out, juju, out!

So here are all the annoying, irritating, horrible, wretched, awful, and miserable things that have happened to us lately:

• the sick thing
• the car thing
• I special-ordered some Where's George stamps from Stamp Connection for my 7th Georgiversary (which was March 24th). I tried to be as specific as possible with my (admittedly numerous) special requests - I even called when I placed my online order, to make sure they could do everything I wanted. I've had good luck with them following my special orders to the letter before, so I didn't think I had any reason to be concerned... but sure enough, when my package arrived, they'd made a bunch of mistakes. They were happy to fix them when I e-mailed, and I appreciate their prompt attention... but I really wanted the stamps, all correct, by a certain date. I know, at least part of this one is my fault, for wanting so many changes, and wanting them so quickly. But still, it's disappointing. Luckily, there's a place in town (Bradley Specialties of Ft. Lauderdale) who were able to make me a few stamps really quickly, so I still had some new stamps to show off at the WG meeting on my Georgiversary.
• The WG meeting on the 24th was great - but in entering the bills I received in trades into my favorites, not only did I screw up a ton of times (and the bill lookup feature resets all your presets every time you have to restart it, which is a giant pain), which was frustrating (I was totally sick-addled at that point - I probably should have been in bed instead of entering bills), but I also caught two bills that had originally been entered incorrectly. That's a bit disheartening, to get such a lesson in how many Wild-and-Crazy Georges are probably out there... Translation of this bit for all you non-Georgers: this thing I did was more of a pain in the butt than it had to be.
• My bike was stolen. I had had it chained up in the building's laundry room. We found out on Saturday evening when Johnny came back from getting the mail and said, "Would this be a bad time to tell you your bike is gone?" UGH. Bunch of fucking savages in this town. I wasn't sure at first if the landlord had cut the chain and moved it because, technically (as Johnny told me after the bike was gone) we're not allowed to store anyting in the laundry room - and the landlord had been by that morning doing some maintenance work on the building. So I called the landlord on Sunday - he didn't call back until Monday - but he said that when he got there on Saturday morning, all he found was the smashed chain-lock. UGH. And he said oh, btw, I should've moved the bike anyway, since the fire marshall had been by and stuck a notice on the laundry room door (which I never use) saying we're not allowed to store anything in there, and he could've been fined for my bike being there (thanks for telling me that now!). I love it when I'm supposed to follow rules I don't know about. And I especially love it when people steal my stuff. UGH. So I'm in the market for a new bike, if anyone has any suggestions (I want one of these babies, but they are so way pricey). It has to be lightweight and pretty, since I will be carrying it upstairs and it will be forming a large part of our living room decor (since there is nowhere else for me to put it). While we're at it, Johnny should probably get a bike, too.
• A plague of flies seems to have been visited upon our apartment. There are more and more of them every day. I spent most of last night swatting every one I saw in the kitchen (I killed about 8 of them) - today, there are even more. Johnny thought they were breeding in the trash, but today I think I discovered that they're breeding in the kitchen bay window - the one where I keep my plants. In fact, I get the sinking feeling they're breeding on my plants. Does anyone know a way to get rid of flies and keep them off plants, short of trashing the plants? I will cry if I have to get rid of these plants that I babied all the way down from Syracuse.
• We were out of tortilla chips, and Johnny had made guacamole. He went to the grocery store on the way home from work last night and bought some, along with some bread, and a few bags of other stuff. When we were sitting down to eat... hey, where are the chips?? They didn't give him the bag with the chips and bread in it. He had to go all the way back out to the store (and not the close Publix, the one by the interstate). Fucking Publix. As Johnny says, there's no way to win with them. Either Wegmans needs to hurry up and take over Publix, or the Penn Dutch needs to start staying open more reasonable hours. We can't go all the way out to the Whole Foods every time we need to run to the grocery store.
• We were hoping to go to the April 6th hockey game between the Lightning and the Panthers when we go visit my cousin Em in Tampa, but it is so beyond sold out. We didn't realize that's their last home game, or we would've bought tickets ages ago. Ugh. Now I am going to have to order my personalized Vincent Lecavalier jersey online, instead of being able to buy it in person at their arena shop. And I am going to miss out on seeing my hockey heartthrob again this season! :( (My poor little heart is breaking, boo-hoo!)
• I just got my first non-positive feedback on eBay (it was neutral, because I left the guy neutral feedback, and it would have been ridiculously unfair of him to leave me anything negative, since I held up my end of the deal flawlessly). I don't want to get into the details - it'll just take forever - but I am really annoyed about this one, because not only do I feel ripped off, but then he has the gall to be rude to me about my feedback for him??? UGH. All I'm going to say is, asswipe, how did your "clear and concise" pictures make the pen appear to be a different color than it is, and hide the fact that it is dirty and broken?? "Excellent condition," my ass. He is lucky I didn't leave him negative feedback - I probably should have, but it's too late for that now. Anyway, I think the pen will still clean up ok, and the broken bits shouldn't affect how it works too much (I hope). It is still a fine-point Sheaffer nib, so I am (somewhat) happy to have it.
• I got an e-mail in my gmail account the other day from some company saying that a purchasing account had been opened in my name. I just marked it as spam and didn't think anything else of it, until I got an e-mail newsletter from the same company, and that also got delivered to my inbox, as though it were legit mail. So I dunno what the hell is going on - I don't think anyone can make me pay for their shit ordered in my name if they don't have any of my financial info, can they? I haven't received any receipts for orders placed, so... the whole thing just kind of bugs me. I dunno if it's a weird phishing scam or what. I went to the company website, tho' (it appears to be a legit company), and wrote to the e-mails provided on the Contact Us page, requesting that if they do have an account associated with my e-mail address, that they close it and remove my e-mail from their mailing list. We'll see if my address is subsequently deluged with fresh spam. :(
• This week is pledge drive week at WLRN, the local public radio joint (aka "what I listen to every waking moment that Johnny is not home"). Pledge drives are annoying enough as it is, but WLRN's is irritating in several unique ways. They don't do that thing where they read people's names on air when they pledge, which doesn't bother me that much - I'd assume they get too many people pledging to do that, since they're a station in a major metropolitan area. Yet they never, ever seem to meet the hourly dollar-amount goals they set for themselves. Ever! It's ridiculous! I know it's the spring pledge drive, which is always slower than the fall. But they're trying to raise the same amount of money, all while cutting the drive to (as they love to repeat) 5 days and 5 hours ("our shortest spring pledge drive ever!"). They're so not going to make it, at this rate, and that is just sad. Also, since the pledge drive is shorter, they cut into the shows for longer periods to beg for money. No other station I've listened to (admittedly, limited selection: WRVO and WAER in Syracuse and WHRO/V in VA) has cut into the programming so much during pledge time. And they do this annoying thing where each day, everyone who pledges that day is entered into a drawing for a daily prize (yesterday was iPods - today, it's a pair of plane tickets to the Caribbean), so they spend all day talking up the damn prizes. Oh! And they keep going on about how easy it is to pledge on their website - which is utter b.s. - their site is one of he most broken, alternative-browser-unfriendly public broadcasting sites I've seen (I am not the only person who thinks this). I tried to pledge on Monday, and I couldn't do it in Firefox on my machine, couldn't do it in Safari, and eventually had to get on Johnny's Windows desktop where I could barely get the site to work on his Firefox. Like, don't they want my money? I am still not entirely sure the pledge went through, since I have not received an e-mail confirmation (I'll have to call them before the drive ends and check). But also, this week our radio seems to have been overtaken by a static monster, so when I am sitting on the couch, if I lean the wrong way at the wrong time of day, or if I get up and walk past the purple end table into the kitchen, the signal disappears in a wave of kssshhhwlafionsdfkhuujdfsp. Very irksome, and I can't figure out why this would just start now.

