31 days - Day 31

First off, thank you to everyone who commented/liked the photo I posted on Facebook yesterday.  All of your good wishes were felt and I am excited to see what happens next week.  I don’t generally share unknown’s like potential jobs on the blog, I like to keep things secret and share about them when they are a for sure thing, but for some reason this felt ok to share.  Today is the last day of the 31 day blogging challenge and I think I did fairly well, there were a few grouped together posts and one missed day, but I think all in all it went pretty well and as you can see life is really busy and blogging late at night can be tough, however, I am hoping to keep the momentum going and blog more often than I used too.  Tomorrow the Sheriff and I are headed to Parker, AZ for the annual Dam Race, I am pretty excited to go, it seems like forever since I have gotten away and I am ready for a change of scenery and some pontooning on the river.   But the most important piece to this is post and the saving the best for last item is……………today is Super Mom’s birthday!  Here is a Happy Birthday shout out from your favorite child!  I hope you had a great birthday, you are the bestest M O M ever!  I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween, TRICK or TREAT (I cannot wait to raid Mr. Pie’s candy tonight).

31 days - Day 30

What a day!!  I had my second interview with the City of Newport Beach today and boy howdy did it go well!  I felt like today's interview went so much better than the first one and I did not say "um" nearly as many times as I did last week.  There were four people there again today, they would be all of my new coworkers/supervisors if I was hired and they all seemed very nice and I would be happy to work with them.  I am anxious to hear if I will get one of the two positions they are hiring for, they asked me if I had wanted one position more than the other and I said "no" that I would be happy to take either one.  I had a couple concerns regarding one of the positions and the odd work hours but it sounds like it won't be to crazy after all and it would work out for me.  I had good questions for them and I think they were impressed, at least they appeared to be, so I am hoping that will help secure me a job!  I couldn't of felt better about how it went and I am so excited to share it with everyone and if I do not get hired I feel like I did the best I could and I have no regrets.  So, yay for me, everything went really well.  Fingers crossed that it goes in my favor!  

When did I become an adult?  Lol, I feel so grown-up, how did that happen?  It is time to go back to Never Neverland!

31 days - Day 28 & 29

Ahhh, I'm getting so close to the end of this 31 day challenge, yesterdays post did not happen though, I was in recovery mode from this past weekend, I ate dinner and collapsed into bed and that was all she wrote for last night.  Tonight I am in interview prep mode again!  I have my second interview with Newport Beach tomorrow afternoon, so it has been it has been an evening full of studying, ironing and just mentally preparing for it.  I think things will be a lot less stressful this go around and currently I do not feel the need to barf, so that is a good thing.  I am taking tomorrow off from work because little Miss Gracie-pants needs to go to the Vet for some blood work due to her excessive consumption of water and I am going to see my girl Mandana to get my hair done before my interview to help tame this wild mane of mine and then it is off to the interview and then to Baby Beach to help load canoes for the Dam Race this weekend and then a date with the Sheriff.  I am not sure if I said "and then" enough in that last sentence, I guess it is an indicator of my bad grammar and my busy life.

Again, please send calming thoughts my way around 1:40pm tomorrow as I find my way into the "hot seat" again and try and convince them how AWESOME I am and why they need to hire me right then and there, Gracias!

31 days - Days 25, 26 & 27

Today we have another combined post for the 31 day challenge, my weekends are generally jam packed and I would be blogging at 11pm at night and I already have enough grammatical errors during normal waking hours that I really do not need to add to it by posting late at night!  

Friday was a day full of shopping because............drumroll please.............I got a second interview with the City of Newport Beach for this Wednesday at 1:40pm and I needed a few things or shall I say a new pair of shoes cause wouldn't you know it, I broke both heals on my current pair last week.  I also bought the most amazing top from J.Crew (thanks to all of the gift cards I have held on too, cause it was pricey) and I might of come home with a new Kate Spade purse.   After my shopping adventures, I went with the Sheriff and Mr. Pie to Mr. Pie's school Halloween Carnival, it was cute and fun and everyone seemed to have a good time.  All Mr. Pie wanted to do was find the bob for donuts on a string game, we found it he loved it and then we hit everything else.  Mr. Pie even won me a light up ghost ring that I eventually traded him for the light up Candy Corn ring when we got home.

