A Mixed Bag

Both good and bad today. First the bad: work sucked. Hateful woman at work couldn't find anything wrong with my work so she had to make up a new rule that never existed before. I keep hoping she will apply for another job and leave. I don't mind if she wins the lottery. I just want her to go away. If she leaves and never has another minute of sadness, stress or strife in her life that's great.

Now for the good: Apparently it was the dealership who put the wrong sticker on the plate. I had a message on my answering machine tonight when I got home from work from the dealership. I called them back and apparently they put the wrong sticker on the plate. The woman I spoke to is going to mail me the right sticker. I don't know if my email to the DMV was what prompted this. The plate was mailed to me from the dealership. I was curious about why the dealership would send me my plate, but I just thought they were forwarding it on from the DMV to me. I didn't know they put stickers on the plates before sending them out.

I bought a door mat this morning at walmart to put beside my driver's side door here at the house so I can wipe off my shoes before getting into the car. And I plan on buying brushes to keep in the roadmap slots in the doors so I and my passengers can wipe our feet before getting into the car when we are elsewhere. And no, I'm not obsessed. Really.

And I got my stimulus check today. Yay! I was going to have to write a check for cash later this week but now I can just cash that.

A New Experience

Winnie has been going around whining and today she tore up the foam pad that is her dog bed and she's now laying in the dog carrier. I think she's experiencing the nesting aspect of false pregnancy. These dogs have not been on schedule with that kind of thing, both waiting well into their 10th month or later for their first heat.

Winnie dug and dug on the couch today at Mom and Dad's. While there today, I got mom set up with my XM radio account online. I can't listen online here because I have a dial up connection, but she has DSL and she can listen to the radio. At least for the three month free trial that I have for buying my car.

I'm still following the I Can Make You Thin system. I've been on it 100% this time for about 4 days. I got some exercise today. Thanks to how much I like my car, I now go outside to look at it. While I'm out, I walk around it and get some exercise. I'm talking something like a 40 minutes walk. I listen to the hypnosis cd that came with the book every day. I don't know if I'm being hypnotized or if I just fall asleep. I do always wake up to the cues on the cd, which makes me think I might have been hypnotized. But the man's voice gets louder as he counts you awake, so it could just be that he just wakes me from my nap.

Stimulus Package Money - don't believe that letter they send you that says you should receive your payment on such and such date. I didn't get mine when they said I would and I know of another person who didn't get theirs and it has been a while. As usual, the government is lying to the public. I imagine it's just us non-direct deposit folks who are being discriminated against.

See My Pretty Car

More on the Car

Well, they detailed it yesterday and put that super-protector stuff on it. I hate to say it, but I could have done better I think. They left spots all over it that I had to buff out last night and they put that tire shine crap on the tires and it splattered all over the car. I had to wipe that off too. I had serious doubts that they even did the inside of the car, but after watching an infomercial this morning for a similar product, I think they might have done the interior. There was no shiny, greasy appearance in the car and according to this informercial, there are products out there that don't leave a residue on the dashboard and other surfaces. And I think they left some dirt on the body of the car when they put that protection stuff on it. There was some dirt that I couldn't scrape off with my fingernail. The workers apparently rifled through my car looking for stuff to steal - my insurance and temp tag registration were not in the same position I left them in and the glove box hadn't been cleaned so I know they weren't in there to clean it and just moved the paperwork around. And they changed my radio stations and apparently listened to some weird station on the XM radio. I can just see them playing my radio for the four hours it took to do this work. I would rather they just do the work and listen to their own radio. But at least now I'm done with the dealership. Hopefully.

More bad news: I got my new license plate yesterday and it had a 2006 sticker on it. I can't put that on my car - the police will automatically pull me over and give me a ticket. So, I tried looking up phone numbers for local dmv offices in West Virginia so I could call and find out what I need to do to get a new sticker and the only numbers I could find on their website had 'out of the office' recordings. So, I emailed the Commissioner of the DMV. It goes to a generic inbox, so I'm sure one of his aides or assistants will get the email instead of the Commissioner but as long as I find out what I need to do before driving 30 miles to the nearest DMV office, I don't care who answers me. I do think it's irresponsible and pretty incompetent for them to send me a plate/sticker that's two years old.

