I figured I should give a brief update on a few of my posts from earlier this month.
First, the pants that I bought on ebay don't really fit. They're a bit snug so I think I'll try selling them to someone else. Kind of strange since they are the same style as another pair I have, but oh well.
Second, our inspection went well and our Pasadena house has been energized. We are now very close to being ready to sell. The only major thing we still want to do is build a front porch.
Third, the cat pee came out of the bed very well. What a relief. I love that bed and I didn't want to have to get rid it. Of course, we're going to turn the mattress so that the spot will be by my feet instead of by Jake's head. I'm OK with that, and we still have the cat.
Fourth, the Florida house still isn't closed. I'll give another update on that one when things have been completed.
Fifth, I didn't have time to dye the curtains again and Jake said we should just hang them even though they're yellow. Yuck, I don't know about that.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Thursday, April 27, 2006
They're Going to Cut My Lip Open
Today I saw the plastic surgen about fixing the lump in my lip. I thought it would be fun to share the accident photos also. I collected these for the insurance company to prove that I have a lump and that it was caused by the accident.
This was taken right after the accident.
This was taken the fist day after the accident.
This was taken three days after the accident.
This was taken recently to show the lump. Maybe I'm vain, but I'm going to see if he can make it look any better.
He's going to cut the lip, take out the scar tissue and stitch me back up.
This was taken right after the accident.
This was taken the fist day after the accident.
This was taken three days after the accident.
This was taken recently to show the lump. Maybe I'm vain, but I'm going to see if he can make it look any better.He's going to cut the lip, take out the scar tissue and stitch me back up.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Wendy Was Here
Here are some pictures of our weekend. Jake took my camera to Florida so I had to use my phone's camera. We had lots of fun. I didn't get many from Dad's house, but we played Eucre and even visited with Dan and Randy. Later that night Wendy and I stayed up until 3am talking. Aren't we a bunch of wild ones. The pictures below are mostly from our visit to Olive Garden. Yum!
No, Melissa has not turned into a ghost. I was testing out my phone's flash feature. Turns out it doesn't work very well. I'll have to try it again at night.
No, Melissa has not turned into a ghost. I was testing out my phone's flash feature. Turns out it doesn't work very well. I'll have to try it again at night.
Curtain Dying Gone Bad
I really wish I'd remembered to take a picture of this last night.
Jake bought curtains from pottery barn online that were called beige, thinking that they would be good for the back house. Since we have white walls they didn't end up matching at all. They looked like an off white on white. So I decided I would try dying them.
I'm not quite certain what I did wrong, but the first time the color (tan) was nice but completely uneven so it looked splotchy. I decided I'd fix it by trying again and couldn't find the same color so I bought taupe and tried again. This time it looked like it was blotchy as well as being two different colors.
My next bright idea.... last night I used color remover. My curtains are now VERY yellow (and a bit blotchy). So, my solution? Tonight I'm going to try dying them again. This has to be the last time. I can't keep doing this. If it doesn't work I'm going to have to throw them away.
Jake bought curtains from pottery barn online that were called beige, thinking that they would be good for the back house. Since we have white walls they didn't end up matching at all. They looked like an off white on white. So I decided I would try dying them.
I'm not quite certain what I did wrong, but the first time the color (tan) was nice but completely uneven so it looked splotchy. I decided I'd fix it by trying again and couldn't find the same color so I bought taupe and tried again. This time it looked like it was blotchy as well as being two different colors.
My next bright idea.... last night I used color remover. My curtains are now VERY yellow (and a bit blotchy). So, my solution? Tonight I'm going to try dying them again. This has to be the last time. I can't keep doing this. If it doesn't work I'm going to have to throw them away.
The Florida House
It's easy to forget about blogging when things get busy. I've been completely stressed today. Jake has been gone for the past week in Florida doing our house inspection and closing. We were supposed to close tomorrow but our loan guy wasn't able to get all the paperwork done on time. He also wasn't able to get us the rate that he promised us. I'm pretty irritated with him right now.