A little studying that I needed to to before my first interview!

Saturday was AWESOME!  We had paddling practice in the morning, there was dense fog, but I had to go to practice, it has been a couple weeks (I have sure loved the free time at home) and the Dam Race is next weekend, so to practice I went.  After practice the Sheriff, Mr. Pie and I decorated for Halloween (yes, we are kinda late to the party on this one, but we have been buuuussssssyyyyyy), so we got the front of the house all decorated and ready for the trick or treaters.  After a quick shower it was off to the Hollywood Bowl for the Zac Brown Band concert, it was AMAZING, we had such a good time.  We originally planned to park at the LA Zoo and take a shuttle to the Hollywood Bowl, but after an invite from our paddler friend Buck and his wife Muguet, we decided to park at the hotel they were staying at and enjoy a pre-concert gathering in their room with a bunch of their friends and walk to the concert from there.   We had amazing seats, a great dinner and a wonderful time there, I cannot wait to go back!

A little Halloween Decor!

I've got my boots on and I am ready to go!

It's not everyday your boyfriend asks you to hide his gun in your purse!  Don't worry, he ended up hiding it under his jacket as we walked into the concert!

Buck, Muguet, Ken and I!  We had such a nice time with them!

Today was kind of a chill day, I did not get to bed until about 2am this morning and I had to force myself to get up at 9:45am to meet my friend Kris and her pup Olive for a morning walk.  This is where I give Kris the credit she deserves that I did not include on my previous post.  See Kris was the one who suggested we try out this paddling thing a year and a half ago, up until then I had no idea what an outrigger canoe was let alone know how to paddle in one.  Kris is the reason I joined DOCC and what ultimately led me to meeting the Sheriff.  So to say "thank you" to Kris is not nearly enough, I do not have words to express how grateful I am to her for suggesting this new activity which has totally changed my life for the better and I truly believe this is part of the plan for my life.  Anyways, Kris and I walked the dogs and tried to catch up on months of our lives that have been so busy that this is the first time I have seen her since May!  After our walk is was time for some laundry and a little rest before heading to HB for Super Mom's birthday celebration!  Super Dad took us all out to dinner and after we headed back to their house for cake and presents, it was nice and low-key, Caroline was the entertainment for the evening and it was just nice to hangout with everyone!

Sadly, I do not have any good pics of the birthday girl. :(

Now it is back to the grind, another work week starts tomorrow, boo!

31 days - Day 24

11 months ago today the Sheriff and I met for the first time at Baby Beach in Dana Point, 11 months ago, wow, time has really flown by.  It is crazy to think that next month we will have been dating for a year, where has the time gone?  It has been a busy 11 months, but it has been a lot of fun along the way.  I'm not gonna lie when we first met I was kind of unsure about dating a guy with a child and I swore I would never date another man in uniform let alone one who carries a gun for a living again, but look where we are now, 11 months into a great relationship, Mr. Pie is a fantastic kiddo and who doesn't love a man in uniform!  And how perfect was it tonight that we were out with all of our DOCC friends for a club fundraiser/ halloween party, because had I never joined this club he and I probably would of never met (it is crazy to think of all of the things that happened in my life that eventually led me to DOCC, it sure shows that we are not in control of our lives and everything happens for a reason)!  So here's to another 11 months of fun and happiness!

This picture is only fitting cause we are baby beach where it all started!

31 days - Day 23

I have learned a lot (as in what is cool in 8 year old boy land) in the last few months from hanging out with Mr. Pie, but this YouTube video takes the cake.  The other day Mr. Pie and I were playing on his ipad and he showed me probably the most creepy video on the internet.  After I watched it, I looked at the Sheriff and asked him if he had seen it, he said "yes" and agreed that it was creepy and then said "it's Swedish" like that should explain everything, SMH!

31 days - Day 22

I had my interview today with the City of Newport Beach, it went very well, a few tongue-tied moments but all in all it was great, now the waiting game to see if there will be a second interview, fingers crossed! 

