifetime…I bought a gun. A Remington 870 20 gauge Youth Series to be exact. My cousin called me on Saturday to see if I could do them a favor. McKensi wants her own gun for Christmas and since her little brother has two they decided it was only fair. Problem was, the one they wanted was on sale this past weekend at Academy and they don’t live near an Academy and couldn’t make it to the city to get it themselves. So it was “Aunt Stacey” to the rescue. =o) I think what is even funnier is that she’s getting this from Santa Claus.

We had some laughs at work because I said if the word got out that I’m now armed, this would probably put the nail in the coffin and confirm that I will be single forever. Mark & Andy pointed out that if I put an NRA bumper sticker on the back of my car and gun rack in the back window, it could possibly help my chances.

Have any of you ever purchased a gun? For obvious reasons, there is a lot of paperwork you have to fill out and a lot of procedures you have to go through. First of all, they asked if my address on my license was my current address – and it wasn’t because I never got it changed after I moved. So I resolved that by making a quick trip to the DMV to get it changed. I know that I did not have any ill intentions for my gun purchase, but still, it seemed a little too easy.

Then I had to fill out all of this paperwork and answer all of these questions asking me if I have a mental illness, or if I’m a stalker, etc. I almost started laughing while I was standing there because I just kept thinking, “If I did/am would I really admit it?” Now granted, they did do a background check on me so if I had incorrectly answered some of those questions, they would have discovered it then (I hope). I really liked the look on peoples’ faces when they saw ME trying to purchase this firearm. Actually, if they really knew me they might have been a little scared. =o) But worry not, I didn’t buy any ammo. I’ll leave that up to her daddy!

As big of a laugh as I’m getting out of this, I will be glad when it is out of my possession and I no longer have a gun registered in my name.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

When Life Give You Lemons...

I had one true goal the day after Thanksgiving…purchase dishes at Kohl’s to add to the ones I already have. I was a little terrified of the crowds, but I thought since Kohl’s opened at 4 a.m., if I waited till a little later in the morning (7 a.m.) then it wouldn’t be AS bad. I’m not sure how accurate that really was, but my dishes were on sale AND I had an additional 15% off that, so I getting my dishes at a really great price. The only problem was that I couldn’t decide on a color. The ones I have already were cobalt blue. At one time I thought about eventually getting 3 different colors…cobalt blue, cranberry, and yellow. But close to Thanksgiving I had started rethinking that decision. So that morning at Kohl’s I was in a quandary which color to get. My mom was kind of pushing the cranberry on me and since there were less cranberry than blue, I decided to purchase the cranberry and think about it a few days and exchange them if I changed my mind.

After a week of indecision, a friend convinced me that if I really couldn’t decide, then I must be leaning towards the blue (she knows me well). So, last Thursday night, I took the sacks of dishes and put them on my kitchen cabinet so that I wouldn’t forget to take them with me on Friday to return them. Friday morning, I went downstairs to leave for work and much to my dismay, the sack with the bowls in it were lying on my kitchen floor. I just stood there afraid that my fear of four broken bowls would be a reality. I finally reached down and felt the outside of the wrapping of each bowl and sure enough. All four bowls were in pieces.

I have no idea what happened. Since I live alone, it’s not like someone else could have knocked them off the counter (though a co-worker tried to convince me I have a critter in the house). I can only assume that one of the bowls wasn’t completely level and must have fallen over at some point (likely aided my by neighbors who slam their front door all the time). Regardless of how it happened, I now had four broken bowls that could no longer be returned.

I was about to throw them out that afternoon when I got home (and had finally come to terms with my loss) when I got the bright idea that I should turn them into some sort of broken dish mosaic like you see on all the design shows. Problem is, I know myself well enough to know that I would never actually get around to doing that. Then I got bright idea #2…sell them on eBay. Jay Leno is always showing random things that sell on eBay for crazy amounts of money. So today I listed my broken bowls on eBay. If they sell, great…maybe I’ll get enough money out of them to replace them. If they don’t, I’m only out $0.40. Wish me luck!