musings of Mother Hood

Friday December 22, 2006

Happy Holidays!

Taking a break for Christmas. I'll be back to blogging next week!

Thursday December 21, 2006

Three posts in one day... slow day at SSX...

I just got back from Buffalo Wild Wings with a bunch of people from work. Until today I've had a really lukewarm feeling toward BWW -- not my favorite place, but I don't mind it - hey, I like chicken, right? So, today, we go in there with approximately 20 people. We are in a back area, only people back there, our own waitress. Lots of people to wait on, but whatever.

I order the following: chicken tenders with Honey BBQ sauce, buffalo chips, side of sour cream and a Diet Coke. Of those four things, she got one of them right. First, she brought me a real Coke. Then she brought me 4 Honey BBQ flavored boneless wings and Bleu Cheese (which I'm sure looks a lot like sour cream...). She got the buffalo chips (french fries) right. Applause. ALSO -- she brought me my check before she brought the food! The far end of our table got there first and had already ordered and was leaving so she printed out everyone's check at one time and brought them to the table. She asked me for mine and I told her I didn't plan on paying for food I hadn't received (much less eaten) yet. She glared at me. Whatever.

It actually turned out to be one of the cheapest lunches out I've had in awhile. Apparently wings are only 50 cents so my 4 wings were only $2 total -- the 4 chicken tenders that I actually ordered would have been at least twice that. Also she forgot to charge me for my drink -- so I was sure to get one to-go

Thursday December 21, 2006

So I guess it's probably wrong to complain about those trying to protect my financial identity, but I think it's going a little overboard.

I used to think that it was excessive to have a pin # in addition to my member # and my password when I sign on to USAA.com. NOW, you have to put in a member #, password, pin #, city you got married in, high school mascot, and place where you met your spouse. Ridicurous! Even more ridiculous is that, this morning, after jumping through each one of those hoops -- my account became locked and I had to maneuver through the 1800 touch-tone service to get to a person who could unlock my bank account!

I'm sure there are people out there who have a financial identity worth all of that security-- I personally think that if anyone really wants access to my measly little bank account, they can have it!

Thursday December 21, 2006

This morning on Sam 98 the DJs were having listeners call in for a chance to win a romantic dinner to Tony C's off-Dickson. For those of you who do not live in Fayetteville or who are otherwise unfamiliar with Tony C's -- please rent the Patrick Swayze classic Road House to learn more. Very romantic...

Tuesday December 19, 2006

So about a month ago I received a bill from the State of Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration Revenue Division... for whatever reason-- I disregarded it for a few weeks.

The day we were supposed to leave for Vegas, I decided to open and take care of it. Unfortunately, it was a notice that I had failed to submit my W2's for 2005 (even though I filed my taxes on time and owed nothing), a bill for tax penalties of $300-- and was due that day. Whoops. So I wrote a note whining about how I had just recently married and was on my honeymoon yada yada and, oh by the way, here's my W2 that you wanted. Taken care of. Right?

So, yesterday morning, I happened to think of it and tried to remember to call their office to confirm that it was resolved. It slipped my mind until after 5:00 yesterday and I put it on my list to do today. In the meantime, I go check my post office box to find yet another letter from the Dept of Finance and Admin..... for the original penalty plus interest! Crap! So last night, we had a heated "discussion" about the importance of taking care of things on time and avoiding unnecessary tax penalties... so I agreed to call the office today to see what my options were and take it from there.

Well, apparently, when I sent in my W2 in November I failed to remember that I had not one but three W2's in 2005 and I had only sent in my Cool Water form -- they wanted the Outback one, too. Picky Picky.

So I was as cooperative as possible and told JoAnn at the office that I was more than willing to fax her the form right now-- so I did and called her back, and just like that - no more $300 tax penalty! Whew!

Tuesday December 19, 2006

Thursday December 14, 2006

On my way home from Jazz last night, a few things caught my eye...

Did you know that they've turned the building on Sycamore that used to be The Beer Barn -- into a church? I laughed out loud in the car by myself when I saw this. I've heard of churches that meet in schools, individuals' homes, strip malls-- but The Beer Barn? Makes you say "hmm".

Also on my way home last night, I noticed that the building on Garland that was most recently a spa-- and I wanna say it was a florist before that-- is now a coffee house.

Which isn't as notable as The Beer Barn church -- until you look closely...

I had to look twice. I thought to myself, "Surely that brand new coffeehouse didn't misspell the word cappuccino." But, indeed.

Best of luck to the new Copheehouse. -- and The Beer Barn of God.

Tuesday December 12, 2006

Hi All. I promised you a 2-weekend update including pictures. Here goes--

LAST weekend, the big story was that we fell victim to a conspiracy spearheaded by UBC and a Fayetteville Towing Company. We parked in the UBC lot behind Dickson around 7pm. We came back around 11pm to find that the vehicle was gone. There's a sign posted at the entrance to the lot that clearly says cars will be towed if left past 7am on Sunday mornings -- this was 11pm Friday night! So I call the number and get the driver of the tow truck. I not-so-politely ask him where our vehicle is. He explains to me that he has been towing cars all night in order to keep "the alley" clear. Note: Our car was parked toward the center of the lot- in a spot. So, as I'm talking to the guy, he pulls up in the parking lot! Just for a frame of reference, this was the day that every school within 50 miles was closed, including the University, everyone was snowed/iced in so there were VERY few people even on Dickson that night. The parking lot is practically empty at this point, when the tow truck driver gets out and tells us he's only doing his job yada yada he's been towing cars that were "out in the alley" yada yada we'll have to take it up with UBC...