31 days - Days 19, 20 & 21

I started this post last night but I was a glass and a half of wine into the evening and sleep sounded so much better and before I knew it I was out, plus this post did not really stand a chance against tiredness and wine, so I am attempting it again tonight.  This weekend was busy to say the least, Mr. Pie, the Sheriff and I spent pretty much all waking hours together, we had a great time and got a lot done.  Saturday we went to Home Depot to get some paint samples for Mr. Pies new room and the dreadful yellow that the Sheriff is hell bent on painting his living room despite my input on the color choices.  After paint selection, we went to Stacks for breakfast, we were all starting to get a little "hungry" at that point, so to prevent any lives lost we went and got food.  With fully bellies we went Halloween decoration shopping and back to MP's & the Sheriff's house to test out the paint samples in MP's room and quickly decided they were winners.  We did not have a whole lot of time to dedicate to painting because we were on our way to "Bat Night"  at the Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary in Silverado Canyon put on by Cal State Fullerton's biology department.  It was kind of a cheesy event, but there were a lot of reptiles and dead bats for Mr. Pie to hold and touch and he had fun so it was worth it and it was kind of nice to go to a different part of the OC for a change.  

This snake made the news last year, it was loose in the Brea Mall.

Sunday we hit Home Depot again, got all of the necessary painting supplies, ate breakfast and got to work, Mr. Pie's room is going to look really nice when it is all done.  We decided to add some stripes to his walls, so it will make it kind of interesting.  The Sheriff cooked us dinner and that was all she wrote, we were tired, covered in paint and ready for bed.  

I told him to put on old clothes, I think he found the smallest pj shorts in his drawer!

Not sure I have envisioned myself painting these colors in a room, but he likes them!

These bracelets are the latest craze and Mr. Pie's school, he was kind enough to give me one!

My well deserved glass of yummy goodness!

And tonight, I am relaxing at home, I need to study for my job interview and dust off my big girl clothes because tomorrow at 9:30am I am gonna rock their world or I am gonna barf lets hope for rock their world and I need to run a couple errands before the night is over.  The oven timer is now beeping, so I must go eat, wish me luck and at 9:30am tomorrow wish we calm nerves!

31 days - Day 18

It's a wild kind of night at my house; me, Gracie (currently snoring), netflix and words with friends aka I am bored!  Anyone want to come over and play?  Call me maybe?  Lol, happy Friday everyone!

31 days - Day 16 & 17

Yes, Yes, Yes, I know day 16 did not happen yesterday so I am doing a day 16/17 combo today.  Yesterday was a bust for blogging for so many reasons one, my Starbucks is closed for remodeling, why they did not do this when it caught fire I don’t know and since my Starbucks card balance was at $0 I thought it would be a great idea to just quit cold turkey, so I was not caffeinated yesterday so there was no pep in my step.  Two, work was exhausting.  Three, the Sheriff and Mr. Pie came over for dinner, so I was in a rush to get dinner on the table quickly because Mr. Pie was what we like to call “hangry” hungry and angry and I was getting there too and we all needed to eat.  Four, Gracie needed to be taken care of as well, she is having some bladder issues where she wets her bed when she sleeps and has been drinking a lot of water, so now she is on meds twice a day and I have to measure how much water she drinks every day for 10 days and then we will decide where to go from there.  Five, the Sheriff and Mr. Pie left around 7:30pm, I laid down on the couch and had a crazy nerve attack down my right leg here and there for a while and I could only lay in a certain position to lessen the pain and I fell asleep.  Six, I was out like a light from 8pm-11pm before forcing myself to get up and go get ready for bed.  But today is a new day and since I am still in self-torture mode aka no Starbucks again today, I chose to sleep in a bit, walk the dog and go to work, nothing to terribly exciting going on but in case you are wondering what was for dinner last night it was this, sadly I do not have a picture to show for it.  Dinner was ok, it could of used more flavor (the Sheriff has come to the conclusion that he overs seasons and I under season food, which I can say is a fairly accurate statement) and some kind of protein.  I am so glad tomorrow is FRIDAY, I am ready for the weekend, we are going to paint Mr. Pie’s new bedroom and decorate for Halloween, so it should be a fun and exhausting weekend together!

And for kicks a totally random picture......

