You know I'm no longer there, right?

I've had a few inquiries... so quick note. I got dragged back to NH.

Yeah. I'm wicked happy to go from bright, shiny Houston to freeze-my-ass-off NH. Can I say that I've actually had dreams about being back there? I simply loved Houston. I loved the shopping.. the warmth.. the palm trees... *sigh* pretty much all of it.

Hate the cold here, the lack of glamor (Which is ever present in Houston - other than bums.. they weren't all that glam)

Anyway... I'm keeping this for posterity. Thanks for reading ;)

332 - 331 - work, fun and fire ants

Friday:

Friday was rather uneventful. I got a lot of work done, met a nice girl on break. I talked to her about the storms the day before. I told her I had been totally freaked out, she said Ohh... just wait til we have a real hurricane! (seems like I don't have long to wait)

There were storms today too. Not like the Tropical storm from yesterday, but some interesting ones. The storm blew in and then blew out... then another one. Watching them come and go from so far up high was really neat.






I went into the tunnels to go to the bank. No problem with that at all. Made it there and back and didn't take one wrong turn. It's nice to go down there to get places in the city. I like walking topside - the city is so clean and pretty... but there are the homeless, and as I've said before, they irk me. Down in the tunnels there are no homeless. Apparently they're not allowed in. I've been down there quite a few times and never seen any.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. Didn't go out, just lazed around.

Saturday:

Oooh we had fun :)

We left the house a bit early (not early for me, early for the two sleeper-inners), stopped and got water, and went off to the Museum of Natural Science. Today was Museum Free Day. A bunch of the museums participate in it. You go, it's free, and the Metro system has free shuttles between them. Way cool! Of course, about 50 billion other peeps think so too. So we went to the Nat. Hist. Museum, which was fun. We saw the dinosaurs and the gem exhibit... it was neat. Even more neat was that that museum is on the edge of Hermann park. SO pretty. Texas knows how to do parks, just let me say that. Fountains, all sorts of neat stuff, a cute little train that take s people around, and a Japanese tea garden. We walked over after seeing the museum (Slowly since as I've said before, Houston is about 22 inches away from the sun - 98 deg, 89% humidity. ugh) We walked around in the tea garden and really had a nice time. Pictures below:

We were all tired and super hot, and pretty hungry after that, so we went to the West Gray Cafe and had a late breakfast. After that we went off to hunt down some plants and supplies for a watergarden I'm planning. Then home for awhile to cool off and relax. Chels still wanted to check Home Depot for some plants for her little container garden she's planning... and I had seen some place called "Cactus King" that I had said I wanted to go see ... it looked kitchy and obnoxious, and plus, I like cacti... so off we went.

Cactus King really was cool - we were the only ones there except one kinda sketchy scary guy who I think owned the place. We wandered around and I was liking it until we hit the last green house. Some of you will totally understand this... If The House of 1000 Corpses had a green house... this is what it would look like. I walked in and instantly thought, "Yup... we're about to get fucking axed and ground into plant food". I said to Chels... "Umm.. do you feel like you just walked into a Rob Zombie movie?" She said "Heh. Yeah. I like it, but it's creepy".

There were neat art projects everywhere around the entire place, but in here there were ones with mannequin pieces/body parts all over in this green house. It was pretty delapatated, falling apart, pieces of wire and rope holding it together, twisty and turny a bit, leaking... so dripping here and there. A video camera duct taped in the corner. It was freakin creepy as hell.

I didn't get axed. I did get attacked by red freakin' ants. Have you been bitten? Friggin' hurts!! It felt like my foot suddenly caught fire. I looked down and had 5 or 6 on me, between my toes and on top of my toes. Course, I freaked, knocked them all off and was like "we're out of here"... then unfortunately stuck my damn foot back into my flip flop to take off, and guess what.. still a couple there. arrrg!!! So that hurt like hell.