So we follow the guy to where the vehicle is -- where we are greeted by this sign: 

I ask them for the reasoning behind towing GK's truck. Lester, who is working the front desk, offers a Polaroid in which I can see a 100% unidentifiable white vehicle parked approximately 6 inches over the line in a parking lot. No license plate shot, no wide shot for context -- this is the proof they offered. He tells me there were several vehicles parked over the line (but beside each other, in line) and that they were all towed. He refuses to answer any questions -- tells us to "take it up with the preacher at UBC". Wow. The towing company can come by a public parking lot, at 8:30pm on a Friday night, tow your car, charge you $100 to get it back-- and the only proof they provide is a Polaroid of a white car. I asked if I could have the Polaroid and Lester informed me that they would be "keeping it on file for 2 years".

By the time we left, the whole situation was comical. Keith, me, unidentified Tow Truck Driver and Jennifer in pic.

So, Saturday was better! I went to Nancy's to build a Gingerbread House with Abby. I made the mistake of telling Abby, who's 3, that she could eat the candy that was broken -- that we didn't want to use it to decorate the house. It was all downhill after that. Finding the broken candy became MUCH more fun than putting candy on the house! But we finished and I have to say, it's a work of art. It's proudly displayed in our house as one of our only two Christmas decorations. (The other is our Christmas Poinsettia.)

So this last weekend -- we went to a party at Deb's house.

More party pics in the photo album.

Saturday night, Andrew and I went ice skating at the Bentonville rink -- which we did not realize is the size of my living room. We were all psyched about going- we drove up and just stared. It was tiny and obviously there's nothing like a zamboni or anything to clean off the ice.  There were approximately 500 kids skating so we waddled onto the ice long enough to get our picture made.

 

So this week. Yesterday, I got official approval to take a class next semester! I am a few classes from finishing my Accounting de gree and will start in January.

Also. Against my better judgment, I clicked on a link off of a website yesterday, and found a website called RealAge.com.  They take into account my exercise/eating habits, family health history, blah blah. According to their calculations -- my calendar age is 24.2, but my RealAge is 19.4!

Pampered Chef Party tonight!

Friday December 8, 2006

I am going to be a big girl and pretend that it doesn't hurt my feelings that I had over 200 hits on my site yesterday and not one single comment... I'll start thinking of ways for you to make it up to me.

Last night, I ventured back to Jazzercise. It's been my first session back after "the injury". I know I never told you the story of the injury -- and that was deliberate. The story is really lame and even I will have a hard time making it entertaining. It will have to stand on its own honesty in order to provide drama.

So, we went to the Razorbacks/LSU game the Friday after Thanksgiving after spending a week in Las Vegas. I didn't blog about that week because when the Razorbacks lose there is something of a mourning period -- you understand. So we were at the game and it was beautiful weather and great atmosphere, yada yada, people were tossing beach balls around the stands. I paid no mind to this -- until one came our way. This was no ordinary beach ball. It had to have been 8-feet across! So I reached up to bat it away and I'm not sure if it was the jumping up or the landing -- but when I came back down after hitting the beach ball, there was something wrong. I was trying to be tough (you all know that's a losing battle...) and got through the rest of the game. My back really hurt, but I thought if I could just get back to the house and have Jeff step on it for me -- that'd I'd be alright. So it hurt all night and I thought that after a night's sleep- it'd be all better. NOT the case. I couldn't get out of bed the next morning! Jeff's parents diagnosed it as a pulled muscle and his mom set me up with this vibrating/heating pad which was awesome. We made it back to Fayetteville and I literally stayed in bed for two entire days, trying not to move.

So there ya go, I pulled a muscle in my back batting away a beach ball at a football game. But I'm back on the wagon-- started back to Jazz last night. No worries.

I was reminded yesterday that I never blogged about our adventures last weekend! And Keith's services have been hired for an UGPO party tonight.  So I promise you a fun-filled blog come Sunday night-- I will include last weekend's goingson and photos as well. To give you a preview, the weekend festivities included a tow truck, a Gingerbread House, the Razorbacks getting an invite to the Capital One Bowl, and my buying our Christmas Poinsettia. (Nancy: Send pictures so I can put them up!)

Pictures of Tom:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Promoted to 1st Lieutenant!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you need his address, let me know. I know he'd like to hear from you!

Wednesday December 6, 2006

Dear Readers: I have added a new section to my blog that I hope you will enjoy. To get there, click on "photos" along the top of this page. You'll come to a "photoblog" which includes all photos I've ever posted as part of my entries. -- this is not the new feature... -- along the right-hand side of that page you'll see a section called "Albums". There are three. Enjoy. I will add to these continually, so check back for new pictures. Also-- you can leave comments on any and all photos in the albums.

Let me know what you think about the new photo album feature.