Our kids are awesome. Only H and N wanted to dress up this year, so while we were trick-or-treating with them and their mom, A and Z were busy making a dummy in the parking lot. They had it sprawled out right at the edge of some parked cars with a couple of pieces of candy strewn around the "head" to make it look like a trick-or-treater had been run over. A said that at least 10 cars had stopped in the few minutes they'd had it out there. Very creative, and absolutely hilarious.
October 2005 Archives
We just got back from a motorcycle ride, and when we left, the neighbor's garage was open with an extra trashcan sitting there in plain sight. Bastard.
Bif Naked would be nice too. The 30-second clips from her site just aren't cuttin' it.
I could really use some Rob Zombie and Scum of the Earth right now.
Trash pickup in our neighborhood is on Mondays and Thursdays, and when I put the trashcan by the curb this past Monday, I had no idea what an unnecessarily dramatic mess it would result in. One of our neighbors is very rarely home and sometimes doesn't leave his trashcan out, and this Monday was one of those days. I got home and noticed that the trash guys had put our trashcan in front of his house and didn't think anything of it until the next morning. I heard a trashcan being dragged up the sidewalk and thought he was just moving it back in front of our house, but when I went to bring it in, it was gone. He'd nabbed our trash can. I went over and rang his doorbell to ask politely if he'd ended up with two trashcans, and if so, could I have ours back please. He didn't answer though, so over the next couple of days I kept checking to see if he was home so I could go over and retrieve our trashcan. I think he's a vampire or something because there never was any indication that he was home, and yet he managed to put a trashcan out this morning. I noticed it on my to work and was determined to get home early enough to nab it back. It looked like my brilliant trashcan recon plan was going to be foiled because my "quick stops" on the way home from work took two hours, but I still got home before he did. The very first thing I did was open the garage and snatch that damn trashcan back. Here's hoping that I didn't steal it back from the wrong guy.
Mike just brought home a whole box of cheesy bread from Jerry's for me. He's such a sweetheart.
As I've mentioned before, I'm a big fan of hot water, the hotter the better, which presented quite a problem yesterday and this morning since we had none.
This happened once before, when we first moved into this house, but that was just a matter of changing a timer. There's a timer installed on our hot water heater so you can set when it turns on and off, and money-saver or not, with two adults and four kids that need showers on a regular basis and generate dirty dishes and laundry daily, this just doesn't work well for us. (And that's not even factoring in the puppykins, cause the blankets from their kennel always need washing.) This time? Not quite that easy.
We found out that the hot water was gone when Z went to take a shower last night and promptly hopped back out to let us know that there was only cold water. The power had gone off earlier thanks to an early-morning thunderstorm, so Mike looked at the timer, the breaker box, and the water heater...there was nothing wrong with any of them. He made an adjustment to the timer, and we went to bed, hoping that had fixed things. It hadn't. There still wasn't any hot water when he woke up to get ready for work, so we called the power company since they have a remote shut-off box on the water heater. Lo and behold, that was problem. The inside was charred and the wires and plastic had melted together. Apparently lightning had hit the box during the storm and fried it, hence the lack of hot water. The guy from the power company replaced the box and we have hot water once again. The icing on this happy ending cake is 1) I didn't have to wait forever for the guy to show up (he was here less than two hours after I called the power company) and 2) this wasn't my fault. Yay!
As I've mentioned before, I'm a big fan of hot water, the hotter the better, which presented quite a problem yesterday and this morning since we had none.
This happened once before, when we first moved into this house, but that was just a matter of changing a timer. There's a timer installed on our hot water heater so you can set when it turns on and off, and money-saver or not, with two adults and four kids that need showers on a regular basis and generate dirty dishes and laundry daily, this just doesn't work well for us. (And that's not even factoring in the puppykins, cause the blankets from their kennel always need washing.) This time? Not quite that easy.
We found out that the hot water was gone when Z went to take a shower last night and promptly hopped back out to let us know that there was only cold water. The power had gone off earlier thanks to an early-morning thunderstorm, so Mike looked at the timer, the breaker box, and the water heater...there was nothing wrong with any of them. He made an adjustment to the timer, and we went to bed, hoping that had fixed things. It hadn't. There still wasn't any hot water when he woke up to get ready for work, so we called the power company since they have a remote shut-off box on the water heater. Lo and behold, that was problem. The inside was charred and the wires and plastic had melted together. Apparently lightning had hit the box during the storm and fried it, hence the lack of hot water. The guy from the power company replaced the box and we have hot water once again. The icing on this happy ending cake is 1) I didn't have to wait forever for the guy to show up (he was here less than two hours after I called the power company) and 2) this wasn't my fault. Yay!
Today hasn't had the best of beginnings for me. 1) It's cold, 2) It's pouring rain, and 3) I almost died this on my way in to work. I was on the highway when a tractor trailer pulled right in front of me. No when I say "pulled right in front of me" I don't mean "signaled, waited, then moved in front of me into my lane when it was safe". No, he (or she - it was dark and I was too traumatized afterwards to take note of what the driver looked like) was on the shoulder of the road and went from there to right the fuck in front of me in all of 2 seconds. I was less than 3 feet from the back of the truck and there was a car in the lane next to me. If that car hadn't sped up the little bit that they did, giving me just enough space to swerve into their lane and manage to narrowly miss their bumper, I would've slammed into the truck and at the very least, totaled my car. Stupid fucking truck drivers.
It's only Wednesday but it feels like this week has been going on forever. I'm sure part of it is because I've been working late, although the fact that I'm so damn tired isn't helping either. So far I've had errands to run every day after work and that just makes the days feel even more drawn-out. Bleh.
I turned the radio on as part of my attempt to not to fall asleep on my drive home yesterday and was rewarded with some songs that I haven't heard in very long time, all on different stations. Sammy Kershaw kicked off the retro-ish music with "Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer," followed by John Michael Montomery singing "Be My Baby Tonight," Matchbox 20 with "Push," and finishing with Vertical Horizon's "Everything You Want." Actually, that's not true. The good music run ended with "Better Man," by Pearl Jam, but I don't really count that one since it usually gets played at least once a week, whereas I haven't heard the others in at least 3 years.
Last night I remembered that Bif Naked's new album, Superbeautifulmonster, is finally out so I bought it. Had to get it online though, so it won't actually be in my grubby little paws for a couple weeks. I'm not thrilled about that because 1) I've been waiting for another Bif Naked album since I got Purge for my birthday 4 years ago, and 2) there are clips of all the songs up on her website, and they all sound good. I was surprised to hear that she's done a remake of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters", but it sounds good from the 45 second clip I heard. As it stands right now, my favorite song is "Funeral of a Good Grrl" but that just barely wins out over "Everyday" and "Abandonment". I also bought her Entirely Naked album, which comes with a DVD of her music videos. Mike is going to be tired of her when those cds get here.
