Monthly Archives: July 2008

I’ve Lost My Mind

We have been crazy busy, I don’t even know where to begin. But before I do anything I have got to do an entry.  It has been way too long and my brain is swimming. I’m hoping that it will help me get my thoughts together…..so be warned, I may be listing.

We spent 2 days going cross Portland to get our camera cleaned, we are so tired of the spots that have ended up on otherwise stunning scenery pictures. They only had it for 1 days so that wasn’t bad, what sucked is that they said that they would call and when we looked at the ticket it said 30days!!  We were like no way, then couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone or respond to our voicemail.  So that stressed us out.

Harold did find a shop that sells nothing by swimwear and will modify the cuts.  So we head to the NW part of Portland to Popina, because of my other suits are several years old and I really need a something that looks fresh and makes me look good.  So we wanted a bikini and I needed a 1 piece for snorkeling, the one piece I figured more then likely the basic black, just easier instead of some of the ugly patterns.  But I got lucky, I got a one in a vibrant purple….grin  They are even able to make me a bikini top to fit me!!  And it is all within reason.  So I’m pretty happy about that.

Then we had 2-3 houses that we wanted to locate and drive by in Portland, since they weren’t available for looking at yet.  We found one that was ok looking, but had a great location.  So our thinking was since that they are under one rental property company we wanted to get ourselves preapproved so we know where we stood if we liked one of the houses.  Now you normally have an application fee, no big deal…NORMALLY if you going through 1 company you just need to pay 1 fee and it applies to all properties.  Not this one, we would’ve had to have paid for all 3 of them!  That is a bad as holding us up by gun point.  That just pissed us off.

That is how our week started on Monday….it did not bode well.  We have been totally stressing looking for a place to live.  We can stay here, but we want something different….like more sunlight.  We really wanted move more into Portland, to be closer to our friends, closer to shops that we can walk to and not have to drive, maybe start taking the bus or get a scooter.

But we noticed that the more we keep trying to move into Portland, the more road blocks we keep hitting.  Makes us truly wonder if we aren’t suppose to be living in the city. We have lived in towns and the outskirts of cities, but never in a city.    But I’m thinking we are just not meant to be.  =(

On Wednesday we went a saw a townhouse that just got listed the night before, it is a little town outside of Portland and it is in Multnomah County.  It is about 2 blocks from the historic downtown that is being revitalized, with a few little shops and within walking distance to part of the Columbia River Gorge and it right off of 84, and since we don’t normally drive during rush hour, we can just jump on that to I-5 to get to where we want to go without all the stop lights.

We are lucky that Harold contacted her when he did, she has been getting emails and calls all day.  Got to love Craigslist……..lol

The owner has to move across the state for her job on short notice and is looking for long term leasers and she is a cat lover, has 2 of them herself.  So that is one less stress, in fact I think ours behave better then hers……lol The bedroom has a small deck facing the street and gets the morning sun and the back, even though partly shaded by trees, gets the evening sun…..perfect!  It has a patio in back, with a bigger yard then we have…not much, but still bigger and it has better appliances then this place.  The living room is more square, not like this one that is long and makes it difficult on arranging things.  The bedrooms seem a bit smaller, but makes up in more closet space.  The only thing is that there aren’t any blinds……icks.  But the owner is cool with people putting them up.

We like it so much that we did the application and put a deposit down, now this is the part that is screwy.  We find out this morning that our landlord won’t release our information without permission, ok, that is cool.   But then found out that we need to give our 30day notice before they release it AND it had to be in written….ok, that is freaky.  We did not want to give our notice unless we had a place to live without question.  So Harold called the other lady back and found out that the place is ours we just need that last bit, basically saying that we don’t throw loud parties, cause trouble and pay on time…..that was a huge stress reliever.  And found out that it is one things that is done in Oregon to help prevent ID theft.  We had never encounter that before.  But I end up rushing to do that written note, thankful that I got our scanner to communicate 2 nights before for the fax, while trying to do some work before we left for the gym.