We left there and went to Home Depot. I got a couple of adorable plants. Yay :) Then we went to Walmart because apparently Texas doesn't sell herb plants or seeds.. wtf? Anyway, Walmart (or at least this one) was about the skankiest place I've been to. I mean, skankier than normal (All Walmarts are skanky and filled to the rim with the worlds shuffling, moaning, unwashed masses) I was actually fairly certain that I was going to die. Me, Chels and maybe three other people were english speaking. The rest werent', and they weren't looking too friendly. Anyway... went out to the nursery there to look at their plants. Looked down and realized that there were a gazillion of them damn ants in there. So I took off quick, expecially since my foot was still throbbing horribly.

We stopped at Randall's on the way home, grabbed a movie and some dinner, and came home. I took a VERY long shower. Bugs freak me out.

How we're happy and hanging out :)

335 - 334 - 333 - heat rain BOOM!

Tuesday:
Tuesday I ended up staying home and working. Wasn't feeling perfect, and really, for some reason the idea of going into the Tower was just too much for me. I barely had anything to do since I'm waiting on a gazillion other people who seem to have no intention of getting me stuff, so screw it. I didn't want to go. I stayed home and worked and was Oh so much happier for it.

Had another Nerf gun fight :) Played with the kitties. Poked at the family. Went to bed early.

Wednesday:

This was an OK day. Work dragged (shock) I whined at Kelly for quite awhile. I have no one to speak to during the day so I figured, meh.. may as well talk at Kelly for awhile. I went down into the tunnels to go to the bank (because it was 75bazillion degrees out) and got lost. heh. I didn't really mean to get lost, I meant to go straight to the bank and back. But I went straight instead of taking the last turn by mistake, ended up waay far away from where I wanted to go. So I had to go topside to find the building. I believe I melted a tad since I live about 22 inches away from the face of the sun. I did find the bank, and walked back via tunnels fine. I realized when I left the bank that had I made the right turn, I would have been there about 15 minutes before I made it there taking the wrong turn. heh. But still. Made it.

Came home early to take Chels to a job interview at Buffalo Exchange. She did great! She got a second interview on Thursday :) Sooo cool. She kicks ass, yeah she does.

We had sort of a fend for yourself night. I didn't feel like making a dinner, so we all picked what we wanted and ate that.

No Nerf gun fight tonight. Just hung out and watched CSI (per usual).
Thursday:

Woke up at like 5 when the loudest clap of thunder ever burst into the house. I woke up and watched the news and they said "Tropical Storm Evan" was going to hit the coast of TX. They were showing a lot of Galveston. Galveston is pretty close, so I knew we'd get some. I got ready and went to work.

Being 44 floors up in a tropical storm is sort of like having seats in the dugout for a baseball game. Sure, you get to see everything, but there are bats and balls and sweaty players flying all over and you're not quite sure you're safe.

At first it was simply dark and driving rain. Then the thunder came. It was HUGE. I ended up calling the mothership and putting them on speaker phone so they could hear how loud it was. One of the peeps thought I was making the noise myself. SO loud! I hung up for awhile and we were IM'ing, looking at photos on the weather channel website of the storm. I said "Look... see the biggest baddest part? Thats me!" It was right on top of me.

I thought that was the loudest it could get, but it got far louder. I was sitting there looking out my huge bank of windows and saw black coming. It was kind of surreal. I instantly thought of the book "The Fog". Something dark and evil being in the fog and coming to swallow me up. It got closer and closer... finally everything was black outside those windows. But there was lightening in that black. It would flash and light up the cloud, although that cloud was so dense that it really never penetrated the entire thing. that's when it was the loudest. The shades in the windows would rattle and car alarms were going off all around in the various parking garages that surround the tower like a moat. So many sirens going off all over too. Loud loud loud.

The clouds lifted a bit and I saw a bolt of lightening hit the building next to me. (where the crazy windshield washers usually are) I believe it only hit a lightening rod, though. I watched and there wasn't any smoke or anything.