Ok, I think that's about it. That's a monster of a list, I know, and I don't blame anyone who skimmed it. It is a litany of woe. And I'm guessing, just based on statistical probabilities, that it must be coming to a close, soon. It just must be. This can't go on forever. I am tired of feeling like the world is shitting on me. So, begone, bad juju! Give me a stretch where everything goes my way for a while, okay? Please?

our baby is sick, and so am I

Apologies for the lack of posts recently... fun_with_cheese and some other members of my DH's family came to visit last week, so I was busy then. I will post pics of all the fun we had soon (some are already up on the Flickr, if you want to hunt for them), but first, I need to rant a bit.

As noted in the title, I am sick. I have been sick on and off since about the 12th, and man, am I sick of it. It seems to be my usual semi-annual sinus infection, but this year's has really packed a whallop. It started with a sore throat. Then a runny nose and lots of sinus congestion. Then I felt a little better for a while and thought I was getting over it. Not so! This past Saturday I took a big turn for the worse - feverish, chills, major muscle aches all over... I spent Sunday feeling like I was going to die. Johnny gave me my insurance card so I could go to the doctor... but Monday I felt better, so I (foolishly) didn't bother. Felt crappy again on Tuesday - by this point, the coughing-up-gobs-of-phlegm thing had started, too. Worse on Wednesday - I woke up with a headache, and could just feel the fluid sloshing around in my sinuses, and then the chills came back... Today I don't feel as feverish as I did yesterday, but the theme of the day has been breathing trouble and incessant productive coughing which leaves my chest burning. Oh, and my throat is sore again. Wheee! I fully expect to be dead by this weekend.