We were totally off balance starting the day off.  Didn’t help the office girl with our current landlord is annoying….gggrrr  Everyone else is fine, but she sounds like she is constantly whining…icks  We get to gym and Harold forgot his iPod.  There is no way that you can go without it.  The days with my trainer is the only days that I go without, can’t handle it otherwise.  He ended dropping me off, since it was a trainer day and headed home to work on things.  If you get off of routine and off balance it really, really messes up your workout.

I spent the workout frustrated as hell.   Everything seemed harder then usual and made me feel week and it was pissing me off.  Didn’t help that my ass muscles were still hurting from Wednesday and Thursday I was in a “I want to hurt people mood” when I hit the treadmill (I get very irritated when pms’ing and have no patience….beating people sounds fun in those moods…..sadly).  I did get a good laugh at my trainer, he was hurting from over doing his legs the day before……..grin….he just busted out laughing due to my enjoyment in that.  =)  Then find out at the end, that he was screwing with me all day.  He is always messing with my weights and he really did today…..uuuurrrrgggg  I had a hard time lifting my arms to wash my hair!

After the gym, we had some running we needed to do, including buying boxes for the move.  And I really wanted to get my belly pierced.  This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but always figured that I need to lose more weight before I do it.  Well, screw it, I’m working out, losing weight and I might as well  get it done.  Of course, I’m a pussy so I’m mental messing myself up.  But I did it!  And it didn’t hurt that much.  It does help the rest of my body is hurting like hell from the gym…….lol  You know what is messed up, I was scared of the pain from that, but I think nothing of going to the dentist.  I’ve sleep through my root canals………lol

Now there is where I’m going screwy on my post…..I’m totally stressing about how we are going to handle everything in Aug.

1.  We have my brother-in-law Diesel and his family coming down Aug 7-9, which won’t be that stressful other then the boxes everywhere…….grin  I am so totally looking forward to seeing them and taking them sight seeing…..been missing them.

2.  We have to start packing for the move.

3.  We move on Aug 15th.  Which is a HUGE day work wise for me.

4.  We leave for Curacao Aug 20th-25th.

5.  Then we have to get this place cleaned for the walk through on the 29th, since the 30/31st is a weekend.

The biggest issue, is that we have been running around and so off balance this week that I can’t even get my mind organized to know where to start!

What I’m thinking for this weekend, my poor private messages that have been neglected.  I have some work to do, if I can keep it to about 2-3 hours a day that would be good and the big thing, start packing and figuring out how to do it….icks.

All I want to do is enjoy the few days with our family and the Curacao trip and skip the rest of Aug.  =)

And on that note, I’m going to work on some laundry…………it is better then screaming…….lol

2008 06 15 064

Babble & Politics

I didn’t do much today work wise, which is cool on one hand but that means I’ll be focusing on it tomorrow.  After having heat, it has been nice outside, which means that the house has been chilly.  It has been getting in the 50-60s at night.  I did get a walk in the last 2 days and went tanning yesterday.

We were thinking of heading down to the farmers market, but we really have a hard time getting moving on the weekend.  I think it is since we get up Mon-Fri for the gym and then work that we just don’t want to have to get up.   We did our normal Sunday cleaning done on Saturday and I did take the steam-vac to the living room.  Hopefully it will look better in the fully daylight.  It looks as if we have gray marks, I think it has to be soot from gas fireplace……annoying.

We got my tickets to Indiana ordered for Dec, with the ticket prices and the cutting of routes, we figured it would be best.  Doing the same as last year, after Thanksgiving before Xmas…..trying to miss the worst of the holiday traffic.
We watched Eastern Promises last night, it can be pretty gruesome and very disturbing, but is very good with some unseen twists.  Which also reminded me of an article that I read the other day that was very disturbing : Russia’s sex slave industry thrives, rights groups say

I am a firm believer in CONSENTING ADULTS doing what they want, including being able to be in the sex industry.  So it totally turns my stomach that people are being forced into sexual slavery, which is ran by the lowest scum of the earth  :  Online Resources to Help End Sexual Exploitation

When Sex Is Not as Private as You Expect

**Stay the hell out of the bedroom…and give me a break, Chippendales?!?  They are some of the cleanest of dancers……yeah, look at the men’s strip clubs and I’ve been in a few.

