No More Surveys For Me

I occasionally get requests from a particular site asking me to take surveys. I don’t usually have time to take them, but today I needed a break from what I was working on. I’m wishing now I didn’t.

When I came to the end, it asked the typical gender, income, education, questions. When it asked for age, I realized I have moved up an age bracket (depressing) and when it came to the typical marital status question, these were my options:

Single – dating one person
Single – dating several people
Engaged
Married
Divorced
Seperated
Single – not dating

Thank you Mr. Survey Writer for making me answer THAT question. Considering the survey questions, “Single” would have been sufficient.

Worst Movie Ever

I feel it my duty as a citizen of earth to warn everyone to think twice before watching the movie "Blindness". Seriously, I think this replaces "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain" as the worst movie I have ever seen.

It is disturbing in so many ways, but what puts it in my "WORST" category is that the movie has so many holes in it. Lots of questions, absolutely no answers.

Actually, it was so bad that the friend I watched it with and I have vowed to never speak of it again to each other.

5th Time is a Charm

Yes, after 5 (yes count them, 5) attempts, I am finally the recipient of a valid drivers license.

I got my absolute, falling apart, original birth certificate in the mail today. So I left work for what I hoped was my 4th and final attempt to get a new drivers license. After standing there for about 10-15 minutes, it was finally my turn. When I told the lady what I needed to do, she tells me “sorry, but we don’t have anyone in the office today that can help you with that.”

I wanted to cry. Actually I wanted to bang my head on the desk. I looked at the lady and said “Please tell me you’re joking. This is the 4th time I’ve tried to renew my drivers license this week.” She was at least kind and helpful and said she would call another tag agency to see if they had someone who could help me. They did.

When I asked how to get there, they told me it was on an infamous stretch of road around here that is completely torn up and that I would need to take the access road. When I got to where they told me I would find the access road, it was closed. So I take a detour south hoping I could get there another way. Normally I would, but there was a big road crew truck blocking the way. After calling work and getting a phone number and then calling to get directions, I finally reached a destination that not only was able to help me, but they were nice.

Thankfully, no headaches or run around with attempt #5 and I am now the holder of a valid drivers license which expires in January 2013!!!

What Does A Girl Have To Do To Drive In This State?

I’m having a little trouble renewing my driver’s license. Here is how my week has gone.

Tuesday: Go to the dentist and notice while filling out paper work that my driver’s license expired Jan. 31. Like a responsible driver, I immediately go to get it renewed after my appointment. Girl behind the counter informs me (in a not very nice way) that I have to have a birth certificate to get my driver’s license renewed since it expired.

Let me interject and say that in December 2007 I went to get it renewed since I needed to have my new address on my license and it was only a year away from needing to be renewed. I guess (from the way it was explained to me) because it was 13 months instead of less than a year before the one I had expired, they issued me a duplicate instead of a new one…but didn’t tell me that and I left thinking that my drivers license didn’t expire for a few years and I hadn’t looked at it that close until it was too late.

Wednesday: Decided to go to get license renewed (birth certificate in hand) before work. Get to the location and they didn’t open until 8:30 and I didn’t have time to go back before they closed at 5:00.

Today: Take an early lunch to try yet again to get license renewed. Take in certified copy of birth certificate (which by the way I used to get my passport and have used for several other official matters). The certified copy was dated March 1974 and stamped with an official stamp. The LOVELY woman at the Tag Agency looks at it and says “that stamp isn’t raised. I don’t know that you didn’t make a copy of this and that it’s a fake.” To which I explained to her all the things I had used this for and that this was in fact my official copy. So she tells me I can take my passport down to the Department of Transportation and get my license that way. I explained to her my passport expired last year. She then tells me they MIGHT take it and then adds “but you better hope that you don’t get pulled over on your way there because you ARE driving without a valid drivers license.” Yeah, I wanted to hurt her.

As it stands, my mom is getting yet another official copy…with a raised seal…and mailing it over night so that I can try yet again to get my drivers license renewed.

I think what gets me in this whole situation is the joy the Tag Agency workers seem to get in making this situation all the more difficult.

Moral of this story…pay REALLY close attention to your drivers license.

Shall We Gather at the River

So, what do you get when the company replacing the pump on your baptistry forgets to turn the water off and lets it run all night?

A wading pool!

The dark patch on the carpet is how far up it went. About 4 pews back.

This isn't even the deepest spot...this is from the front pew. They're estimating about 6-8 inches of standing water at the deepest point.

If you look close you can see the paint buckling where the water was flowing over at.

No one wanted to volunteer to go unplug this.

I tell about myself

So I got this email at work today:

Hello!!!!
I the lonely girl. To me of 28 years.
I have found yours E-MAIL in agency of marriage.
I have addressed in agency of marriage to find the man.
I have paid to agency of marriage 8 $ to make questionnaire.
I have in a stock there data and a photo. To me have shown photos of several men.
I at once have decided to write to you the letter.
Thus I have found you!
But I search only for serious attitudes, please answer me.
Harmony, understanding and belief also very much it is important. If you interestingcorresponder with me also.
Write to me on my personal e-mail: ##### I hope you to me, you will answer!
Your friend!!

I THINK she needs to ask the company for her money back (actually, I'm quite sure it is some sort of scam).

Belated Birthday

Birthdays are always interesting when my mom gets involved. Let me preface this by saying that my mom and one of my aunts have been cleaning out my grandmother's house lately to help my uncle get it ready to sell. They've run across some interesting stuff in the process. They've also run across a lot of pictures. My mom found this picture when they were going through stuff:

This was at my grandmother's house a LONG time ago. She never threw anything away, so there were all kinds of old clothes that we used to play in. This was my chosen attire for the day. And during the cleaning out process, my aunt found the dress...so they wrapped it up and gave it to me with this picture for my birthday. Just what I always wanted!!! ;o) Not sure who the dress orignially belonged to, but it was definately someone smaller than I am now.

Thankfully, that wasn't my only birthday present. I'll get a lot more use out of this one:

When searching for this image of the Shark Steam Mop, I found a review site that had mixed reviews. People either love it or hate it. So far I love mine. I didn't have to work as hard to mop my floor and my back didn't hurt when I got done (and I have lots of floor to mop). And it didn't leave a sticky residue like other things I had tried. I tried other methods and so far this one has been my favorite. But I have only used it once, so feel free to check back with me if you are interested in getting one.