beenie

But I'm not the one being interviewed!!!

The hubby is on his way, as we "speak," to a job interview. If he gets this job, we can finally move to the Madison area and get rid of our long, hellacious commutes (45 minutes for him, an hour for me) and stop spending $200 a month on gas.

I just talked to him, and I think I'm more nervous than he is.

Please keep your fingers crossed (as well as any other body parts you're willing to cross). This is something we've been waiting for for a long time. I'll just be over here hyperventilating until we hear something.

Vehicle woes

Do tires normally go flying off vehicles?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Someone at my job has a sense of humor

Oh, and one more thing...

If you've had service before under your maiden name and never paid the bill, resulting in said service being cancelled, don't try to sign up for new service later on with the same first name, same phone number and same address and try to tell the rep that it must have been the person who lived there before you that ran up the bill. In addition, when the rep directly confronts you, don't deny beign the same person. Don't tell the rep that you have no idea who "Donna Smith" is, when YOU were "Donna Smith" until two weeks ago.

They WILL find you out, they WILL thoroughly note your account, and they WILL include in that note the fact that you blatantly lied to them about your outstanding bill.

PSA

Make sure you're reading your bill correctly before you call a service company and rip the poor associate a new one because you think your bill is "fucked up," "jacked up," "screwed up" or otherwise. If you need help understanding your bill that's one thing. But if you merely looked at the amount it says you owe and you start yelling at someone, saying that they "fucked it up," then you're just stupid. Make an attempt to understand BEFORE you accuse, fucker.

This would amuse Rayna, if I were speaking to her

You're incredibly Jewish!

How Jewish are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

YGTBFKM

Approximately 15 minutes away... can ya tell I'm in the middle of BFE, Midwest?

Man arrested twice for OWI in one night

MAYVILLE - A 43-year-old Mayville man should have learned his lesson on Wednesday not to drink and drive after being involved in an accident in Mayville. However, he was pulled over about two hours later in Horicon for the same offense.

The man was driving a vehicle that backed into another vehicle in the city of Mayville on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The man was arrested for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. In addition, the man was cited for possession of drug paraphernalia after police found that he was in possession of four crack pipes, according to a press release from the Mayville Police Department.

The Mayville Police released the man to a responsible party, but the man was pulled over again in Horicon at 9:50 p.m. and received another OWI ticket.

In addition when the man was arrested in Mayville, police obtained information that lead to a search warrant of an apartment on North Clark Street. During the search, marijuana was located and charges against a 42-year-old Mayville woman was referred to the Dodge County District Attorney's Office.

Thank God

They found him. Fucker. He'd only been out of jail - where he served time for grand larceny - for five months, and had had several DWIs prior to killing this beautiful woman.

I'm glad they got him. I hope he ROTS.

http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-liarre153708751mar15,0,5238053.story

Mastic man accused in teacher's death

BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
STAFF WRITER

March 15, 2004

Six weeks after a mysterious hit-and-run driver left a newlywed schoolteacher dead and her husband injured in Shirley, Suffolk police Saturday arrested a Mastic man who they said crashed into the couple with a stolen Jeep.

The early morning Jan. 31 crash killed JoAnna Berggren, who taught music at Boyle Road Elementary School in Port Jefferson Station, and seriously injured her husband of five months, William Berggren.

Police arrested Chester Cunningham, 39, in front of his home at 2 Wills Ave. Saturday afternoon. Det. Sgt. Timothy Dillon of the Seventh Squad said he could not reveal details of what led police to Cunningham. The investigation is continuing and detectives are asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS.

The Berggrens, both 29, were just three blocks from the home where they lived with JoAnna's parents when the driver of a stolen Jeep Cherokee ignored a stop sign at the intersection of Tyne and Lexington roads, slamming into the passenger side of their 2001 Mitsubishi Galant. The driver of the Jeep abandoned the vehicle and ran, police said.

JoAnna, who was in the passenger seat, was pronounced dead at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center. Her husband, who had broken ribs and a punctured lung, was released about a week later from Stony Brook Medical Center.

JoAnna Berggren's brother, Robert F. DeSilva of Mastic, said yesterday the family is relieved. "He couldn't be man enough to stand up to what he did," DeSilva said. "To say, 'Hey listen, I made a mistake.' He didn't do that. He had to be caught. To talk about him makes me sick," DeSilva said.

Cunningham was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle accident and third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, because the Jeep was reported stolen from a Verizon facility in Holbrook, Dillon said.