Time to End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’?

A bipartisan study by retired military officers concluded that gays serving openly in the military would have little effect on a unit’s ability to fight.

**Now if other countries can do this, why the hell can’t we?  Besides, the generation that is joining is totally different from previous generations….just look at the shows. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy , Will & Grace

Military Soft On Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

But Espinoza says if the policy were changed, the troops would have to fall in line. “You can believe that black people are not as smart as white people – you can believe that and still serve in the U.S. uniform. You can believe that women should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen – you can believe that. But you cannot bring those beliefs to your job front,” she says.

**This is such a true comment.  Racism and sexism still exist in the military, but in the end, the job comes 1st because your life may depend on that person.

Oil Tycoon Places $10 Billion Bet on Earth

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is building the world’s largest wind farm in Texas, where windswept, wide-open spaces are an untapped, powerful resource.

“I don’t see it as that complicated,” said Pickens, who’s been in the oil business his whole life. “The way I feel about the oil business, there’s no question, we’re in decline in the United States.”

**I sure don’t agree with this guys politics (financed the swift boat ads) but at least someone is taking the bull by the horns.  Come on, within a year of entering WWII we had nearly all of our factories turned over to making the needed planes and weapons.  Why the hell can’t we do that again?  That is why I think Al Gores goal is possible…..and no it won’t be easy but it will pay off in the long run.

Iraqi PM Supports Obama’s Withdrawal Plan

He added, “U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is right when he talks about 16 months.”

Al-Maliki deferred, however, from offering outright support for Obama’s candidacy. “Of course, this is by no means an election endorsement,” he said. “Who they choose as their president is the Americans’ business.”

**I know that he backed off from this, pisses me off that the Administration is dictating to them what to say….. but I hope his statement bodes well for Obama in the long run.

Obama Comes to Kabul

Asked if he planned to relay some tough talk to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, he said, “I’m more interested in listening than doing a lot of talking. And I think it is very important to recognize that I’m going over there as a U.S. Senator. We have one president at a time, so it’s the president’s job to deliver those messages.”

**He gave an excellent answer to that question.  Until he is President, it is not his place to talk “tough”

Library Confrontation Points up Privacy Dilemma

Five state police detectives wanted to seize Kimball Public Library’s public access computers as they frantically searched for a 12-year-old girl, acting on a tip that she sometimes used the terminals.

Flint demanded a search warrant, touching off a confrontation that pitted the privacy rights of library patrons against the rights of police on official business.

**I feel bad about the girl that was murdered, but I’m very please to hear that some libraries are doing the right thing on balancing our civil rights and privacy.

2008 06 15 122

Babble & NewsFlash

I got a little more work done today, not too much more but some.  My desk area doesn’t look as messy anyway……grin

House hunting is sucking, but we may have a few more leads.  We have to give our answer to our present landload by the 1st.  We are wondering if we can go month-to-month, for 1 month and then if we don’t find anything, do the year lease.  The problem with the month-to-month is that the rent jumps way more then it is worth.  I expect a small jump, but not more then it is worth.

And on top of that we have now have a last minute trip, right when we are suppose to be moving….icks.  But this is one trip we could not turn down, it is a business trip but it promises to be a blast.  We are going to be meeting some friends in Curacao (the company I work for is paying for it, there was no way we could turn it down), an island just north of South America.  We will finally be able to use our passports, heck I’ve been using mine in the airports for domestic travel  just to use it since we paid for the damn thing and jumped through all the hoops……I know I’m goofy…….lol

Gore Pushes for Sweeping Changes to Energy Policy

“I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources within 10 years,” Gore said, speaking from Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., where he called for a full switch to solar, wind and other renewable energy sources. 

**You know we could do it, if our leaders got some balls.  What I would love is for the government or a philantist (sp) to just put solar panels on all the housing, starting with the poor and the working class because they are the hardest hit.  Once you take care of them and get them adding energy into powergrid it will help to lower energy prices and then the price of getting the solar panels would start to go down. And at the same time we would be investing into other technologies.

