Goodbye to Lucy and now I'm a mechanic

Friday night I was up late and Lucy was just cleaning herself and seemed fine. I wake up Saturday morning and where is Lucy? I don't see her. That is because she is at the bottom of the cage dead. I was so shocked. This is a picture of Lucy with her favorite friend, Billie Jean.

A short history. Three or four years ago, I had a dream that I had a bird. The next morning I told my friend, Diane, about my dream. She told me that her friend had a parakeet that no one paid attention to and she wanted to give it away. I figured it was meant to be, so I took her.

The kids thought Lucy was annoying, but I loved her. Lucy sat out on the patio in the evenings with me and she always woke up in a such a good mood and sang with the outside birds.

My boyfriend is a gem. He brought over a nice coffin for Lucy and dug the hole. We had an intimate backyard burial. Rest in Peace my little Lucy!

So, on another note. The boyfriend was out of town at a fishing tournament. I'm not sure I should be left alone on the weekends. My weekend cost me $350. I shopped for my house, but everything I bought was on sale or at a really good price. By the way, my house is rockin'. Everyone says golf is expensive, but it would have been much cheaper than shopping.

My headlight bulb on my car went out. I called the dealer and he said it would be about $150-200 to replace the bulb. I told him that the manual has instructions on how to do it. He said the book makes everything look easy and that he's had guys try it and end up bringing the car in.

I bought the bulb ($50???? Really for a little bulb...see pic) Well, after a weekend of shopping, I was determined to NOT have to  spend another $150-200. I manned up and replaced that bulb myself. So basically, I have now proclaimed myself as a BMW mechanic. If anyone needs a bulb replaced, I will do it for $50. Seriously it took me maybe 15 minutes. So to the guys who can't change out their own bulbs....you are a bunch of ________.

Flying hashbrowns?

Friday we had our Xmas lunch for work. Went to Grill on the Alley. Awesome! It was a beautiful day and they let us off work early. Don't tell.

Anyway, I had the top down (on the car) and my clubs in the car. I stopped at the driving range to practice. Not a pretty swing on Friday. I was topping a lot of the balls, but I finally got myself straighted out. Also a very nice man at the range gave me a bottle of wine before I left. You gotta love people who store extra wine in their vehicles!

So Friday night my boyfriend came over and picked me up to go to his house. I left my car in the garage and the top was down. When he was bringing me home on Saturday, I realized my keys weren't in my purse. When I got home, I found that I had left them on the coffee table with my Ipod and workout towel.

Well, yesterday I get in the car and hmmm.....the windows are rolled down. When you take the top down they automatically roll up and I leave them that way. And, my seat was not on my setting. I'm guessing that someone went out joyriding Saturday. RYAN!!!! Oh and he has hit more curbs and popped more tires than anyone I have ever known.

Hayley said he snuck her car out a few weeks ago. She was furious. She knew it because the passenger seat was laid back more than normal and there was a McDonald's hashbrown in the floorboard. He denies it, but hashbrowns don't fall out of the sky into closed cars.

McGyver and Weight Watchers

My daughter parked her car behind the garage today. Typically not a big deal, but she was not home and had her keys with her. My son was starting a new job early in the morning and I told him I'd drop him off. My daughter's friends came and picked her up at 5:30 am to go to the airport to send off another friend.

Well with the help of my son, I managed to almost turn my car sideways in my one-car garage and get out. I was an inch from the garage wall and an inch from swiping my car all the way down against my daughter's car. When I was done, I felt like McGyver without the duct tape. Of course, right when we got in the car to leave, my daughter showed up. Sigh.

Okay, public service announcement. If your doctor seems like an idiot, he/she probably is. I've fired two doctors over the years that were horrible and now my mom has been butchered by a doctor. The doctor even told her that she didn't know what to do next and that maybe she should see a specialist.....after sending her for a gazillion hospital visits and butchering her. Nice. Her new doctor is even shocked. Anyway, just be careful out there. Oh, I have a great doctor now and I hope he never moves his practice.

Well I started Weight Watchers, but haven't really lost any weight, but not really gained any weight either. I can't blame them. I certainly did not stick to the eating plan last week. The great news. I bought their stock right before Xmas and it's up more than 17%. I'm seriously thinking about selling already to lock in the profit. Woohoo!

WWF and Glittertits13

Yea Horns!

Almost had an emergency. My shark hand-helf vaccuum was stuffed with dog hair. I put my finger deep into it to pull out the clumps and my finger got stuck. I was almost in panic mode, but I got it out. I have to say that the Shark is one of the best products ever when you have hardwood floors and pets...and a real Xmas tree.