At his arraignment yesterday, Cunningham pleaded not guilty to those charges in First District Court in Central Islip. He was ordered held at Suffolk County jail in Riverhead in lieu of $25,000 bail. His next court date is Thursday. Cunningham's relatives could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Dillon said Cunningham is a landscaper with several prior driving while intoxicated and larceny arrests. Police did not have the disposition of those arrests available yesterday. Records show he served prison time for grand larceny but it was not clear for how long and when.

Dillon declined to say whether police had any indication that alcohol was involved in the crash. JoAnna's husband was too distraught to speak about Cunningham's arrest, DeSilva said.

DeSilva said he wants his sister remembered as a gifted singer who was devoted to teaching children. She was choir director at St. Jude's Roman Catholic Church in Mastic Beach, where she sang at Mass every Sunday. At her school, she was also drama director. "She put on plays at Boyle Elementary that high schools couldn't do," DeSilva said. "My sister was a lot more than a just a school teacher," he said. "She was a mentor to hundreds of kids. She did nothing but good for everyone."
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

Flexi-WHA?!?!?!

Ummm, why do we need a new word for this? Wouldn't they just be omnivores?

Even after five years, Christy Pugh has no trouble sticking to her vegetarian regimen.

The secret to her success? Eating meat.

Sometimes I feel like I’m a bad vegetarian, that I’m not strict enough or good enough, the 28-year-old bookkeeper from Concord said recently. I really like vegetarian food but I’m just not 100 percent committed.

Pugh is one of a growing number of part-time vegetarians whose loose adherence to the meat-free diet is transforming a decades-old movement and the industry that feeds it.

A quote made by a guy I know on a message board: Calling yourself a flexitarian because you REALLY like sausage is akin to saying one is a flexi-celibate because he/she only sleeps with really cute women/men.

This whole thing is just ridiculous.

Happy happy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

I {heart} Dan Savage

Hey, kiddies! Dan Savage got a marriage license!!! But not to marry Terry, his partner of 10-years and co-father (someone please let me know if that's an offensive term) of their son, DJ. Check it out...

The clerk called over her manager, a nice older white man, who explained that Amy and Sonia couldn't have a marriage license. So I asked if Amy and I could have one--even though I'm gay and live with my boyfriend, and Amy's a lesbian and lives with her girlfriend. We emphasized to the clerk and her manager that Amy and I don't live together, we don't love each other, we don't plan to have kids together, and we're going to go on living and sleeping with our same-sex partners after we get married. So could we still get a marriage license?

"Sure," the license-department manager said, "If you've got $54, you can have a marriage license."

Do politicians see absolutely no irony in this? That two people who don't love each other, don't plan on ever consummating the union, have no intention of living together, and - GASP!! - aren't going to bear children together, can get married so long as they pony up their $54.00 marriage licensing fee and sign some paperwork? But two people in a loving, committed relationship cannot do the same because of a few body parts?

In the simlpest terms, a FAKE marriage is perfectly okay, so long as it's between a man and a woman. A REAL marriage is NOT okay if it's between people of the same sex.

I hope in 20 years, this country looks back and just shakes its collective at itself for even considering this to be an issue. If anyone is putting the "sanctity of marriage" at risk, it's all the damn heteros who enter marriage lightly knowing they can get divorced at any time. And the ones who abuse their spouses. And the ones who repeatedly cheat and lie. Not a bunch of people who have to fight tooth and nail for even the smallest glimmer of hope.

Anyway, we're happy there's finally been some action. And I'm happy to have a "marriage license." It's not the marriage license I'd like to have, of course. But, still, let me count my blessings: I have a 10-year relationship (but not the marriage license), a house (but not the marriage license), a kid (but not the marriage license), and my boyfriend's credit-card bills (but not the marriage license). I don't know what a guy has to do around here to get the marriage license. But I guess it's some consolation that I can get a meaningless one anytime I like, just so long as I bring along a woman I don't love and my $54.

Disgusting, just disgusting.

SP'd this article from Erica

Maybe I'm just weird

I never realized it was possible to feel so much less slovenly with a simple $12.00 eyebrow wax. I feel like a million bucks and all I did was have some hair ripped off my forehead!

That's it, no more Anita Shreve books

I read The Pilot's Wife this past weekend, which I'm pretty sure prompted a rather disturbing dream I had about a family member last night.

My mother and I were in a store that had CNN playing on a TV suspended from
the ceiling. It was showing a story about a deadbeat dad the authorities
were looking for. They had surveillance video of the guy getting money from
an ATM, and it was my dad! Apparently he had a wife and kid elsewhere that
we didn't know about (a la The Pilot's Wife).