Texas gives green light to lots more wind power

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas officials gave the go-ahead Thursday to the nation’s largest wind-power project, a plan to build billions of dollars worth of new transmission lines to bring pollution-free energy from gusty West Texas to urban areas.

**More on the green front.  Our national government has been sucking on taking the lead, but it is great to see states take the lead, such as Texas and California has the guts to do.
Bush Proposal to Change Abortion Definition

“One of the most troubling aspects of the proposed rules is the overly-broad definition of ‘abortion,'” write Clinton and Murray. “This definition would allow health-care corporations or individuals to classify many common forms of contraception — including the birth control pill, emergency contraception and IUDs — ‘abortions’ and therefore to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it.

“As a consequence, these draft regulations could disrupt state laws securing women’s access to birth control. They could jeopardize federal programs like Medicaid and Title X that provide family-planning services to millions of women. They could even undermine state laws that ensure survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms,” they write.

**You have no idea how pissed off I am about this.  I did get an email petition and signed it, then forwarded it on to my family.  Then I sent some money to NARAL.

New Yorkers try to swallow calorie sticker shock

Nora Cara was flabbergasted.

She was about to order her usual morning coffee and muffin at Dunkin’ Donuts when she saw the new calorie labels. The chocolate chip muffin she had her eye on was 630 calories.

“I was blown away,” said Cara, a 27-year-old homemaker from Forest Hills in New York City. “I’m not a no-carb type of person, and I usually don’t even think about it. But you pick up a little muffin with your coffee, and it has 630 calories in it? That’s a bit extreme!”

**I would love this to be nation wide.  Just think of the effect that this education would do to people’s eating habits?  Maybe it would help this nation and it obesity and it would sure help me when we are out to eat.

Voters to decide on naming sewage plant for Bush

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) — A measure seeking to commemorate President Bush’s years in office by slapping his name on a San Francisco sewage plant has qualified for the November ballot.

The measure certified Thursday would rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

Supporters say the idea is to commemorate the mess they claim Bush has left behind by actions such as the war in Iraq.

Local Republicans say the plan stinks and they will oppose it.

**I love this!!!  This is classic…….lol  Talk about the karma coming back on Bush……….grin

2008 June Powell Butte 0148

Crazy Busy

Wow, I am fried.  I have spent nearly everyday until today just working like crazy.  That is what happens one you miss a few days and then have payroll…….icks.  Today I totally hit a brick wall.  Did really do any work until this evening.  Luckily there wasn’t much to do, but it slowed me down on what I wanted to get done for us.  I’ll try and get to my emails and messages tomorrow.

Harold already posted about our trip to Vegas.  I’m totally burnt out on conventions, but love seeing all of our friends, especially our family from Buffalo.  We had a good time even with all the crappy cigarette smoke everywhere…disgusting…lost my voice to it and had problems with my sinuses until Tues due to it.  I have to put my bitch in about it, because that really brings me down physically and makes me sick.

I am very proud that I was able to maintain my weight while there.  Our choices of food was either junk or fancy as hell, which doesn’t work well with us.  We drank a BUNCH of water, so with the heat messing up our appetites and food selection that helped.  But I really did try and watch what I ate, had a few treats even though my food journal went totally out the window….no way to keep up or even estimate.

I was totally stressed about my Monday training session, it has been a week and I worry about whether or not I can do it or even keep up. But I did good.  And Tues I was able to maintain what I did last time on the treadmill, which I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do.  I did do good.  And my trainer really worked me today, even had me doing laps around the basketball court dribbling the ball and taking a shot.  I will say it is a hell lot easier to run after a ball, because you are focusing on the ball and not the pain……lol…I still wanted to die afterwards…….grin

We are currently trying to find another place, we have less the 2 weeks because we have to let our landlord know if we are staying since our lease is up Sept 1.  Yeah, got the letter 4 days before we left for Vegas, so we are stressing out on finding a place.  This place is ok, but we want more and this year just seemed to have flown by…..