So I LOVE Scrabble. Used to make my kids play it any time we lost power. Well my daughter got me addicted to Words with Friends. I typically play with random opponents. So now, I dont' know what to think. Glittertits13 (guessing at her occupation) is beating me like crazy and I have a journalism degree.



I got all my Xmas stuff down and put away. My tree is still so fresh and smells so good. I left it in the stand and put it in my side yard, so it looks like I have a tree growing. I'll take the stand off and put it out on recycle day which is a few days away.

So today, I intend to buy my black-eyed peans and greens for New Years. Would it be bad luck if I pass up champagne and have cocktails or wine instead? I typically get champagne for New Years, but it gives me a headache.

The little irritations

I had a great Xmas with my family and boyfriend. So good to spend time with everyone.

So I decided to join Weight Watchers to lose 10 lbs before summer. Well this week, I worked out every day of the week (except Xmas since gym was closed). I even had some long workouts since I had plenty of time being on holiday. I stuck to the WW points and didn't even eat half of the weekly points and tada....I gained a pound.

WTH? I think I know what it is. They encourage eating more fruit, some whole grains, and milk. I don't typically eat those foods much and I did this week. So anyway, I'll just cut back on those foods and stick to WW. I even cut back on my wine intake this week :)

So my irritation list of the day:

• I was up one pound first week of WW and have decided I'm not drinking wine tonight. Blah.
• My company's benefit system is apparently not real-time and I cannot seem to figure out how much vacation time I have.I will lose it if I don't take it, but I think I took it and the system hasn't counted it yet.
• My company's HR people apparently don't have phones and the ones who do have numbers listed are wrong and I get the Sales department.
• My company's HR people apparently can't answer emails about our benefits system and I need to take off tomorrow or Friday possibly depending on my vacation hours accrued.
• The lady at Subway poured a pound of vinegar on my salad and made it all soggy.
• I bought one item at the store using a $50 bill and they had no change and I backed up the line.....but I really needed to break that dang bill and it's all I had.
• I asked my daughter to clean the cat box and she said "I just cleaned it last week". (Hello, the cat has pooed since last week.... alot.)
• My son has not picked up the dog poo in the yard....we have an 80-lb dog. This needs to be done.
• My boss is on vacation, but he keeps checking in on us every day.
• I had to buy a whole sewing kit because I couldn't find a stupid tape measure to purchase on its own. (Figured maybe I gained a pound, but lost 5 inches last week....Hahaha)

Okay, I think I'm done for the moment.  I'm going to take it easy the rest of the day and hit the gym running tonight.

Hookem Horns!!!! Bowl game at 7pm.

Xmas is around the corner

This is not my son in the picture, but this seems to sum up his life right now. 

Well I'm a little disappointed with other people's behavior lately. Tailgating, speeding, cutting people off, flipping people off, honking of horns, speeding through parking lots and stealing people's spots, standing in the store taking up the entire aisle and refusing to move over.

Really? Come on people. It's Christmas. I guess I haven't had enough of it, so I'm headed out to do a little more shopping today.

Went to the high school football playoffs in Cowboys stadium last week. The games were awesome. There were so many talented players.

So some guy on SquawkBox today said to buy Weight Watchers WTW. He says all these health insurance companies are beginning to pay for WW in an attempt to help out their obese customers. He specifically said United Health, but I know my BC/BS also covers WW. This guy, who I didn't pay attention to who he was..maybe he was paid by WW:), anyway, he says their online business alone is enough.

My daughter downloaded Words with Friends on my phone. Now, I really do need to go and buy a second battery.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and remembers the reason for the season.

'White' people food and my new retirement plan

My daughter's boss told her to bring 'white' people food to the company Xmas pot luck since she is white. Well you learn something new every day. Her boss said white people food is broccoli rice casserole. Who'd a thunk it? So, anyway I'll be making that this week for her party.


On another note, I made chicken tenderloins this weekend. You wrap them around a jalapeno stuffed with cream cheese and pecans and then hold it together with bacon and put it on a skewer. Awesome!!! Next time I will cut the tenderolins in half and use more jalapenos.

Random pic of me and Elvis last year

So speaking of pecans, they are very expensive. About 3 tbsp of pecans is about $2 and a bag is $8. So my new retirement plan is to coerce my two pecan trees to produce a lot of pecans. Must Google to figure out how to make this happen. I think my pecan business might earn me more money than my stocks at this point.


Hope everyone has a great holiday season!