We started on our home purchase almost a year ago. At that time Tom from Wells Fargo said he could lock in our interest rate at 5.38% if we gave him a binder of $2000. We gave him the money and went back to him when we found out we were closing on April 26th. He told us that he didn't have us locked in and was VERY surprised that we actually still had the paperwork/contract showing that we had a locked rate at that percentage rate. When we told him to give us our money back so we could go ask someone else, he said that we still had a contract and if we don't do the loan with him we lose the $2000. Very fishy business if you ask me.
Since Jake was going to be at tomorrows escrow closing, I went today and spent $31 to get a notarized power of attorney overnited by UPS to Florida so that Jake could sign documents for me. We then received a call from Tom (the loan guy) that he won't have documents by tomorrow's closing. In our purchase agreement, we are supposed to pay 1.5% of the purchase price each month that we are late which breaks down to $122 per day. Needless to say, I am NOT a happy camper right now. We can't close tomorrow and there might be various fees to pay because of it.
I'm not sure what's going to happen over the next week as we try to get escrow closed on the house, but I'm a little stressed out.
We started on our home purchase almost a year ago. At that time Tom from Wells Fargo said he could lock in our interest rate at 5.38% if we gave him a binder of $2000. We gave him the money and went back to him when we found out we were closing on April 26th. He told us that he didn't have us locked in and was VERY surprised that we actually still had the paperwork/contract showing that we had a locked rate at that percentage rate. When we told him to give us our money back so we could go ask someone else, he said that we still had a contract and if we don't do the loan with him we lose the $2000. Very fishy business if you ask me.
Since Jake was going to be at tomorrows escrow closing, I went today and spent $31 to get a notarized power of attorney overnited by UPS to Florida so that Jake could sign documents for me. We then received a call from Tom (the loan guy) that he won't have documents by tomorrow's closing. In our purchase agreement, we are supposed to pay 1.5% of the purchase price each month that we are late which breaks down to $122 per day. Needless to say, I am NOT a happy camper right now. We can't close tomorrow and there might be various fees to pay because of it.
I'm not sure what's going to happen over the next week as we try to get escrow closed on the house, but I'm a little stressed out.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
My New Mini SD Card
Last night I bought a half gig (512 mb) mini SD card for my phone. It had a rebate which brought the price down to $27.50. Luckily Jake is very good about sending in rebates. With my new mini SD card I can easily transfer pictures from my phone to my computer and I can upload music/books on tape from my computer to my phone (kind of like my ipod). I just put an entire book on tape onto my phone! I'm thrilled!
These pictures were taken with my phone. The first is me right now today. You can see from the second picture that better lighting makes the picture more clear. I thought this was all pretty cool.
These pictures were taken with my phone. The first is me right now today. You can see from the second picture that better lighting makes the picture more clear. I thought this was all pretty cool.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
My Horrible Day
Yesterday went OK until I got off work and stopped by IKEA. Jake and I purchased a drawer on Sunday and found out it was missing a couple of screw/fasteners so I decided to pick up the missing pieces on my way home.
I went to furniture pick up and waited for about 5 minutes wondering who I could ask for help since no one was coming over to help me. Finally someone saw me (and another guy) waiting and told us we had to talk to the girl working in home delivery. So me and the guy went and waited for her to help us while she explained to the couple in front of us that they would have to pay $10 a day if their things weren't delivered by a certain date. The couple were discussing returning all of their merchandise and coming back later to purchase it again so they would not have to pay the $10 per day fee. The girl finally had to call a supervisor to help her and then turned to me and the guy behind me.
I was directed to the return/exchange area where they had some drawers on the wall with some common missing pieces inside. Of course, my drawer was empty (along with quite a few other drawers). I tried to see if anyone was around to help me out and noticed that numbers were being called. Just as I was going to get a number, another lady who had just walked in took a number. I said "Oh, I didn't know we had to take a number" thinking that maybe she would kindly let me in front of her since I had clearly been there first, but she was an evil *&!$@ and ignored me.
After waiting for another 5 minutes I saw Home Delivery girl walking by and asked her if she could get me my screw/fastener thingies. Home Delivery girl asked Return/Exchange girl who said that I would have to wait in line. I waited for another 15 minutes while they went through everyones returns and Return/Exchange girl knew that I was waiting impatiently. I have to admit I didn't sit down but stood where she could see me.
