Thursday, October 25, 2007

tax evasion


so apparently we are tax evaders. we got a notice in the mail the other day saying we still owe the state of kansas $107. oops. neither of us realized that we never paid. well the check is in the mail. (no really, it is, i swear!) so we will soon be clear and no longer delinquent. it's really a great thing the tennessee has no income tax.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Suicidal Wife Tests Husband's Reflexes

This post is a response to the "Spousal Abuse" nonsense below. It's true that Anna, my mom, and I went out to lunch that fateful day. It's also true that when I took Anna back to work to drop her off, I did not pull into the little side street. I stopped at the intersection in front of her building. This is because I had precious little time to get Mom back to the airport and then hurry across town for a lunch meeting. Add to this the fact that there were cars behind me waiting for me to go when Anna got out, and you can all of a sudden understand why I hit the gas the second that my mom shut her door. Now, Anna knew all of this, and yet she still decided to step out in front of my car after I had started going. She'll tell you it was at the same time, but, I don't believe so. Furthermore, every other time I have dropped her off at this intersection, she has waited for me to pass because there has always been traffic behind me. Well, you can imagine my surprise when I made the slightest little contact with her leg. Yes, it left a mark on her scrubs because my car is very dirty and has a dirty rubber bumper, and yes it left a bruise because my delicate wife bruises from a stiff breeze. All this is to say, I'm not an abusive spouse!

anna's nano

"An anodized aluminum top and polished stainless steel back. Five eye-catching colors. A larger, brighter display with the most pixels per inch of any Apple display, ever. iPod nano stirs up visual effects from the outside in.

And it’ll wow you for hours. Play up to 5 hours of video or up to 24 hours of audio on a single charge. All that staying power and a wafer-thin, 6.5-mm profile makes iPod nano one small big attraction."

and it's all mine!!! justin surprised me with this last night. it's so fun! it's a just because present. he said it's because the transition to nashville hasn't been the easiest on me and he's been spending a lot of our extra money on his work. so, since listening music makes my day at my job go alot quicker, he wanted to get this for me! (secretly i think he wants to make up for hitting me with his car. just kidding. by the way, he thinks my version is biased, so if you want to hear his side of the story, by all means call him.) he's so sweet. anyway, just wanted to show it off. thanks justin!

Monday, October 22, 2007

i knew it!!

the library found my book. yesssssss! i knew i didn't lose it. it took them long enough. i checked it out on august 6th and it posted as returned on october 9th. ha! they tried to fine me 20 cents. i said no ma'am! i told the lady that i wasn't paying even 20 cents for a book that THEY lost and blamed on me. (in a nicer way of course.) i am vindicated!!

Friday, October 19, 2007

Thursday, October 18, 2007

i AM a good baker, i swear

so a couple weeks ago my neighbor invited me over for dinner while justin was out of town. she sent me home with some leftovers. i figured in keeping with the whole southern hospitality thing, i should return her tupperware with some cookies or something. well, i did this recipe chain thing over email and got this great recipe for pumpkin cookies from my friend jenni. i thought those would be perfect to make especially for fall. i mixed them up and baked the first couple of batches. they were very weird. first of all, they didn't change shape whatsoever. they looked exactly the same when they came out of the oven as when they went in. and they tasted undercooked, yet somehow stale. justin said, you had to have done something wrong. i said, no! i know i followed the recipe. i can't give these to mary now!! they're awful. well i looked back at the recipe and i had forgotten something. i was so worried about adding the cloves and cinnamon and nutmeg i forgot all about the baking soda AND the baking powder. small ingredients, big difference. anyway, i tried again and they're MUCH better the second time. so, i'll share the recipe with you. just don't forget anything! :)

Pumpkin Cookies

* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder (very important)
* 1 teaspoon baking soda (also very important)
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour,
baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and
salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and
white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter
mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on
cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls sprinkle with sugar.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies. Eat up!

spousal abuse

justin hit me with his car on monday. it left a bruise. just a little one but a bruise none the less. let me fill you in. justin's mom was visiting for the weekend (i'll post about that when i get all the pictures) and so they came to eat lunch with me before she left. after lunch when dropping me off, usually justin pulls onto the little side street where he can park and i can take my time getting out. well, for some reason he didn't on monday. he stopped at the 4 way stop and told me to just hop out. i did and gave terri a quick hug before she left. by now there were a few cars waiting behind us. so, both justin and i being in a hurry, i started across the crosswalk in front of justin at the same time he started across. well he hit my leg with the corner of the car. not very hard, grandma. don't get worried. well he stopped really fast and i slammed my hand onto the hood and yelled, yes yelled, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!? it's about lunch time, so there are quite a few people out and about. a group of construction workers crossing on the other side of the crosswalk stared over at me. justin and i both looked at each other, shook our heads, and i walked on. he even left a little black mark on my scrub pants. you think i should press charges? juuuust kidding.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

who writes in library books?

jerkfaces. that's who. seriously, i checked out margaret atwood's the haidmaid's tale and start on the prologue. which i find out is in past tense thanks to the reader previous to me kindly writing it above the first sentence. oh thank you SO much for telling me this is in past tense. if you hadn't written it there i would have been so confused! AND if you're reading this for a class or some sort of book discussion, fine, but put you notes somewhere other than in the margins and between the sentences. margaret atwood is an accomplished writer and the book was published without your commentary, so leave it that way. and underlining. i hate that every other sentence was underlined. and not neatly. half the time the stupid person tried to underline and ended up going right through the words. if you want to write in a book, buy it yourself. that's all i'm saying.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

my crazy dog

So yesterday I decided to take Riley to the dog park while Justin was napping. If you ask her if she wants to go to the dog park, she knows exactly what you're taking about and runs right over to her leash and starts whining. As we get closer to the park she gets more and more excited. Yesterday, she got a little too excited. I had the window down so Rily could sniff the wonderful, yummy dog scented air. The street the dog park borders has a steep hill about as tall as me from the curb up until it levels off for the fenced in area. I was turning left onto the dog park street from the main street and getting ready to park along the curb. I was still going about 15-20 mph when all of a sudden Riley launches herself out the window! Because we were going so fast she nailed the side of the hill and couldn't keep on her feet so she rolled down the hill onto the street. I slammed on my brakes, threw the car into reverse, and jumped out to make sure she was okay. She's covered in grass and looking very proud of herself. I yelled at her and she knew she was in trouble so she cowered down. Well I got her back in the car and made sure she was okay, which of course she was, little idiot. Because, hey, if I launched myself into the side of a hill going 20 miles an hour, I'd walk away without a scratch too! Geez! So I put her on her leash and we get back out of the car and the lady who had pulled up to park behind me had seen the whole thing. She then proceeded to tell me that I had almost run Riley over with my back tires because of how she rolled down the hill. I could have killed that dumb dog! Well, I guess I almost did! Anyway, she gave me quite a scare, but she's fine, if not revoked of all window downage priviledges for a looooong time.