And not only am I sick, but our new baby Bertram is sick.

His check-engine light came on after Johnny had been driving him for a few days. He made a service appointment, took the car in, they got the light to shut off, but couldn't figure out what was wrong. So sure enough, the light came back on the next day. He took it in again, and they said they'd keep it until they could figure out the problem. In the meantime, he's driving a loaner car - the first one they gave him was a PT Cruiser, because there were no non-manual Mini loaners available (and he tried the manual and couldn't hack it), and that solidified our dislike of that particular car. But at least they gave him something to drive (he has a cute little 2006 Mini loaner car right now).

Eventually, they figured out that the wrong fuel pump was installed in Bertie at the factory. Since he is one of the new 2007 models, they don't have documentation of this problem happening to anyone else yet, nor do they have that particular part in stock. Wheee! So our baby is living in the shop until the part arrives and they can install it. Johnny is very, very bummed out. He is also particularly busy and stressed out at work right now, and also not feeling particularly well (tho' he does not seem to have the same brand of death-infection I have). We are a lot of fun to be around these days, let me tell you.

But wait, there's more! These two things seem to be part of an overall run of bad juju or something we seem to be having right now. In an attempt to exorcise this crappy stuff, I am going to enumerate everything shitty that's happened to us in the past few weeks in my next post.

and now, introducing...

Johnny & Liz are proud to present

the newest addition to our family:


Our new baby boy!

A 2007 MINI Cooper in Astro Black with sunroof and chrome trim!

Birthday: March 10, 2007
Length: 145.6 inches
Weight: 2634 pounds (give or take)

He doesn't have a name yet. Johnny thinks I'm nuts because I want to name the car, but of course he has to have a name! He's our baby! And he's Lucy's little brother!

I think Bertram would be a great name. I looked it up today and discovered it means "bright, famous raven," which is rather appropriate, given his color. Unless Johnny comes up with something better sometime soon, Bertram is going to stick. Of course, I welcome any suggestions y'all might have.

Wanna see some more pictures of him??



Shiny chrome trim!


His bonnet badge!


They've even got the logo on the taillights:


The funky new dashboard:


Push-button start! It's wacky!


That new gas gauge is so cool-looking:


I could go on, but I'll spare you. Hit up the Flickr if you really want to see all the baby pictures.

Suffice it to say...

Johnny is a proud new dad!

So where's the first place we took him, right off the lot? The 24-Hour Taco Shop, of course!


Now, I am not making this up...

Johnny chose a corner table by the window so we could watch him while we ate. And he thinks I'm weird for wanting to name the car? He is so clearly in love with this vehicle.

Ok, two more car-related pics and I promise I'm done. Look at the funky new key:

Pretty crazy, huh? Note the nice key chain Lauderdale MINI gave us, as well.

We also each got to pick out one thing from their stash of MINI paraphernalia. I'd already bought a shirt when we first visited the dealership a couple weeks ago, and Johnny couldn't find anything he liked in his size, so we chose mugs:

That's a kind of crappy picture, but you get the idea. For the record, I was pretty pleased with the whole buying process at Lauderdale MINI. They were friendly and pleasant every time we visited, and they made us feel welcome there. If you're in this area and looking for a new car, you could do worse than to pay them a visit.

goodbye, Grey Baron

Before we could pick up our new baby, we had to drive the old Grey Baron to the lot to trade him in. I took a ton of pictures of our last drive - I won't bore you with them all. Most of them are up on Flickr, if you're interested.


Climate controls, radio/tape deck, cup holder... all the important stuff. I added a photo gallery of friends and family - closeup of that below.


Anytime I took sticker pictures with anyone, I'd stick one up here. There are funny stories behind some of these. I took 'em all down and stuck 'em in a notebook. Now that this gallery is no more, I want to recreate it on Lucy's dash. I love being able to look at pictures of my loved ones while I'm stuck in traffic or sitting at a red light or something, and getting that warm fuzzy feeling.

Those sticker picture machines aren't as common as they once were, tho', so I'm probably going to just print out photos and stick them up with tape or something. There is an old-style photo booth at our closest K-mart, however... maybe I will have to drag all visitors over there so I can use those photos for my gallery. Hee!


See that crack in the windshield? A little souvenir from the vandals who took him (bastards). That's Johnny squinting in the rear view mirror.