She had another guy working with her, and when it was time for my number to be called he closed his register and started putting returns away. And when it was finally my turn, Return/Exchange girl went and did something else before calling my number. I truly believe that she purposely went as slowly as possible because she didn't like my impatience and wanted to make me mad. I truly believe that. When she came back after the 15 seconds it took her to walk 10 feet into the back where I watched her get my two fasteners, it took all my will power not to yell at her for making me wait so long for such a simple thing.
I would also like to point out that I was THEIR fault that I was missing pieces of my IKEA purchase, and it was THEIR fault that there was not enough people working there to help me quickly. I was so unbelievely mad that I started to try to think of something I could do for revenge. Since I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't have security sent after me, I took a piece of paper out of my purse and ripped it into confettii which I then threw onto the ground on my way out. Yes, I know this is such a pitiful revenge. It was extremely unsatisfying. I got into my car, slammed my door closed, considered peeling out of the garage and realized that I was only hurting myself if I treated my own things badly.
I can't even begin to describe how mad I was at that point. I finally decided to call and talk to a manager but didn't have the phone number. I tried calling Jake who didn't answer so I actually called 411 and paid to get the phone number which just made me madder that I was spending money to try to be satisfied.
I called the store, navigated through their menu and waited on hold for about 20 minutes while I finished driving home. By the time I got home, I was ready to blow up. I wanted to tell Jake about my horrible experience but he was on the phone so I tried calling IKEA again so that I could talk to a manager.
Jake (who is on the phone) waives me over to follow him into the other house. I follow not knowing what he wants to show me and he brings me into the bedroom and points to the cat pee on our new down comforter and Cal King mattress. It turns out the cat had been locked in the house for over a day and had used our bed as her litter box, and it smelled BAD!
At that moment I wanted to hurt something. I screamed, hit the bed, hit the wall, screamed again, and walked out of the house so upset I didn't even know what to do. I went into the bedroom, flopped down on the bed and hit it a few times, was unsatisfied, walked into the living room trying to figure out what I could break and finally sat down on the couch, put my head on my arm and did deep breathing exercises. I thought of how miserable my day had been and started to tear up. Jake actually came over to rub my back and I had a pretty good case of the sniffles although I wouldn't call it full out crying.
So there it is, my horrible day. I'm hoping to keep my anger long enough to write a letter to IKEA, but for now, the best I can do is boycott their store. And believe me, I will not be returning to the West Covina IKEA. As for the cat, if anyone wants her, let me know.
I went to furniture pick up and waited for about 5 minutes wondering who I could ask for help since no one was coming over to help me. Finally someone saw me (and another guy) waiting and told us we had to talk to the girl working in home delivery. So me and the guy went and waited for her to help us while she explained to the couple in front of us that they would have to pay $10 a day if their things weren't delivered by a certain date. The couple were discussing returning all of their merchandise and coming back later to purchase it again so they would not have to pay the $10 per day fee. The girl finally had to call a supervisor to help her and then turned to me and the guy behind me.
I was directed to the return/exchange area where they had some drawers on the wall with some common missing pieces inside. Of course, my drawer was empty (along with quite a few other drawers). I tried to see if anyone was around to help me out and noticed that numbers were being called. Just as I was going to get a number, another lady who had just walked in took a number. I said "Oh, I didn't know we had to take a number" thinking that maybe she would kindly let me in front of her since I had clearly been there first, but she was an evil *&!$@ and ignored me.
After waiting for another 5 minutes I saw Home Delivery girl walking by and asked her if she could get me my screw/fastener thingies. Home Delivery girl asked Return/Exchange girl who said that I would have to wait in line. I waited for another 15 minutes while they went through everyones returns and Return/Exchange girl knew that I was waiting impatiently. I have to admit I didn't sit down but stood where she could see me.
She had another guy working with her, and when it was time for my number to be called he closed his register and started putting returns away. And when it was finally my turn, Return/Exchange girl went and did something else before calling my number. I truly believe that she purposely went as slowly as possible because she didn't like my impatience and wanted to make me mad. I truly believe that. When she came back after the 15 seconds it took her to walk 10 feet into the back where I watched her get my two fasteners, it took all my will power not to yell at her for making me wait so long for such a simple thing.