My self portrait!

31 days - Day 15

Tap Tap is this thing on?  I am almost halfway through the 31 day blogging challenge and I am starting to wonder if anyone is still reading at this point?  I had ten hits yesterday, yes only ten, what the heck, what happened to the other thirty that normally log in?  Anyways, I am tired, my brain is pounding and I am ready for bed so I will make this short and sweet!  I will leave you with a picture of what Gracie should not be dreaming of......goodnight!

31 days - Day 14

Well, it sure seems as if yesterday's post generated a lot of feelings about the color yellow, some supported the Sheriff and some supported me, it was actually quite comical!  Today we briefly discussed paint colors, but we had other things to talk about as in job interviews!!!!  It has been an exciting week for us career wise, the Sheriff is heading to a new department that he is oh so excited about on Friday and I got a job interview with the City of Newport Beach next Tuesday at 9:30am.  I love my job in RSM but I have been there almost five years, so I am feeling it is time to move on to bigger and better things, now if I don't get the job in Newport Beach I know that I was 1 out of 150 people who applied and I got an interview so I am happy about and that I still have a great job to go back to, so either way it is a win.  Just for the record, I am soooooo nervous about this interview, when I got the email this morning saying I was invited to interview I felt like I was going to puke, then I had to call and schedule it, I may of been an eager beaver cause the moment I read the email, I called and picked my time and the gal in HR told me I was the first to call back.  So 9:30am next Tuesday morning, please send your good thoughts and prayers for calm nerves and clear answers cause I am going to need them!   Woohoo, I am soooo excited that I may of high fived myself secretly in my head. Wish me luck!

31 days - Day 13

Ahhh, I almost forgot to update the blog tonight as I was engrossed in the Dunn Edwards book of colors while hanging out with the parents tonight.  See the Sheriff needs to do a little painting around his house and we decided yesterday that next Saturday we are going to paint Mr. Pie's new bedroom and get it all painted nice and paint some of his furniture to give him new look without having to buy anything at this time.  So I sent the Sheriff this picture......

and you can read our dialog below.....

The yellow he is referring to is this god awful yellow that he thinks would look just splendid in his living room, let's just say I will not be helping him pick, purchase or paint any yellow paint that will be going in the living room! AHHHHHH!!!!

31 days - Day 12

Today started out with another crazy headache (I think it is allergies), so I ditched paddling practice so I could sleep in a little bit and as soon as I got up I hit the ground running.  By 9am I had started a load of laundry, walked Gracie, got my morning crack coffee and had hit Trader Joe's, CVS, the bank and Home Depot.  All summer long I had been doing the bare minimum to get by at my house, I would dust occasionally, give the bathroom a quick wipe down when it was looking bad, sweep up the dog hair when I could not stand it any longer and just maintain the house enough that if someone came over it would be somewhat presentable and that the dog walker would not call the SPCA on me.  So today I got my act together and did some serious cleaning and maintenance.  My little laundry room was turning into my little hoard very quickly with a few Craigslist items that need to be sold, a snow cone machine that belongs to Mr. Pie & the Sheriff, more picnic supplies than I care to admit, dog toys, a Halloween costume, beach towels, reusable grocery bags, etc. It was bad (I should of taken a picture), most of it was stacked on my dryer making doing laundry difficult and a hazard.  But now I have a clean laundry room, clean floors, a clean kitchen, a clean bathroom (and light in the bathroom, I have five light bulbs in there and four of them were burnt out, SMH) and all of my laundry washed, folded and put away and now I am exhausted, but it feels so good!

Gracie is tuckered out as well!

My little shoebox is all clean!  I know, I totally broke my New Year's resolution a from a few year's ago to never clean on the weekends, but desperate times call for desperate measures and today I was desperate!

31 days - Day 11

Two weeks from tomorrow the Sheriff and I have tickets to see the Zac Brown Band at the Hollywood Bowl, to say we are excited is an understatement!  We both really wanted to see them in concert so I looked them up back in May to see if they were playing locally and soon but they were not going to be in Southern California until October so me being the "voice of reason" I thought about it, questioned the Sheriff asking him if we should buy them, he said "yes", I thought about it some more, asked him again, he said "yes" thought about it some more, asked him again if we should really buy them, he said "yes" thought about it some more and you get the picture, so I bought them and we have really good seats as in they were really expensive so they better be rocking seats!  