This morning I bought all kinds of stuff for my car. I bought chrome polish, aluminim wheel cleaner, car wash and wax, drying towels and washing mitt, and a sprayer for the garden hose. I did have two sprayers but one split open and won't work now. So, I needed another one. If we ever get into a drought, I'll need to put the one I have been using back on the garden hose for the garden. And I filled the car up with mid-grade gas. I'm going to try to put mid-grade in the car every so often. The book that come with the car says you can use mid-grade if you tow things with your car, so I figure about once a month putting mid-grade in it for just regular driving use won't be too bad for the car. I put 10.3 gallons in the car and it cost me $43.25. That kind of hurt, but I did deliberately avoid putting gas in it this week because I didn't want to fill it up and then have the detailers get the car. They might have siphoned some of the gas out. According to the onboard computer I can drive 313 miles on a full tank of gas. I'm calculating the gas mileage the old way - by hand to see exactly what's going on. I don't think the computer will give me good information. And my new goal is to try to let the car warm up for at least two minutes before starting out. My Lumina book said I should let the car idle for something like 5 minutes to get all of the fluids throughout the car before driving off. I didn't see anything like that in my LaCrosse book, but I figure if it's good for the Lumina, it shouldn't hurt the LaCrosse. While I'm letting it idle I can scan the radio stations. I actually used my Onstar last night. I checked to see how many minutes of hands free calling I had to use.

It's nice to be able to move into my car now. I put the plastic milk crate in the trunk - used for holding grocery bags. I put the key and the remote entry device on my old key ring. I hadn't done that yet because I wasn't going to give the detailers my house key, or Mom's for that matter. I have to put my little pink dinosaur in the back dash and some other things into the car that I had in the old one, like my jar of change that I keep for emergencies - but really, I should just have a little bit of change and some dollar bills in there instead. Dad started that jar of change thing years and years ago back when there were payphones everywhere. I don't think I need much change these days.

Car Trouble

Well, the salesman never did come and get my car for the detailing and special protectorant stuff on Wednesday. I called him and he claimed he hadn't forgotten about me and that he would call me after he'd checked with the service department about when my car could be done. Well, he never called me back. So, tomorrow I'll be calling him again. Give him one more chance and then I may have to either find out who his superior is or call the service department and schedule this myself.

Other than that, I love my car. I go out in the evenings to just walk around it and look at it.

More Car Stuff

Today I finally got the Onstar thing turned on. And I programmed in some radio stations. I'll have to try them out during the three months I get XM for free and see if I think it's worth keeping. I turned on the headlights to see what the car looks like with them on. It's such a pretty car.

Last night, we had storm warnings running across the screen and one of the warnings said hail possible. So, I went out and pulled the car up further into the carport in case it did hail.

I've been watching round 1 of Wimbledon all day today. Well, it started at 7am. I had already eaten, fed the dogs, dyed my hair and vacuumed the dining room by then.

Loving The New Car

I'm really liking my new car. I took the puppies to mom and dad's today and I parked the car in front of their big living room window. Every so often I would go to the window and just look out at my car. It's so pretty. I really feel like this is my car. I didn't feel that way with my Lumina. Dad had decided to buy the Lumina and I just got to pick whichever one I wanted from the 5 they had on the lot. Then Dad had to co-sign for me and as I had only been working at my job for about a month, I wasn't really positive that I could pay off the loan. This time, I picked out the car, made the salesman find a red one instead of just taking one of the ones on the lot, and even though I have it on a payment plan, I do have the money in the bank to pay it off if I need to. So, I really feel like this is my car. And I'm very giddy. I'll take some pictures of it Wednesday evening after the dealership puts on that protective coating stuff. It will look all shiney and new after that.

This morning I took mom for a drive in the car and showed her all the buttons and features. We went up to McDonalds and got breakfast. I haven't eaten at McDonalds in I don't know how long. Mom didn't want to get in the car because she would track dirt into it. I had to tell her that the dealership was going to detail it on Wednesday so she could go ahead and get in it and get it dirty.

And just a little bit ago, I tried out a CD in the car. It plays very well. I also sat for a minute in the back seat to see what it was like back there. I think if you are very tall it might be difficult to sit back there, but I come from a medium to short family and I don't really plan to be hauling very many people anyway.

As for me - I have a sinus headache. I took two tylenol and a sinus pill and I still have the headache. I got my hair cut today so I'll be dying it tomorrow.

Off the Program Today

Today, I sort of went off the I Can Make You Thin program - the program where you eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full and eat and enjoy only the foods you really want. I ate about 9 inches of a 12 inch sub this morning after I got back from town. I'm pretty full right now. But I'm trying to avoid eating anything else until I feel hungry again. That's the beauty of this program. It starts all over again the next time you're hungry. It isn't like a calorie or point counting diet where if you go over calories or points by noon, you feel like you've just blown the whole day and you might as well keep eating.