I had already decided that I'm fed up with her work because I haven't read a single book of hers in which infidelity doesn't play some role. I mean, really - the woman must have been cheated on at some point, because that's all. she. writes. about.

Everything has a gender

This was too cute not to share. :)

If you're like most people, common everyday items look inert to you. But what you may not know is that many of them have a gender. For example:

Ziploc Bags
Male, because they hold everything in
but you can see right through them.

Copier
Female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warm up. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.

Tire
Male, because it goes bald and often it's over inflated.

Hot Air Balloon
Male, because to get it to go anywhere you have to light a fire under it . . and, of course, there's the hot air part.

Sponges
Female, because they're soft and squeezable and retain water.

Web Page
Female, because it's always getting hit on.

Subway
Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.

Hourglass
Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.

Hammer
Male, because it hasn't evolved much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.

Remote Control
Female . . . Ha!!! You thought it'd be male, didn't you??? But consider this: it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he does keep trying.

How to NOT pay a delinquent bill in 15 easy steps

This is not what I need. I already stayed home from work today because I was so stressed that it affected my BP. Grrr.

So I noticed that my state tax refund has been deposited into my account. Hooray! We have a card where we've gotten behind in making payments (it was like $20 a month, so of course I'd forget), so I planned on paying it off with a portion of the refund.

1. Dig out statement from collections department
   
2. Call number on said statement
   
3. Hold for 8 minutes, listening to a gajillion rounds of "All of our representatives are busy helping other customers. Please continue to hold, a representative will be with your shortly."
   
4. Speak with a very nice man named Mr. Santiago, who tells me that unfortunately, my account has been transferred from Collections to Recovery (whatever that means besides "it's been a hella long time since you've paid us"), which renders him unable to help me, since he now has no access to my account information
   
5. Take number for Recovery department from Mr. Santiago, as Mr. Santiago tells me that Recovery is only open from 9-5 Eastern time
   
6. Make witty comment to Mr. Santiago that Recovery should be more interested in having people pay their bills (Mr. Santiago sounded relieved that I wasn't going to rip him a new one, as I'm certain is the case in collection situations - hey, I used to work for a collection agency, so I know).
   
7. Call Recovery anyway, to see if they have an automated system, and what information - if any - I can get from it.
   
8. Press 1 for "English"
   
9. Press 5 for "[name of store] Accounts"
   
10. Exhibit sense of cautious optimism when the recording says "our office hours are 9-5 eastern time, but we are happy to offer you the use of our automated system during off-hours," or something to that effect
    
11. Key in my account number, followed by the # sign
    
12. "Please hold while your account information is being retrieved."
    
13. "Please hold while your call is transferred to the next available operator."
    
14. Get excited that maybe there might be someone there after all! They WANT my money, they REALLY want it!!
    
15. Bang head on desk utility table acting as desk in frustration when "the next available operator" turns out to be a recording telling me that the office is closed.
    

Happy Anniversary, Pumpkin

Bryan and I met in a Yahoo! Chat room 6 years ago today.

Excerpt from the conversation later that night:

Bryan: "Are you sure you don't want to move to Wisconsin?"
Me: "Too cold for me, but I *do* like cheese!"

Little did we know...

I love you <----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------this many bunches of hot dogs-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> my wonderful, snuggy Pumpkin!

And dat's a wotta wuvvis!!!

The only time a picture like this will ever be here

You are the grammar Fuhrer. All bow to your authority. You will crush all the inferior people under the soles of your jackboots, and any who question your motives will be eliminated. Your punishment is being the bane of every other person's existence, because you're constantly contradicting stupidity. Everyone will be gunning for you. Your dreams of a master race of spellers and grammarians frighten the masses. You must always watch your back. If only your power could be used for good instead of evil.

What is your grammar aptitude?
brought to you by Quizilla

Update

Christine Lavin concert kicked serious boo-tay. She puts on an awesome live show. I encourage you to check her out if she comes to your town - even if you don't like folk music, I can almost guarantee you you'll have a good time.

We never made it to Casa Bianca, but we went to Yue Wah (ethnic grocery, scroll down for description) and got a whole bunch of stuff that cost much less than it would have in the store (sesame oil, soy sauce, Indian spices, etc.).

Our favorite camping store is going out of business, so we took a peek in there to see if they had Bryan's socks. The store was almost empty. It was sad. I cried after we left.

I gave up and went to Urgent Care today - I have a sinus infection and am now on a huge horsepill of an antibiotic.