I called back to the mothership again... wanted to tell them and to let them hear the thunder which was still so loud. We were looking at some of the various reports online and saw that there were flash flood warnings. The more I saw the more I decided that heading home was a good idea. All the streets they were saying were nearby. 8 blocks... 5 blocks... too close. The warnings were saying "stay away from downtown"... well pfft. I'm already near it, may as well go home.

I went down the elevator and one of the guys on it said that he was headed home. I said I was "Crying Yankee" and getting out. I said "it's flooding out there" he said "yeah, good to leave now before the power goes out." I said "Ugh.. being here in the dark wouldn't be much fun" he said "Walking down 44 flights in the dark with 1000 other people wouldnt be much fun either" ew.. hadn't thought of that.

I got to the car... I had parked in the expensive lot so I could use the tunnel rather than hoofing it in the rain. When I was leaving there was a woman at the booth (cute little old black woman) I said "How're you today?" she said "Oh I'm blessed, child, blessed". I said "Well me too". She said "This is true, this is true, aint we all?" She handed me my change and said "Now you turn left to go home, you hear? It's bad out. Flooding every where. You be careful going home". I asked her to do the same. Sweet little lady.

The streets weren't that frightening. Not as scary as it was way up high. There were a few flooded streets and such, but the ride home was easy. I got home and worked for awhile, listening to the rain on my skylight and the thunder. I watched a bit of news... tons of flooding. Cars under water and all.

Now here's my "wtf are these idiots thinking?" rant. Doods... when faced with 2 - 3 feet of water in the road: stop your freakin' car. Now... when faced with 2 - 3 feet of water in the road AND you see huge assed SUV's and trucks stalled out in there? DO NOT drive your old as crap Cavalier into the same water. Do you honestly think your little crap box is going to make it when the big new SUV didn't? Moron.

OK. Anyway. Chelsea's interview went well. We should hear something next week.

We went to the grocery store and I decided to park underneath so we wouldn't get rained on. Duh. kinda flooded down there. heh.

I had a chance to talk to my brother tonight. That was nice. He's a smart guy. Made me feel a bit better about work.

I made dinner and now Chels and Ray and I are watching "The Fountain". So far I don't suggest you seeing it. It's kind of a drug trip mixed with alot of sad shit. Pretty movie, really. Kind of interesting. Not sure if I hate it or like it. meh.

btw... We have a Hurricane scheduled for next Tuesday. Weeee!!

336 - Happy Anniversary To me! (and Ray, and Chels)

Today is our family's second anniversary :) Two years ago today Ray and I got married, and Chelsea got a new step daddy. We all stood up while we got married, because it was our feeling that we all were being joined, so she should be part of it.

The difference between anniversaries now, as opposed to my first marriage is amazing. Before, it was a marking of time... almost a "Sweet dear lord I did this another year? Wtf is wrong with me". Now it's a celebration. A Yay! Only two years! We have SOO many more of them! It's like our relationships birthday.

So, I worked, came home early to celebrate.

I bought Ray Nerf Guns. (two of them) and some ammo. Ok. Guns for an anniversary? Yeah. What a blast! Chels and I ended up going out to get her one too so we could all blast away at each other. This house is perfect for Nerf Gun fights. We had two major skirmishes, no winner really (although I think I'm the winner because I was smart enough to start hoarding all the 'bullets' so the other two were almost ammo-less... all's fair!) We did fun things like shoot them up to the top level of the house, get them stuck, have them fall down and scare the cat. (way fun) I shot a few at the ceiling fan... ended up getting two stuck. We all shot at the fan trying to knock down the stuck ones. Got 4 more stuck. heh. I went and got the huge telescopic pole light changer thingy and knocked them down.

The Roxie cat got lost today. (She does often) She was upstairs crying. She would meow, I'd yell "polo!", then she would meow, and I'd yell "polo!"..... it was quite obvious to the trained Cat person she was playing marco-polo.