Other stuff going on: Steffi's not doing well. She didn't eat last night and would only eat a little bit of catfood this morning. Her poo was runny and gelatinous. Winnie, PJ and Fritz are all okay. I have Monday off. Sometime while I'm off this weekend I have to dye my hair. I think I'll try to get Mom to cut my hair tomorrow. And I think I'm going to do some pruning of the weeds and bushes that are growing into my driveway. Since I have the new car, I don't want it all scratched up. Dad is supposed to do some of that pruning when he comes up to dog-sit at the end of July.

Darn That Tiger Woods

That man just cost me $25000. How, you ask? Yesterday I bought a new 2008 Buick LaCrosse CX. It's "Scarlett Red" with "Titanium" interior. I wouldn't have been looking at the Buicks if it weren't for all of those Buick commercials I have to watch when I watch golf. And why are there so many Buick commercials out there? Because Tiger advertises them. At least I didn't buy a Lucerne. The LaCrosse is exensive enough for me.

As for the car: I wanted a red one but the dealership only had two silver ones on their lot. When the salesman realized I was going to keep my 1998 Lumina, he figured the only way I was going to buy a car that day was if he could find me a red one (I didn't need to buy one that day if I had a car I could drive). So, he had some guy in the office look for red ones on the internet. He claimed this was the only red one in the state of West Virginia, but when I looked online, I found 4 with one having the paint color I would have preferred: "Red Jeweled Tint". But it could be that those other dealerships hadn't updated their website and that car was already sold. At first, the salesman was showing me the used cars but when he asked me how much I was looking to spend and I said "I want to keep it under $30,000", you should have seen those cartoon Dollar Signs pop out of his eyes. That was a bit funny. He showed me the news ones then, but he kept showing me the Pontiac Grand Prix and I don't really like those. I think the body style is ugly. They had a red one of those. I made the salesman do a lot of walking yesterday. The car lot is stretched out length-wise and he had to walk that whole length a couple of times. But as I don't go carshopping ever, I didn't really know what I wanted and what I was looking for. So, I even took a peek at a Dodge Avenger. Finally I test drove one of the silver LaCrosses and it was very nice. The driver's seat adjusts up and down and front to back. The A/C fan is controlled by button instead of knobs (My Lumina's A/C fan barely works and I have to toggle the knob back and forth a hundred times to get it to work). The radio keeps working even after you turn off the car and pull the key out of the ignition. That concerned me for a bit yesterday until I could read the book. I get free Onstar for a year and free XM radio for 3 months. The radio is set on the PGA Tour network and I haven't gotten the Onstar started yet. The trunk is a little smaller than my Lumina's and the car takes the potholes in my driveway a lot better than the Lumina. Both cars have a V6 engine, but the Lumina's is a 3.1L and the Lacrosse has a 3.8L. When I test drove the silver LaCrosse, I accidentally squealed the tires when I pulled out of a parking lot. It has a bit more power than the Lumina. The LaCrosse comes with two power accessory outlets (at least I have only found two) and my car came with 3/4 of a tank of gas, which probably makes the $25000 I'm spending worth it when you look at the current price of gas - LOL Wednesday, the dealership people are going to pick my car up at work and take it to spray this protectorant all over it. With this stuff on the car I won't have to wax it for 5 years. I thought that sounded great since my Lumina is lucky if I wash it once a year, let alone wax it.

I like the LaCrosse even though it seems that the view out of the back window is more narrow than that of my Lumina. I read in the owners manual that I have to wipe off the chrome every time it gets wet or dirty. Heaven knows what I have to do with the aluminum wheels that they have on it. I'm hoping that protectorant stuff will seal that too and I won't have to do much cleaning. I'm still keeping my Lumina. I have studded snow tires for that car so I figure I'll run it in the Winter and park the LaCrosse. It didn't cost me much more to insure a new LaCrosse since, thanks to dad's handling of my insurance, I am insured to the hilt anyway. And insuring the Lumina with the minimum required by the State of WV only cost me about $290 more on the year. That was a very good deal I thought.

I'm happy that I have a brand new car. I figure I should be able to have one brand new car in my lifetime and then get used ones after that. My Lumina was a gently used one when I got it. Plus, my Lumina has a bad head gasket and according to Dad, the engine could go at any time so I didn't fancy driving it to Akron for the Bridgestone Invitational at the end of July. I'm going back to the tournament again this year. Wednesday night the LaCrosse will really feel like my car because I will be able to move my little stuffed dinosaur into the back dash and put my house key on the key ring. I don't want to do that before the dealership guys pick up the car to do that detailing work. You should never leave personal stuff in the car or your house key on the key ring when you're giving the car and key ring to a dealership, mechanic, or detailing workers.