Me in the side mirror. Note that all the windows are down - this is no place to drive around in a car with no air conditioning.


One last shot of the dashboard before we turned him off for the last time. 82,937 miles on him. I'm guessing at least 50,000 of those were put on by me.


Such cushy leather seats, very comfy for long car trips. I can't even remember how many road trips I took in the Grey Baron. He's been up and down the East Coast so many times, and then of course, there was the great cross-country road trip of 2001.


You'll note I did not steal the hood ornament. I was good. In retrospect, tho', maybe I should've taken it. It wouldn't have made him look all that much more beat up. He really was a nice car when he was new, but 16 years will take their toll.


Goodbye, Grey Baron. You were a great car - even if no one else misses you, I do, and I will always remember you.

(His trade-in value: $200.)

new car shopping

We have been awfully busy lately, and while I should have something like 72 pictures posted by now, I've only got 19. So I'm going to attempt to rectify both my lack of posts and my lack of pictures today - I'm not going to get completely caught up, but I'm gonna give it a good shot.

So after our recent misadventures with The Grey Baron, we decided it was time to get rid of him. We figured he probably wasn't worth fixing up, since a) he's 16 and a half years old, 2) he's got a ton of stuff wrong with him, iii) he'd probably just get stolen again (I mean, if they broke into him twice...), and d) Johnny has never liked him all that much, and he's the one who has to drive him. Plus, Johnny has never had a nice shiny new car, and we can (just barely) afford to get him one now. So. We asked Mom to mail us the title so we could trade The Grey Baron in, and we went looking for some new wheels...

We went here:

Lauderdale MINI, 1440 S. Federal Hwy, Ft. Lauderdale. We sort of half-heartedly planned to go check out the Honda Civics and Accords, too, but we never made it to the Honda dealership. :)


Just look at all the cute little babies!!


They've made a lot of changes to these cars since I got Lucy in 2002. We met our nice salesman, an older gentleman named Jim, and he showed us the new cars and took us on a test drive. He used to sell BMWs, and he told us how impressed he is by how much people really love their MINIs (like I need to be told - ha!). I thought he was very nice, until he jokingly suggested I might want to trade Lucy in so I could get a new MINI, too. No chance, car-man!!! I'm keeping her 'til her engine falls out.

But getting back to Johnny's car... the car he really wanted was green with the premium package (which has the multi-function steering wheel and the sunroof), but they didn't have one of those available and he didn't want to wait for them to custom-build one. He flipped through their book of available incoming models, and settled on a little guy in Astro Black (his second choice color) with the premium package and also a few features from the sport package and the convenience package. Those extras upped the price a bit, but not too much. This car was still on a boat, though, so we'd have to wait a couple weeks before we could see him. But that was ok, since that gave us time to arrange financing and insurance and all that mess.

It was finally time to bid farewell to The Grey Baron.

a bizarre late-nite craving...

I don't know what it is, but all of a sudden I am dying for some Buffalo wings!!!

Why oh why do we have to live so far away from this place now??



(In case you don't recognize it, that's the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, where Buffalo wings were invented.)

There is a place here, actually quite close to us, called Wings 'n Curls, which allegedly has good chicken wings. I wouldn't know, since the one time we tried to go there, we arrived at 9:30 (they close at 10 - pathetic, for a wings place) and were told we would not be seated and that they were only accepting take-out orders at that point. Since the whole reason we went out to eat that day was to go out and sit down somewhere, we went elsewhere. I know it's kind of rude to walk into a restaurant half-an-hour before closing time, and we definitely don't make a habit of doing that, but still. Their reception could have been more pleasant. Anyway, if I'm ever craving chicken wings at a more reasonable hour and make it over there while they're still willing to serve me, I'll let you know how that place is.

In the meantime, I'll just be here, missing the delicacies of the New York rust belt...

posting from the road

We're in Deltona this weekend visiting Johnny's parents, sister, her husband, her kid, and any other various family members who may stop by. This means I will either have a lot of time to get caught up on posting, or I'll have even less time than usual.

Here are a couple random pictures, in the interim, just so I don't get hopelessly behind.

So, crazy weather in South Florida. One day earlier this week, I was just sitting around the house when I heard a clap of thunder. Looked out the window at a perfectly blue sky. Within minutes, the downpour started.


It poured under a dark sky for about 20 minutes, then the sun came out, but it continued to pour for another 10 minutes... probably the brightest sunshower I've ever seen. The alleged wedding between a monkey and a fox in the jungle must have been brief, but spectacular.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the rain stopped.