My husband, the greatest man ever to walk this earth, bought me an incredibly beautiful silver cuff bracelet. SOOO pretty! It's shiny and pretty and I LOVE it. :) Here's a pretty pretty picture;









Chels and I went to Salvation army. We always went to the one in Nashua, so we were kind of itching to go to the one here to see what it offered. It was actually very nice inside (unlike the one in NH) I bought the nicest bag, Chels got some funky stuff. All was good.

We had another huge Nerf blowout when I got home. Way fun :)

Then we went off to the Firkin and Phoenix for dinner. SO yummy! We had fun. They had a special up on the board called "Nutless Turtle Cheesecake". Of course, we had to ask the waiter how they found all the nutless turtles, and if the process of pulling their little legs apart to check their 'nuts' was difficult. The waiter was great and answered back that they get them from the vets down the street... they just have them neutered before delivery. Far easier than checking. *snicker* Also, prodded by my OH so terrible family, one certain blogger sneakily removed the P from the board. The board said "Pass it Around!" That's not what it said when we left >:D

We came home, watched some cool Japanese game show on G4 (Women Ninja Challenge) and had some Champagne. I always buy us the Champagne we had on our honeymoon. It's my favorite. It (of course) gives me a headache and makes me tired, but it's worth it. I let the kidlett have some as well, since our Anniversary is her celebration too. We all sat on the couch discussing how lucky we are and how happy we are with our little homemade family and then turned in for the night.

It was a really good day :)

339 - 338 - 337 - A brief overview

Friday:

wasn't terrible, got work done, blah blah.

OH... I did get to see something neat. I'm 44 floors up, and I watched a huge bright yellow butterfly flit by my windows. I thought that was amusing for some reason.

Friday night we went to Felix's restaurant. Mexican. Good! Been around for ages and ages. We liked it a great deal.

Saturday:

Saturday I did some cleaning, Chels and I went to Ikea to get her a desk, I got my haircut pretty short (wicked cute, I'll take a picture, Ray isn't too keen on it really)

I went to Venus Hair, Ohmygosh what a cool place! Chels and I hadn't explored "The Heights" yet so going out there was just the coolest thing. Tons of huuuge old trees and big brightly painted victorians. It was just very pretty.

That evening Ray and Chels and I went to "Whataburger". Its like McDonalds or Burgerking, but different.. different meaning Holy CRAP what a good hamburger!! These burgers (and fries) totally blew away any other fast food restaurants. The fries remind me of McDonalds fries before they started to taste like ass. SOO yummy!

Sunday:

Today was normal, did a lot of cleaning. Wanted to get the woodwork and such done, which I did. Watered the garden, was baffled at the heat. 99, but the heat index was 110 and over. Holy crap! Hot hot hot.

Ray and Chels went out to go to the mall to get me an anniversary gift. Apparently they got lost, so it took them hours n hours. Chels and I went back to the mall so I could get something for Ray, but we got there at like 6:50pm, and apparently the mall closes at 7pm. grr. So off to Target. I found something fun for him there :) Tonight we are CSI'ing (as usual) and eating pizza.

Ok... pictures:



This is where I have ciggies at the tower

This is Whataburger (finally, truth in advertising!)

Pussy for Dinner! *snickersnort* Ray and I were out having a cig, I looked in and there's Roxie, hanging out in my pasta dish. heh. She's a goober.

And finally; Chelsea bein' cute :)

340 - The week is almost over... almost...

First off, my birthday is coming. Someone buy me this or I'll simply die. I'll die I say! Ok... maybe not that. But Fam, look at my Kaboodle (gifts for me list) for the stuff I want.

As usual, work is completely sucking the life outta me. But that's normal, so really why discuss that, eh?

So, I onto more pleasant things...
I am on an email list for a client, and these peeps were talking amoungst themselves (because apparently they forgot I'm on there) about how our seo stuff. One of the guys was all freaked about us putting links to one site from their individual sites. He was all exclaimation pointy and such... So, since I have a good relationship with the main contact over there, and I happen to know this guy is a super smart ass, I emailed one of the nutty quotes from the freakin' out guy with a note after saying "A bit dramatic? OH NOOO We're DOOOmed! Doooomed I say!!! Soylent green is people.... soylent green is PEOPLE!"

