File Under: Just Checking In
No, not to rehab. Just wanted to say hello to all of my loyal readers. I haven't posted a lot lately. This week has been busy. Perhaps sometime this weekend I'll sit down and sum up everything I've been up to. I know you can't wait. :)
Speaking of rehab, did you hear that Steven Tyler of Aerosmith is back in rehab? Want to know why? Because his feet hurt. Apparently he had surgery on his feet and he needed a quiet place to recover. That's what his publicist is saying, at least.
Uh huh.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
"Routine" Robbery
File Under: Cars are expensive
Yesterday I noticed that my brakes were making a grinding noise. Not a good thing. I drive a 2004 Honda Civic. It's got 27,000 miles on it. It's not a very sexy car but it gets me from point A to point B. It has served me well...I've only had to bring it in for routine service visits. Oil changes, etc.
Today I took it in. I was informed that it was time for the 30,000 "routine" maintenance, at a rate of $491 dollars. And that was BEFORE the brake diagnosis.
The call arrived at about 9:30, the service advisor informed me that I did in fact need front brakes and they would cost me $270 bucks.
Thanks to some coupons, I got the bill down to $720.
Oh well...hopefully my car will be healthy for the next year. The next "routine" maintenance is far less expensive.
Yesterday I noticed that my brakes were making a grinding noise. Not a good thing. I drive a 2004 Honda Civic. It's got 27,000 miles on it. It's not a very sexy car but it gets me from point A to point B. It has served me well...I've only had to bring it in for routine service visits. Oil changes, etc.
Today I took it in. I was informed that it was time for the 30,000 "routine" maintenance, at a rate of $491 dollars. And that was BEFORE the brake diagnosis.
The call arrived at about 9:30, the service advisor informed me that I did in fact need front brakes and they would cost me $270 bucks.
Thanks to some coupons, I got the bill down to $720.
Oh well...hopefully my car will be healthy for the next year. The next "routine" maintenance is far less expensive.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Gas and Gas
File under: Pain in the ass!
I brought my lunch to work today. I had some leftover pasta from last night's dinner. I thought I would supplement the meal with a small salad and the salad bar at work looked nice today. My eyes were drawn to the shrimp salad.
Big mistake.
An hour later, it was not sitting well with me. As of the writing of this post, my stomach still is not right.
I managed to finish my work day with only one detour. I even made it home without incident. Good thing, because I had to stop for gas since the needle was dancing around empty.
It cost me $52.70 to fill my car with gas.
Luckily, after tomorrow I don't believe I'll be doing much driving this weekend. I'll walk to work on Friday. This weekend I plan on spending a lot of time downtown and I'll commute via train.
I brought my lunch to work today. I had some leftover pasta from last night's dinner. I thought I would supplement the meal with a small salad and the salad bar at work looked nice today. My eyes were drawn to the shrimp salad.
Big mistake.
An hour later, it was not sitting well with me. As of the writing of this post, my stomach still is not right.
I managed to finish my work day with only one detour. I even made it home without incident. Good thing, because I had to stop for gas since the needle was dancing around empty.
It cost me $52.70 to fill my car with gas.
Luckily, after tomorrow I don't believe I'll be doing much driving this weekend. I'll walk to work on Friday. This weekend I plan on spending a lot of time downtown and I'll commute via train.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Birthday Post
File Under: Birthday Fun
My 41st birthday occurred on Friday May 2, 2008. I was born at 10:13 am on Tuesday May 2 1967 at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago. Hillary Clinton was also born there, in the same delivery room (but not at the same time).
Given that my birthday was on a Friday this year, I decided to take the day off from work along with the following Monday (Cinco de Mayo).
The fun started Thursday night when I met up with Vahona and we saw The B-52's at the House of Blues. We first had Thai food for dinner, both of us were having sinus issues, the spicy food helped to open up our sinuses and allowed us to enjoy the show. The B's were great, they performed a lot of songs off of their most recent album, "Funplex." Since the HOB does not allow cameras, the only picture I was able to take was with my camera phone.
From Vahona, I received a stuffed dog that sings "Closer to you" and the promise of a ticket to see "Avenue Q" when it arrives in Chicago. :) What fun!
After the show, Vahona dropped me off in Boystown where I decided to have a drink at Sidetrack. I ran into Anthony there and he insisted upon buying me my first drink of my 41st year along with a shot. I stayed at the bar until almost 1.
On my actual birthday, I got up, went to the gym, then to get a manicure/pedicure. That evening I was taken to dinner by Denise, Tina and Polo. We ate at DeCero, where we polished off two pitchers of mango margaritas. Extremely delicious but apparently void of alcohol.