I decided that I needed a pair of boots to wear to the concert, so the Sheriff and I picked these puppies out!  I wanted them to have some flowers on them, so when I saw these they were perfect, actually I saw a pair that I liked better but they $500 so they stayed on the shelf.  I wish I could change the toe on these, they are a little too pointy for me but I think they will look good with the dress I am going to wear them with.

Now we just have to wait a few more days for a little  "Chicken Fried"!

31 days - Day 10

Since today is the 10th day of the 10th month and it is the 10th day of my 31 days of blogging challenge, I thought I would share 10 things from my day today! 

After an entire day and night of rain yesterday, we woke up to sunshine and brisk temps this morning!  It is only gonna get colder so it might be time to break out the winter gloves and fire up the furnace.

Gracie girl and I enjoyed our morning walk a coffee (I have got to stay warm somehow).

Today was pay day for our beloved dog walker Curtis.  A few weeks ago I shorted him a dollar and I kept forgetting to give it to him, today I finally remembered.

I got in my car this morning and was greeted with the empty gas tank light, errr!  Nothing like being in a rush to work and need to get gas along the way.

Panera makes these yummy breakfast sandwiches but they are really bad for you, so I have to limit myself to one a week.

I have been avoiding the dentist like the plague, I hate going and I always cry afterwards.  I had an appointment a few months ago, but it was when work was hell, paddling had taken over my life, I was never home and I was getting ready to go on vacation so I cancelled my appointment and never rescheduled.  Well, they called today and I will be going in a month, sorry Kerry, I love you but I hate the services that you offer at your office.  If anyone needs a dentist he is awesome, you can call the number on your screen.

I called the Sheriff this afternoon to figure out our plans for tomorrow, there is no possible way he does not think I am crazy, after our chat and him shaking his head, I sent him the above picture, it is totally accurate.

I cleaned out my purse today, no explanation needed as to why, see below....

The cute little Halloween decorations were made and given to me by our sewing instructor at work, how cute are they? I cannot take them home since Gracie will want to eat them, so they are decorating my office at work.

And a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend Elisse!

There you have it, 10 things on the 10th day of the 10th month!

31 days - Day 9

It has a wet and rainy day here in the OC and it is nice to have a change in the weather (I am sitting here cuddled up to a warm fuzzy blanket because it is freezing), the last few weeks it has been hot and this past weekend it was in the 90's, so its kind of strange to have rain, but when it comes with thunder and lightening I will take it.  Gracie hates the thunder and she usually hides under me, but thankfully she did not freak out this time due to some friendly distraction from the Sheriff and Mr. Pie.  The Sheriff and Mr. Pie came over for our weekly Wednesday dinner date, where I cook (tonight the Sheriff cooked most of it), we eat, I subject them to the mandatory photo for proof that it did happen and we enjoy each others company.  Tonight we added a little gaming to our evening with a competitive round of Sorry! The whole time it was looking as if the Sheriff was going to win and Mr. Pie was gonna be dead last considering we went through three decks of cards before he made it out of start, but he pulled an amazing comeback  and beat both of us fair and square.  We all had a great time and I think Wednesday nights have turned into dinner and game nights from now on.  

They both beat me bad!

The weekly photo of dinner, it was a shrimp pasta with white wine sauce.  I wish you all could see how cute Mr. Pie was tonight, he had a fresh haircut and it was all styled along with his school uniform = adorable.  Based on today's weather, it looks as if the ac unit can come down for the winter, cause it is time to turn the heat on.

Stay dry out there!