I get a note back quoting some scifi writer, and off we went into the land of geekdome. Anyway.. it was fun, and I got him laughing and agreeing that too many chefs in a website spoil the whole thing.

Tonight I was peeking at CraigsList at jewelry. I saw the heading for a ring that sounded super pretty and cheap, so I clicked. The ring is soo pretty. The price is soo good. They're nearby. I decided against it though. Know why? I'm a shallow bitch, that's why. I won't buy it because the womans' hand and nails in the picture were nasty. Not dirty, just not well cared for. So I don't want to wear a ring that some person who doesn't care for herself would wear. I thought about it after and realized I'm just not nice most of the time. But seriously.. ladies... don't take a picture of you wearing a ring with your nails undone and your hands all wrinkley. If you have wrinkly hands, put the damn ring on the table and take a picture of it. Don't put it on your nasty hands. ew.
Since I'm on the subject of things I hate... here are a few things never to do (especially if you come to my house) because I swear I'll mock you publically as well as slap the dickin's out of you;

1. Do Not put your feet on my table. It's nasty, don't do it. Seriously it makes me gag.
2. If I'm in the bathroom, do not holler at the door. It's just ignorant. Unless the house is on fire or you're head is falling off, or there's a midget at the door for me to mock, wait til I'm out.
3. Do not eat food off my plate. I swear to God I'll stab your freakin' hand with my fork.
4. Do not yell. My house echos and I swear we all have good hearing.

.... meh... the list is so damn long I can't even type them all.

It was HOT hot hot today. The weather I put up doesn't tell it like it is... the heat index was like 101. So maybe it just got to 95, but it felt 101. heh.

Tonight we went out to grab Burger King. We hadn't had that in along time so it sounded like a good idea. I made it there ok. Made it back ok. Took a few one way streets (I do that quite a bit, not as much as I blow through stop lights, but I do it. )

We played Myth game. Eh. It was ok. Lucy was SOoo funny. There are little chips that go with the game and for some reason she didn't want us to touch them. We would reach for oneand she would slap us (she never uses claws) she was like a little wee dragon guarding gold.

(Here's a picture of Lucy guarding her chips. )

OH... and you should see the hot car that's parked outside my garage (in the alley). This thing is gorgeous!

Chels took a bunch of pictures of this for her dad, but I thought I'd pop one in here too!

340 - Customer Service Tards

Today was pretty ok. Not amazing, but I seem to be pulling out of my pissy mood. (Not totally - so watch it)

Woke up and did the usual, nothing major. Got to work ok. I'm starting to think that I really would like to have a dress down day at work. heh. People 'dress down' on Fridays... Jeans, but dressed to the nines other than that. I so want a day to walk in with flip flops and a tee shirt. (and a skirt or something... not just flip flops and a shirt. that would be way too dressed down).

*sigh*

Anyway. I had changed my insurance to my new address today. I had to do that so I can register my car here so I can get a license (seems backwards, hm??) Anyway, I got the quote for the change, which was 300 bucks less than what I was paying. I said "Yay!" and accepted the quote. SO.. then I check the payment schedule and it shows that it's $30.00 more per month :/ wtf? So I call Geico and ask what's going on. Apparently if you're in NH you have a year policy, which lowers your monthly payment alot. If you're in Texas, its only a 6 month policy. So my way lower quote isn't way lower, it's only for 6 months. *sigh* Oh well. I got a good policy. Tossed in the extra for car rental and such. Now I have to find out if I can claim my windshield or not.

Anyone at work wanna do me a favor and make sure that someone, anyone, keeps me in the loop as to what's going on? No one tells me anything. Drives me mental.