There is a lot of news articles and things happening in politics that I want to post on, but it is late and my brain is not up to it.  =)  I hope to have more time and brain power tomorrow.

2008 05 04 007

Las Vegas…. FUCK WAS IT HOT!

 

Torn_Rose

Greetings all 2 of you who read this +/- 3, I have returned from our trip to Las Vegas for business and I am still recovering from the entire ordeal.

We had a perfect trip to the airport, left the house and were though security all in less than 55 minutes which I just loved. We flew into a area of the Las Vegas airport I didn’t know existed, it took over 20 mins to taxi to the terminal, the flight staff pooped off “we landed in Reno and now will be driving to Las Vegas” which got a large laugh. And they redid the entire terminal since the last time we was there that I couldn’t find the right baggage carousel and kept walking from 1-8 and back for about 5 minutes until I saw the tiny ass sign saying baggage claims 9-18 was on the other side…. Grrrr…..

Hard Rock gave us a double instead of a King, so that sorta irked me and the room wasn’t as nice as the Fort Lauderdale one, but it was ok. We hooked up with some friend’s right off the bat, so that was really cool catching up with people we haven’t seen in 2 years or longer. We headed over to the Pink Taco for lunch and I bought a round of Cabo Wabo which I wasn’t allowed to pay for since our pal had comps from the Hard Rock. Had I known that at the time I would have ordered a few more rounds.

We than went to the registration desk where I ran into even more old friends that have been 2-6 years since we have seen each other and in one case we have known each other for over 8 years and never met face to face until we ran into each other in a hallway and our first meeting lasted all of 1 minute and we never saw each other again.

Ya gotta love Vegas.

We didn’t do too much the first night, just did some talking to old and new friends around the circle bar and I think we was in bed around 11PM but I got no sleep thanks to the construction site next to us using a air horn to signal the cranes, why not use a walkie talkie I will never know, but the first night it lasted literally all night, I was awake until 530-6am and we got up at 7 since our sinus’s was killing us both, and the room was either too hot or way too cold, why they don’t put in a room temperature controlling device that turns off/on the cooling/heating unit but keeps the fans going and save a Billion $ ‘s a year in power bills, I will never know.

Day two was hot, Pauline and I had a few banking errands to do and grabbed some water for the room, $4 for a 24 pack is cheaper than $4 a ½ bottle at the bar. We walked around the cabana’s and pool which is where they decided to put the booths, which was “brilliant” considering it was only 114F outside.

Pauline  had work she had to do and I was getting on her nerves so I went downstairs where I ran into a friend playing slots, so I sat down in front of another slot machine and talked to him as he played his $200 or so of credits over and over. I opened my wallet and had $254 in cash in 7 bills… so I had only 4 $1 bills to play with since I wasn’t going to put a $50 in the machine, I have such terrible luck I’m not throwing away $50.

I hit spin the wheel two times and get nothing, all the while I am talking to my friend not really looking at my machine when he cuts me off and says “look what you did” and I look and see nothing until he tells me I just hit $1350.

So that was cool.

Later that night was a party we helped sponsor at a friend’s suite so we got to meet a lot of new people and catch up with old friends some more and even talk business which is always amazing to do at these things.

Day Three we basically just hung around the casino and talked all day. A group of us all went to Ago’s for dinner and we all collectively had 5-$50 coupons and we talked the waiter into letting us use all 5 since the hostess told us we could only use 4 of them, which is good since the bill was almost $500.

Our last day we had brunch with our main group of friends there and said our goodbyes and Pauline and I had a meeting we needed to have which lasted about 90 minutes and we got our stuff and got to the airport about 2 hours before our flight, we had a relatively easy time with security and grabbed some food at one of the restaurants and even went to a oxygen bar since there was no booze bars near us.

Flight home was good, got somewhat hot I just watched my IPod after I woke up “sleeping”. We got home around 8pm and just tried to unwind. The Hard Rock Vegas is so fucking loud and constant, we had fire alarms in the hotel so many time they canceled some seminars, the a/c went out in the casino, and we all lost our voices since we had to talk loud for over 3 days straight.

Over all a good time.

How Do I Feel?: tired tired