31 days - Day 8

The weather is changing around these parts tonight and I am kind of ready for it, it is supposed to rain tomorrow and my good ole internal barometer is feeling it.  Pretty much every time we have a significant weather change I can feel it where my screw is located in my hip where the slipped growth plate occurred, bizarre!  And ever since I had the second surgery on my hip done a few years ago, I now feel weather changes radiating through all of my leg bones, I guessing this is from the excess bone removal they did.  So, with the change in the weather, my Summer hair do is going to have to go, I so loved the days of a quick shower and a towel dry of the hair and up it went, it was so low maintenance it was amazing!  Now I will be forced to resurrect the hair dryer and actually dry my hair so I don't freeze all day long.  I'm not gonna lie, I hate drying my hair, it takes FOREVER and it is so thick, wavy and frizzy it makes me crazy!  So anyone with uncontrollable hair out there want to throw me their sleek hair secrets, I pinky promise I will not tell anyone what you do.  Please help!  I might cave and go to the beauty supply store and spend some $$$$ on product, cause this is some wild hair I have got going on.  

Bye bye quick and easy!  

BTW, my bathroom is not fluorescent green, it is just bad lighting.

And speaking of weather changes, this is one of my favorite posts, to me the pictures came out amazing  and coincidentally they were taken this time last year.

31 days - Day 7

I'm at a loss for what to blog about tonight with such an eventful week last week this week seems mighty boring and it is only MONDAY!  So it is dinner that I will be writing about tonight! I like to keep dinner simple, its just me that I cook for mostly so there is really no need to even try, its not like I am trying to impress myself with my multitude of culinary skills (did I use multitude correctly?  Geez, I feel so blond right now, it seemed like a good word at the time).  Tonight's feast was an old favorite, stuffed bell peppers, more like pepper in my case, but who's counting the peppers, I'm not, cause one pepper sounds lonely and who wants to be lonely when they eat, ummm, no one.   They are so simple to make and they don't break the bank when going to the market, so yay for a winner dinner!  All you need is...... 

-1lb of ground beef

-half an onion (diced)

-8oz can of tomato sauce

-1/2 cup of bread crumbs

-salt and pepper

-3 bell peppers or in my case 1

mix all of the ingredients in a bowl, boil the bell pepper(s) for 5 mins, stuff the bell pepper and cook in the oven for 45 mins at 350 covered and then 15 mins uncovered and there you have it an amazing dinner (tip poke holes in the bell pepper to let some of the fat drain out easier).  I served mine with a side of avocado and called it a night.

What you need!  As you can see, I support my local Trader Joe's!

The final product, I like to add a dollop of tomato sauce, it makes it fancy!

Does anyone hear the lame commercial jingle about daisy sour cream when they hear the word dollop?  It would sing something like "do a dollop with daisy" or something like that.  I do every time and it makes my crazy, cause I was probably 9 years old when that commercial aired.

ENJOY!

I forgot to mention, that there is plenty of meat left over, so I the lucky lonely bell pepper gets three to four meals out of the this, for the win!

31 days - Day 6

A little weekend wrap-up!  Friday night a bunch us DOCC peeps and I went out together, we went to Stillwater in Dana Point for dinner and then we went and saw Super Diamond aka the surreal Neil at the Coach House in San Juan and had a great time!  Saturday was very low key, I woke up with a bad/almost a migraine headache, so the Sheriff and I hung out Saturday morning inside where it was nice and cool and enjoyed our coffee since it was probably 85 degrees by 10am here.  After he left to go to work and my headache was mostly gone (I could only feel it if I bent over) I went to Brayden's soccer game, poor kids, it was 94 degrees out.  After that it was a low key evening for Gracie and I, my headache came back so it was nice to just watch TV.  Today we had paddling practice (we are gearing up for the DAM race) and a little end of paddling season BBQ aka another excuse to hang out together and now I am just relaxing on the couch in denial of all the things I should get done tonight before another work week begins!  

This is how Gracie and I do Sunday afternoons!

31 days - Day 5

In the last few months my Starbucks has had a run of bad luck, first I had a nightmare about them closing here and then this happened, then my Starbucks caught fire and was closed for a few days which I was so traumatized that I could not even blog about it and then wait for it........... yesterday they were robbed in the middle of the night so they were closed as they waited for cops to show up and take a report.  AHHHHHH!  Along with all of those problems there have been several mornings that they have been closed due to plumbing work being done on the building and no water in their store and then I come to find out they will be closing for two weeks as they remodel the store, NOOOOOOOOO!  My head hurts just thinking about it!  I woke up with a killer headache this morning and I need my coffee, I just might call ahead to make sure everything is in working order before I walk over there.  LOL, talk about serious first world problems.