Dan and Luis were noticably absent from the festivities. They were in Key West, enjoying some fun in the sun. They were there in spirit and wished me a long-distance happy birthday by sending me flowers. I received a beautiful bouquet of ranunculus.
Also sending birthday greetings were my friends Alina and Giselle, they sent me a stuffed bear with a bouquet of helium balloons. My friend Andy from Dayton also sent me a very generous Amazon.com gift certificate.
Denise gave me Ingrid Hoffman's "Simplicy Delicioso" cookbook along with some themed accessories, Tina and Polo gave me gift certificates to some of my favorite stores.
Saturday was low key. I wandered around some stores after going to the gym. I ended up at Crate and Barrel where I chatted with and got the phone number of a guy named Andy, not to be confused with my friend Andy from Dayton. :)
Sunday was fun, the weather was beautiful and I enjoyed being outside. I joined Denise, Tina and Polo for dinner again, this time at Ole' Ole', where we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with margaritas and good food. The restaurant lacks good service at times and we had a long wait before we finally got our check. I also bought myself a birthday present on this day, a new laptop. :)
Monday was my last day off, and I spent part of it setting up my new computer. I managed to get most of my files transferred. It was also another beautiful day so I went to the gym, had lunch outside and wandered for a while.
The celebrating continued this weekend. Dan and Luis returned from Florida and on Friday night we went out to dinner at Charlie's Ale House. From them I received a gift certificate for a posh spa in the area where I can go for a massage or a manicure/pedicure.
Last night, my friend Gillian hosted a dinner party in my honor. She made a wonderful dinner. We had pasta bolognaise, ceasar salad, a cheese and meat platter and cupcakes for dessert. Patrick and his partner Mark gave me two cookbooks. I guess I'm cooking the next dinner. :)
I may be biased, but I think I've got the coolest friends on the planet.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
16 Candles, plus another 25
File Under: Birthday!
May 2nd was my 41st birthday. Since it fell on a Friday, I took it and the following Monday off from work. It was a really great, long weekend. Much to tell but since I'm not ready with all my pictures and stuff, it'll have to wait another day or two.
Part of the reason is because I bought myself a birthday present...a new laptop computer. I'm still getting used to the smaller keyboard, the new operating system, and finding all of the files I moved to it from my old computer. iTunes is giving me grief and after spending hours deleting duplicate song files from my iTunes directory I found out that a lot of my songs aren't actually on my computer. Grr...
I'll get it figured out.
Don't worry, we'll revisit this birthday post and I'll tell all of the sordid details. Bet'cha can't wait! ;)
May 2nd was my 41st birthday. Since it fell on a Friday, I took it and the following Monday off from work. It was a really great, long weekend. Much to tell but since I'm not ready with all my pictures and stuff, it'll have to wait another day or two.
Part of the reason is because I bought myself a birthday present...a new laptop computer. I'm still getting used to the smaller keyboard, the new operating system, and finding all of the files I moved to it from my old computer. iTunes is giving me grief and after spending hours deleting duplicate song files from my iTunes directory I found out that a lot of my songs aren't actually on my computer. Grr...
I'll get it figured out.
Don't worry, we'll revisit this birthday post and I'll tell all of the sordid details. Bet'cha can't wait! ;)
Bitch Slapped by Belinda
File Under: Belinda tells it like it is...
Belinda Carlisle is a judge on MTV's "Rock the Cradle," where the children of musicians compete for a record label and a chance to gain recognition as artists in their own right rather than ride the coat tails of their parent.
Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister has a really HOT son, Jesse. His first week he came out shirtless, hard nipples, great abs and he did a song by The Who. Belinda called it sacrilidge. It was pretty funny. She's been on him all season because he's got this tremendous ego and is capable but also a bit of a ham. He's been making behind the scenes comments about his critics and this week they caught up with him. In this clip is his performance from last week's episode and then he faces Belinda at about 3:17. FUN!
Belinda Carlisle is a judge on MTV's "Rock the Cradle," where the children of musicians compete for a record label and a chance to gain recognition as artists in their own right rather than ride the coat tails of their parent.
Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister has a really HOT son, Jesse. His first week he came out shirtless, hard nipples, great abs and he did a song by The Who. Belinda called it sacrilidge. It was pretty funny. She's been on him all season because he's got this tremendous ego and is capable but also a bit of a ham. He's been making behind the scenes comments about his critics and this week they caught up with him. In this clip is his performance from last week's episode and then he faces Belinda at about 3:17. FUN!
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