I got an email from Tigerdirect, the place I had put an order in for a Parallel to USB cable for the printer in the tower (which is antiquated and doesn't hook up to my laptop) it says "the address you gave us doesn't match the address on your billing statement, the order will not be placed until you clear this up" well damnit. The mothership changed the billing info on my credit card and didn't bother telling me (Holy Shocking! not. ) So I tell them the new company address. Then I say, it's either that or my bosses home address. Is it this .....? The guy says;

[Alanto, the Customer Service Tard]"Haw come you don kno yo' billing address, heh?"
[Me] I said "It's my company card, if they changed the address it's because they moved. So I wouldn't know what billing address they chose. So it's either..."
The fucker interrupts me!!!!
[Tard] "What you talk about, eh?! "
[Me] "The card is a company card.. the address could be changed"
[Tard] "Oh ya? Howd da address change wi'out you knowin'?"
[Me]"It's my company card. I don't personally pay the card"
[Tard] "you said it's YOUR card. You sayin' its not YOUR CARD now?"
[Me]"I'm saying it's MY COMPANY CARD!"
[Tard] "I don't understand".
[Me] "You know, I no longer want the cable. Do you have someone there with prior customer service training that I can talk to to ensure my order gets cancelled?"
[Tard] "What you tryin' to say, eh?"
[Me] "I'm saying, you knuckle-dragging-troglodyte, give me to your manager."
[Tard] "*SIGH* Hold on. "

So I get on the phone with the manager (Randy.... you know this is going to be an exercise in dork theater) and tell him I need my order cancelled. He says
[Randy] "Well you don't technically have an order. Can you verify your credit card information? We can't process the order without it."
[Me] "No? Not at all?"
[Randy] "Nope. Can't charge this card without the correct information."
[Me] "Good. Cancel the order. You're not getting that information."
[Randy] "Umm.."
[Me] "Yup."
[Randy] "I guess I'll cancel the order"
[Me] "Thanks Skippy"

I take off across the street and buy a cable at Radio Shack. I'm SOO excited! I have so much crap to print. I pay a ton more than I would have at tiger, but the guy spoke English, so there's a plus. I get back and try and connect it... no go. Doesn't fit. ARGH!!!!

I check online and find that tons of people have written about how you can't use one of those cables with the printer we have. I check HP and find that you have to use a wireless printer thingy to be able to use a computer with no parallel port. DOUBLE ARGH!!!

So I emailed Ben asking him to Ok a $40.00 printer purchase. meh. As if I'll ever get an answer back.

I IM'd with D today (props Boo!) IM'd with my daughters fellah for a few (Sup' DJ Jazzy James!) He went on a job interview today so I wanted to see how it went. He said;

[James]"I'm just waiting for them to get the drug test back"
[me]"Uh oh! They'll find out you eat kittens!"
[James]"LOL - Here comes the fuzz!"
[me]"Well.. if you're eating kittens the fuzz will come... although out of which end I don't know. ew"

heh. *Freakin out the daughters fellah!*

I called my brother. He had kidney surgery and is home for a few weeks. I thought I'd call and see how he's doing. Its odd that after years and years I still miss my big brother. Anyway... I found out that he makes fun of midgets too. Thank god. A family trait I can be proud of!! I told him my wish to someday have a tiny midget walk around with a flat cake plate strapped to their head and yummy birthday cake on top. A cake serving midget. *sigh* It will be mine.. Oh yes... it will be mine.

I drove home, we ate burgers, and now we're about to see Disturbia. :) Yay!

Interesting Houston observation:
Houston is so freakin' vast! Because of that, the buildings/blocks/downtown is so different from say, NY or Boston - Buildings have huge areas around them. Big garden area, fancy impressive entry ways with fountains and such. In other cities I've been in every spare inch is utilized for buildings or parking lots. The sidewalks are skimpy, the streets are narrow, you feel closed in. But in Houston there is plenty of room to spread out. So the streets are pretty wide, the sidewalks are too. OH... and the streets are laid out in a grid. Not like Boston's weird twisty roads. Grids. With lights perfectly timed. My brother said today that he'd been to Houston and thought it was odd. "Seems fake". It does seem fake. I like it :D