I would also like to point out that I was THEIR fault that I was missing pieces of my IKEA purchase, and it was THEIR fault that there was not enough people working there to help me quickly. I was so unbelievely mad that I started to try to think of something I could do for revenge. Since I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't have security sent after me, I took a piece of paper out of my purse and ripped it into confettii which I then threw onto the ground on my way out. Yes, I know this is such a pitiful revenge. It was extremely unsatisfying. I got into my car, slammed my door closed, considered peeling out of the garage and realized that I was only hurting myself if I treated my own things badly.
I can't even begin to describe how mad I was at that point. I finally decided to call and talk to a manager but didn't have the phone number. I tried calling Jake who didn't answer so I actually called 411 and paid to get the phone number which just made me madder that I was spending money to try to be satisfied.
I called the store, navigated through their menu and waited on hold for about 20 minutes while I finished driving home. By the time I got home, I was ready to blow up. I wanted to tell Jake about my horrible experience but he was on the phone so I tried calling IKEA again so that I could talk to a manager.
Jake (who is on the phone) waives me over to follow him into the other house. I follow not knowing what he wants to show me and he brings me into the bedroom and points to the cat pee on our new down comforter and Cal King mattress. It turns out the cat had been locked in the house for over a day and had used our bed as her litter box, and it smelled BAD!
At that moment I wanted to hurt something. I screamed, hit the bed, hit the wall, screamed again, and walked out of the house so upset I didn't even know what to do. I went into the bedroom, flopped down on the bed and hit it a few times, was unsatisfied, walked into the living room trying to figure out what I could break and finally sat down on the couch, put my head on my arm and did deep breathing exercises. I thought of how miserable my day had been and started to tear up. Jake actually came over to rub my back and I had a pretty good case of the sniffles although I wouldn't call it full out crying.
So there it is, my horrible day. I'm hoping to keep my anger long enough to write a letter to IKEA, but for now, the best I can do is boycott their store. And believe me, I will not be returning to the West Covina IKEA. As for the cat, if anyone wants her, let me know.
Monday, April 17, 2006
My Ring is Broken
There's not too much more to say about this. The picture speak for itself. I might have done this while I was on vacation. I looked down one day last week and noticed that my ring looked a little strange. I haven't found time to get it fixed yet so it's sitting in my purse for now.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
The Mean Inspector
Ok, we are in the process of fixing up our house. And what I mean by "fixing up" is really that we are "rebuilding" our houses. The first house was built in 1928 and the second was built in the 1950s.
So the story goes that we have not been getting the permits that we needed in order to do work on our homes. I was vaguely aware of this, but since I saw no way that this was effecting me, I went merrily on my way, remodeling (rebuilding) almost everything on the entire lot.
Now our front house has an old electrical panel that is, if I remember correctly, 15 amps. This means that if we have a heater on in the bedroom and try to microwave dinner.... ZAP! The electrical goes out and we have to go reflip the switch. I stopped resetting my bedside clock months ago, but luckily we have another clock that runs on batteries.
So we decided to upgrade with a new electrical panel. Our electrician got the permit, did the work and then we called the inspector. So the inspector (Richard) shows up on a day that Jake is at home and throws a fit about our lack of permits, says Jake has been moonlighting for year, hands him a "stop all work" order and leaves.
Jake and the electrician both said this guy was horrible, said mean things, and didn't tell them what they were supposed to do next. After hearing about this mean guy, I decided to try talking to him the next week at the inspectors office. NO ONE is allowed to yell at Jake! I didn't want Jake to have to deal with Richard so I went down there thinking that I would be very sweet, and charm him into explaining what we needed to do.
When Richard found out my property address he said we've been bootlegging for a year, we need to get a contractor to come in since we aren't living on the property (yes, we are), and that we built a second house on our property (we bought a duplex, that means two houses, dummy). He then said he didn't have time for me and he turned around and walked away. At that point some other nice man saw how horrible I'd been treated and explained the next steps that I should be taking. I was also told I would never get my electical permit until I'd gotten permits for EVERYTHING else we'd done. Gasp!