As for Yesterday - it was the most expensive day of my life. Not only did I buy the car, but I also spent $433.00 ordering new glasses to wear. Mine are all scratched up so I went to the eye doctor and ordered new ones. The ones I'm getting come with little magnets on either side of the lenses and sun glass clip ons that will just adhere to the frames with those magnets. That's really handy. The color of the frames are purple. Not red. It was nice to hear the office girl saying that I needed small frames because I have a small face. That wasn't the case 6 years ago when I last went to the eye doctor. I was fat back then.

Following the Program

Well, so far I've been following the "I Can Make You Thin" program. I listen to the hypnosis cd every day (if you can call falling asleep to it listening) and I'm following the four golden rules. My diet hasn't changed all that much since I was eating mostly what I wanted before. But I am slowly adding a few things in here and there. I bought a Totino's Pizza and ate 1/4 of it for dinner one night - the rest was cut into pieces and put in the freezer. And I now have biscuits and real Parkay margarine in the house. I'm not going overboard with the eat anything you want philosophy until I've followed the rules for a few weeks. This past week I've been wanting poptarts but instead of telling myself that I can't have them on my 'diet', I told myself that I couldn't have them until grocery store day when I would buy them.

Today I've been busy. I went grocery shopping, did some laundry and I cleaned my car up. I'm thinking of buying a new car. Dad and I will be going car shopping next Friday. So, I tried to get some of the dirt, grass and little rocks out of the floorboards and cleaned the inside of the car. I took most of my stuff out of the car in case I do find a car to buy. I really have no idea what car shopping will bring. If it's anything like purse shopping, I'll spend months putting it off because I won't want to spend the money.

Well, it's cooled off a bit toward the end of this week. Thank goodness. I like summer, but it's not summer yet.

I've also made an appointment with my eye doctor for next Friday. I want to get a new pair of glasses. I'm tired of the scratches and smudges on these. If I end up finding a car I want Friday, I will have to get all the paperwork done and the insurance transferred quickly so I can make my appointment. Or else dad will have to leave me at the doctor's and finish everything and then come back for me.

A New Program

Well, I received the book, I Can Make You Thin, by Paul McKenna yesterday. I've read the book about three times and listened to the CD about 4 times. This is the weight loss program that employs the four golden rules: Eat When You're Hungry, Eat What You Want- Not What You Think You Should, Eat Consciously, and Stop When You're Full. McKenna was on TLC a while back and that's where I found him. I think if I stick to this, it will work out well. I started following the rules today. We'll see what happens. I do have a headache. I think it's more because of the heat and the smudgy glasses I'm wearing than the new program.

This heat is getting ridiculous. I'm almost to the point of buying a new car since my car doesn't want to have working air conditioning. Poor Steffi is having a time of it. I drizzle water on her when she pants a lot so she can try to cool down. And I have a fan on her most of the time. Tomorrow might be a problem since I go back to work and I don't like to have the fans on when I'm not in the house. I might have to make an exception. It's supposed to cool down a bit on Tuesday I think.

PJ got scared today. There was a wasp in the house and it was flying around. PJ didn't like it and she would take off running, looking for a place to hide. She got into her carrier at one point. I killed the wasp and after a while, PJ relaxed.

Tomorrow night, Nashville Star debuts on NBC. I don't know if I can stay up 'til 11pm to watch the whole thing. I swear these people who run the networks think we don't have jobs or something. It could be that after the first hour, I decide the show's not worth staying up for.

I've spent the last couple of weeks watching the French Open. This coming week is the US Open Golf tournament which I probably won't watch much of since Tiger will be playing. Granted NBC doesn't suck up to him as much as the other networks but still, there will be a ton of coverage on him and virtually nothing on anyone else. In a couple of weeks Wimbledon starts so I can watch more tennis. I even saw some men's gymnastics today.

What a Week

Wednesday, lightning struck at work. I could hear the lightning crackling as it ran through the ceiling. Thursday, we had no computers so I did as much goofing off as I could and then left at 1pm. I came home and changed into some jeans, got my grocery money and went to walmart to do my weekly shopping. Friday, I went to Krogers after work and now on Saturday, I don't have to go anywhere. Yay.

This morning I took the plastic off the windows, washed the windows with spic n' span, vacuumed the family room, did a load of laundry.

I was hoping to watch the Women's French Open final, but Dinara Safina didn't start too well, so I'm watching golf. I'll keep up with Safina's score online and decide if I want to tune in later.

It's going to be another really hot, sunny, humid day today.