Saturday, March 18, 2017

Public Service Announcement

Cautionary tale folks,
Went to a Citizen's Bank this afternoon and since the line was so long, I used the ATM to make a deposit. 
The machine took my card, sucked in 2 $100 dollar bills, then proceeded to freeze. 
The tellers were able to retrieve my card but I have to wait until Tuesday to get my money back as that is when they reconcile all the money in the machine.
It should show an overage of that amount (I HOPE)
Needless to say, I was pissed off beyond belief. 
I don't blame the people who work at Citizen's and I was as polite as I could possibly be and they were very apologetic.
The money was birthday money I was using to pay off a credit card charge for a pair of boots. 
Imagine if that money was for something absolutely essential?
Some sort of payment that needed to be made
Money that needed to be in my account that day or first thing Monday morning.
I would be shit out of luck.
I'm grateful that I'm in a position where the temporary loss of that money is merely a minor inconvenience.
So, if you happen to be in a position where a deposit of cash or checks is a matter of the utmost importance, a matter of life or eviction,
DON'T USE THE ATM. 
(Remember Terminator? The machines hate you. Every last one of them.)
Wait in line. 
Get a printed receipt.
From a person.
I don't think that the convenience that would have saved me maybe 10-15 minutes of waiting was worth the two hundred bucks I may or may not get back in 3 days

While you are at it, if your friend gives you a tube of homemade lip balm to try,
Do not text them several hours later to tell them, as a joke, that you had an allergic reaction and your lips have swelled 2x their normal size.
It was right after that moment that my day went downhill so you could argue that I had that coming to me and I would agree that you are probably right.

Moral of the story: Don't have a machine do the work of an actual person if it's really important and bad jokes only bring bad karma.





Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Don't Stop Believing

Don't Stop Believin' by Journey came on this morning as I was driving the kids to school.

A few weeks ago, bored during a hockey game, I forced her into a duet when the same song came on.

"G!" I exclaimed, turning the volume up, "It's our song!"

After singing along loudly for a few verses, I informed her that I was planning on playing this song at  top volume every time I picked her up from any where.  I told her it will get to the point where if any of her friend's hear that song in the distance, they will say, "Here comes G's mother!"

I looked over at her and removed the hand closest to her from the wheel to ward off any sudden blows and reminded her that it was against the rules to hit the driver.

"I am punching you in my head." was her curt reply.

Sunday, January 01, 2017

Happy New Year!

We started out New Years Eve Day with a trip to Bass Pro and plans for more later things to do later in the evening.

Here is Von posing with the turtles of Bass Pro.




We had an excellent time shutting down the people selling cheap vacations that involve sitting in on a time share promo.

We endured the time share selling rodeo back in June and won't be doing that again anytime soon, thank you very much.

Happily, Brian and I are now quite immune to the "hard sell" after an incident several years ago where we ended up with several well-doctored family portraits on Irish linen that are sitting in various locations of our house collecting dust.

One asshole even tried to refer to me as "young lady" in order to get me to speak to him.

Refer to me as "young lady" and I will definitely not buy your product

But I will definitely fantasize about punching you in the money maker.

So we started at Bass Pro and ended here:

Does Von know how to party or what?

Just looking at the size of that bag of fluids makes me want to void. 

So all joking aside, and I know this smacks of typical social media overshare, but the reason why I am in fact sharing this is because look.

Look how quickly things can take a turn.

Shit like this can happen in a matter of seconds.

I am fortunate as is Von and our family. We honestly thought he was having a stroke. Turned out to be a kind of migraine that has similar symptoms.

He is OK. We made it home just before midnight.

Von rang in the New Year sound asleep and I rang it in at my usual post, sleeping on the couch.

So folks, remember how quickly life can take a turn and if you think you have it bad now, just wait a few minutes.

Appreciate anything that you have that you can appreciate.

Especially your loved ones.

So to start off the New Years I would like to say to all of my loved ones who are reading this-

"I love you very very much to all of you out there that I am so fucking fortunate to have in my life. I love you and appreciate the shit out of you. Thank you for putting up with me."

And I love the rest of you just for being here.

And now we got that out of the way, back to my traditional New Years Day Posting

I did not read as many books as I would have liked to this year.

I read a lot of crap books which I am almost embarrassed to list, I think it was the state of my mind at the time.

Like the time I read all of the 50 Shades of Grey books and blamed it on having the Lyme disease.

I will blame work stress on this year's crappy choices.

Next year I hope to make some changes and again be able to have more time to read.

I gotta warn you though, next year probably 50% of what will be on the list will be bee related books as I am now actively studying so I can try for a Master Beekeeper certification at EAS next summer.


 2016 Reading List

  1. Sex Tips from Rock Stars
  2. Saga vol 1******
  3. Can We Talk About Something More Pleasant?*** (Got a hoarder in your family? Read this-you are not alone.)
  4. Saga vol 2******
  5. Sandman Overture
  6. White Line Fever
  7. Saga vol 3******
  8. Saga vol 4******
  9. Saga vol 5******
  10. Revival
  11. The Green Mile-The Two Dead Girls
  12. The Green Mile-The Mouse on The Mile
  13. The Green Mile-Coffey's Hand
  14. The Green Mile-Night Journey
  15. The Green Mile-The Bad death of Edward Delacroix
  16. The Green Mile-Coffey on The Mile
  17. The Library At Mount Char-********I re-read this book 3 times for a total of 4 
  18. A Gathering Of Shadows
  19. Come Closer
  20. Fuck It
  21. Whole 30 
  22. Ten Grand vol 1***
  23. Ten Grand vol 2***
  24. Equal Rites*******
  25. Ten Grand vol 3***
  26. Wyrd Sisters********
  27. The Ballad of Black Tom
  28. The Art of Asking
  29. Remember Why You Fear Me 
  30. In a Dark Dark Woo
  31. Saga vol 6******
  32. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms**
  33. Honeybees and Their Maladies
  34. Me Before You
  35. The City of Mirror
  36. Court of Fives***
  37. The Devourers-******** read this one 2x
  38. The Queen of The Tearling******* I read this one 2x
  39. The Poisoned Blade
  40. Obelisk Gate
  41. The Invasion of The Tearling-*******I read this 2x
  42. Redemption In Indigo*********
  43. Brooklyn
  44. The Sting of The Wild********-I love this guy
  45. Dark Harvest
  46. Jaran***
  47. The Beauty vol 1
  48. The Golem and The Jinni******

So actually, if you count me re-reads I read 54 books for the year. 

Not too bad for a busy lady. 

I would say my hands down favorites for the year were The Library At Mount Char,  The Devourers and Redemption and Indigo
Followed by the Tearling Books and Sting of The Wild. 

And if you get a chance for fuck's sake please start reading Saga (I have them all. If I like you and trust you to keep my babies safe until you return them, I will let you borrow them).


Happy and Healthy New Years

Be sure to enjoy and appreciate these last 20 days!