Random rambling

First, the health update... because I know you're all (yeah, all 5 of you) DYING to know...

I don't know WTF happened last night, but I wound up developing the worst sore throat I've had in a while. I had some Earl Grey with honey, about a gazillion cough drops, a few swigs of some Tussin (I canNOT take any cough syrup without thinking of Chris Rock (am I the only one who finds it sad that if you Google "Chris Rock," that his official website is not the first hit, not the second, not even the third, but the SIXTH hit?).

I went to bed around 2:00 AM, and woke up at least once an hour between 5:00 AM and when I finally gave up and got up around 10:00. My throat is feeling much better, but still not 100%. My sinuses are starting to feel like they might want to clear (thanks to a few liberal applications of generic Ocean). I still sound like Satan, but at least I'm not feeling so crappy. Which is good, because we have tickets to the Christine Lavin concert tonight, and I'm excited.

CL is playing at Luther's Blues, which is a venue where, in order to actually have a seat for a show, you pretty much have to eat dinner there and then hang on to your table, because there's not enough seating for everyone. No way am I standing through a concert, so dinner at Luther's it is. There's part of me that wants to order the Kobe beef ribeye, but not at $38.00. Not to mention, I don't care for ribeye. As long as Bryan and I make it to Casa Bianca for pizza at some point today, I'll be happy.

And then we can have Cold Pizza For Breakfast tomorrow.

Havarti with Dill, please

... the cheese to go with the forthcoming whine.

Sinus and allergy season is in full swing for this chica, kiddies. I took my 180mg of Allegra this morning. My mouth is dry, my throat is dry, even my nose is (relatively) dry. But my sinuses are full to the brim and I'm in a daze. The hubby thinks I should get another consultation. Maybe I'll finally break down and go to an ENT and see what he has to say. My mom has pretty bad sinuses and has months where she practically lives on Sinutab. My sinus problems have only gotten worse in the last few years, and I can't picture living like this forever.

Fun stuff, I tell ya. I'm normally not a person who is overly fond of the Neon Yellow Carbonated Caffeinated beverage, but I think I may need to make a date with Mr. Dew.

Hoo boy

A man just called me and said "yeah, I got DSL and the service was down for eight days. What're ya gonna do for me?"

So... what did I do for him? I transferred him to the company he actually has his service with.

Grr.

Name your favorite condiment

It's my catch-up (ketchup, get it? :P) post! Since we've last spoken, I've...

• Found out that my sinus problems might be allergies and started taking Allegra. This was only yesterday, so I'm not sure if it's helping yet.
  
• Gotten a "needs improvement" on my annual review because of the ridiculous problem I had at work a while back. Getting a "needs improvement" can affect my bonus and raise. I was going to start looking for a new job after bonus time because I worked too hard last year to leave before bonus time. Now I probably won't get as much of a bonus as I'd anticipated. Maybe I'll start looking sooner.
• Gotten really burnt out at work because my department has taken on some more responsibilities FOUR MONTHS before the opportunity to get rid of any of our own.
• Realized that I'm not always the best wife I can be and that I really need to work on that
• Felt really bad for blowing off something my mom was really upset about because I didn't think it was something to be that upset about it, but then understood where she was coming from when I looked at it from her point of view.
• Met a bunch of pretty cool new people at work
• Decided I'm going to try really hard to not worry about money. Worrying about it isn't going to change the amount I have or don't have, and everyone will get what they're looking for eventually. Creditors calling me or being rude to me won't make their money materialize out of thin air if it's not in my checking account first.
• Began the countdown to the end of a loan that's been costing us $250 a month for almost 5 years. May baby, May!!!
• Picked up the certificates for my salad.
• Found out there's a new baby in the group (well, by association, anyway - the new daddy is the business partner of one of our friends). Welcome, Abigail Rose!
• Started riding The Beast** more often. I may not meet my original goal of actually fitting into my matron-of-honor gown for Carrie's wedding (53 days away!!), but I can still lose a little weight (I ordered extra fabric in case a panel needs to be added in, so all will not be lost).

  **Yes, the link for The Beast takes you to the Wal-Mart website. As much as I hate Wal-Mart, we needed a recumbent exercise bicycle, and they had that one at the right price. At this point, my health and my husband's health is more important than making a statement by taking our money elsewhere. That may make me a hypocrite, but I'd rather be a live hypocrite than a dead one. And other than the bicycle, generally the only time I'll set foot in Wal-Mart is when I have a gift card.

  Posted by beenie at 01:15 PM | Comments (4)