31 days - Day 4

The five words everyone dreads to hear.......license, insurance and registration please, I heard yesterday!  I was driving to work, minding my own business and out of the corner of my eye I saw him and I knew right then and there I was done.  Lights go on and I am now pulling over to the side of the rode, doh!  I dig through my purse, wallet and glove box and give him everything he asks for and then he asks me why I have not put that pretty blue sticker (he did not say pretty blue sticker, I added that for dramatics) the Department of Motor Vehicles sent me back in June on my car.   I politely explain to him that I do not have the proper tool at home to take my license plate frame off my car (the OCD in me does not like it when the stickers are not put on straight) so I could put the sticker on since the frame covers part of it.  He says to me "how come you just did not cut it to fit"?  And I said "cause I don't like they way it looks"! And then I said "any chance you give city employee's second chances to put their stickers on?" And he says "where do you work"? I say "at city hall with you"! He says "well that would be considered professional favoritism and it would make it look like I am nice".  I say "Well I won't tell anyone you are nice and if anyone asks I will tell them you are a JERK".  He hands me back all of my stuff and tells me to have a nice day.  There you have it, I officially talked myself out of my very first ticket, booyah!  The funny thing is that all the while he is looking at my insurance, license and registration I was coming up with a plan, see this particular deputy was in a very serious motorcycle crash almost a year ago and was hurt pretty bad, so everyone at city hall signed a card and sent him flowers and I was one of them, so my plan was if he was not going to let me go based on my employment status I was going to drop the "hey it is good to see you back at work and I was one of the people who signed your get well card" line and if that did not work I was going to pull the old my boyfriend works with you, you might know Ken......and see where that got me.  Thankfully I did not have to use those lines and I guess as a last desperate attempt to get away I could of told him that I have his bosses cell phone number and maybe I should just give him a jingle and the two of them can work it out.  Well, my 19 year streak of no flashing lights behind me is over, this was my very first time having any run in with the law so I guess I am pretty lucky.  Plus I would of had to hold my head down and do the walk of shame through city hall to have my ticket signed off if it came to that.  So lesson learned don't delay put the sticker on today and today I

did, I had one of our public works guys pull out some tools and take care of it for me.

 

 

 

 The three things you don't want to have to dig for ever!

License plate on the ground in preparation for the new tag.  And, why YES, that is the world's worst driver's license photo, I know, it should be entered into a contest and it would win!  After three hours of waiting to get my license renewed I find out I have to take a new picture, doh!  I just come from the gym, no shower and no makeup and I was not going to wait three hours another day to have a better picture taken. 

31 days - Day 3

I lost it this morning as in I lost my cool this morning and I am not talking about my ultra hip personality that everyone wishes they had it was more like an ugly third head that was possessed by the devil came out.  See our HOA is replacing all of the streets in my hood and yay that is awesome that they are doing this, but it has been going on for two almost three weeks and this morning I hit my breaking point.  Every morning I have been listening to them get ready around 5:45am which is fine cause I am still mostly asleep but as 6:15am rolls around they start getting louder, no big deal, but today they were out in front of my house at 6:15am with their loud trucks making all sorts of noise especially when they back up and the trucks beep (shoot me now) and I was done.  At 6:30am I got out of bed bedhead and all and I went outside and yelled at them.  I know this is not going to stop them from working but seriously WTF, there has got to be some noise ordinance that they have to follow cause I know as a homeowner we are not allowed to have any type of construction services going before 7:30am per the CC&R's.  So I yelled at them, they looked at me like I was crazy (I know I am) and I went and got dressed at took Gracie for a walk.  I am still annoyed and I know I sound like a whiny baby and I wouldn't really complain because improvements are being made, but up until yesterday we could not walk anywhere but in the bushes to get to our homes because the road was so torn up walking on it you would run the risk of twisting an ankle or blowing out a knee.  One would of thought that they could of put some plywood down to make a temporary walkway or planned the work a little better but that would of been using their brains and clearly there is not a whole lot firing up there. So now that I am done ranting I can go on with my day and I feel oh so better!  

The view from my patio, errrr!