After a couple weeks, I went back prepared for battle.... And insisted I speak to someone else besides Richard. I spoke with supervisor Pat who came out the next day, inspected the electrical, requested some changes, and said to have him come back later for a final inspection. Pat was SO nice, SO laid back. I felt like hugging him afterward for relieving my stress. Today he's coming back to do another inspection and if we get approval we'll have a new electrical panel and will be able to use a blow dryer without blowing a fuse.
I'll keep you posted. Here are some pictures of the old and new panels.
So the story goes that we have not been getting the permits that we needed in order to do work on our homes. I was vaguely aware of this, but since I saw no way that this was effecting me, I went merrily on my way, remodeling (rebuilding) almost everything on the entire lot.
Now our front house has an old electrical panel that is, if I remember correctly, 15 amps. This means that if we have a heater on in the bedroom and try to microwave dinner.... ZAP! The electrical goes out and we have to go reflip the switch. I stopped resetting my bedside clock months ago, but luckily we have another clock that runs on batteries.
So we decided to upgrade with a new electrical panel. Our electrician got the permit, did the work and then we called the inspector. So the inspector (Richard) shows up on a day that Jake is at home and throws a fit about our lack of permits, says Jake has been moonlighting for year, hands him a "stop all work" order and leaves.
Jake and the electrician both said this guy was horrible, said mean things, and didn't tell them what they were supposed to do next. After hearing about this mean guy, I decided to try talking to him the next week at the inspectors office. NO ONE is allowed to yell at Jake! I didn't want Jake to have to deal with Richard so I went down there thinking that I would be very sweet, and charm him into explaining what we needed to do.
When Richard found out my property address he said we've been bootlegging for a year, we need to get a contractor to come in since we aren't living on the property (yes, we are), and that we built a second house on our property (we bought a duplex, that means two houses, dummy). He then said he didn't have time for me and he turned around and walked away. At that point some other nice man saw how horrible I'd been treated and explained the next steps that I should be taking. I was also told I would never get my electical permit until I'd gotten permits for EVERYTHING else we'd done. Gasp!
After a couple weeks, I went back prepared for battle.... And insisted I speak to someone else besides Richard. I spoke with supervisor Pat who came out the next day, inspected the electrical, requested some changes, and said to have him come back later for a final inspection. Pat was SO nice, SO laid back. I felt like hugging him afterward for relieving my stress. Today he's coming back to do another inspection and if we get approval we'll have a new electrical panel and will be able to use a blow dryer without blowing a fuse.
I'll keep you posted. Here are some pictures of the old and new panels.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Hawaii!
Hawaii was great! Here are some of the highlights.
The pool, hotel room, our luau, and scuba diving...
The pool, hotel room, our luau, and scuba diving...
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Busy, Busy
Well, here's my first posting...
This week I have an exam. On Friday I'll be taking a precalculus test. Yes, yes, I know I already have my degrees, but classes are free since I work on a college campus, so I figured, what the heck, why not see if Math is as much fun as I remember. So far, I'm actually enjoying my class, but we'll see if I'm still saying that later in the quarter. Next stop, maybe Calculus?
I currently work at Cal Poly Pomona University as an advisor for the College of Science and at West Los Angeles Community College as a counselor on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This week West LA College is on Spring break so I'm off early on Wed and Thurs. I'm actually excited about my extra time off, but it looks like I'll be studying. Oh well.
One of my biggest complaints lately is my weight. I've finally broken down and started buying a few pairs of bigger pants, which we all know is the first step in keeping the weight permanently. I've included a picture of the pants I purchased today on ebay (size 8). I love ebay!
This week I have an exam. On Friday I'll be taking a precalculus test. Yes, yes, I know I already have my degrees, but classes are free since I work on a college campus, so I figured, what the heck, why not see if Math is as much fun as I remember. So far, I'm actually enjoying my class, but we'll see if I'm still saying that later in the quarter. Next stop, maybe Calculus?
I currently work at Cal Poly Pomona University as an advisor for the College of Science and at West Los Angeles Community College as a counselor on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This week West LA College is on Spring break so I'm off early on Wed and Thurs. I'm actually excited about my extra time off, but it looks like I'll be studying. Oh well.
One of my biggest complaints lately is my weight. I've finally broken down and started buying a few pairs of bigger pants, which we all know is the first step in keeping the weight permanently. I've included a picture of the pants I purchased today on ebay (size 8). I love ebay!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
