It's obvious, I need a vacation.....

.....because lately everything is getting on my last nerve.

• I went to Haagen Daz at the mall this weekend to get a giftcard for a friend's birthday. Of course, there is one person working who is barely 16 and doesn't speak English very well and they have no idea what I am talking about even though they had at least 10 signs advertising gift cards.
  


• I went to Steve and Barry's to buy a pair of tennis shoes, the only one in my size is the display shoe, I ask the sales person where the pair is and she says their display shoes are all singles.
  


• Monday I am working and at about 9:00a maintenance in pounding on my door wanting me to move my car because they are paving the parking lot. A note on my door the day before would have been nice.
  


• Today I came into work and all of our systems are up and down, I just wanted to toss my hands in the air and go back to bed.

14 more days.

Lindsay Lohan, just say NO !

So, my weekend was fairly uneventful - after my 12 days of working in a row, I was very glad to have two days off. I went to lunch Friday with my friend Chrissy and then got a haircut that afternoon. Of course I went to the No Frills Grill on Friday night. It was fun as usual.

Saturday morning I got up and headed to WalMart to pick up my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows....I ran a few more errands in the morning and then made it back home around 1:30p that afternoon. I sat down at 2:00p to read. After a couple of stretch breaks, I finished the book around 9:00p that night. I thought it was VERY good. She was able to wrap it all up, explain some things, etc. I'm not going to post any spoilers here but if you want to talk to me about it - please email me.

Sunday, I was back to work. JoLynn and family came in around 11:00a for me to run them to the airport for their vacation to Florida and I did laundry and cleaned my apartment all day. After 12 days of being at home, it was a mess.

Nothing else much going on - there is nothing decent on TV these days other than The Closer and Psych so I am wearing out my Season 1 CRIMINAL MINDS DVDs every night. I love that show.

Oh, and as far as the title for the blog.....I hope she gets some help.

P.S. Dad - I can't specifically change the color of the words in my countdown clock. I'll try some other colors for the overall clock later today to see if that helps. Sorry.

Chatting with Joey......

Joey says:
I was dieing laughing because I ordered something from newegg.com and I tried to use their online chat to ask a question about the order and the chat finally answered and said:
Joey says:
Thanks for contacting newegg.com. This is Jesus, How can I help you?
Tracy says:
lol
Tracy says:
you MUST blog that
Joey says:
I thought WOW talk about getting serious help.
Tracy says:
right
Tracy says:
way to go right to the top
Joey says:
lol
Joey says:
exactly, how did they get Him to and nobody else did
Tracy says:
lol

Yikes.......

I wasn't going to blog today but I just went out on the patio to refill all of my critter food and saw this across the parking lot.


So, I called down to the apartment office and they said, yes they knew about it and were the ones that actually put cones around it. They haven't talked to the resident yet to know if the tires were stolen, taken off on purpose or if it was a repo.

Yikes.

I am approaching zombie state.....

.....after 10 days straight of working. As I mentioned I picked up two overtime shifts last Friday and Saturday so I am non-stop working. Now, don't get me wrong, I actually like to work, but I must admit, I have had a enough. I'm tired and I am burned out.

I've been wanting to go by and take pictures of the new Dallas Cowboy Football Stadium to put in my blog but I haven't made it over there yet. Hopefully, Friday when I am finally off again.

I have the movie RV in my DVD player but haven't watched it yet to give a review. I really have just been working, relaxing and trying to stay cool. Not very exciting.

Later.

Playing movie catch up

OK - so I have been trying to play movie catch-up. I don't subscribe to HBO, Showtime or any of those cable channels because to be quite honest I think it is a waste of my money. They end up playing the same old thing over and over again and then never when I want to watch it. Anyway, I know some people like those channels, so no offense intended, they're just not for me.

So, I belong to BLOCKBUSTER on-line. I have created a queue of movies and I can have 2 out at a time. This way I can catch up on all the stuff I feel like I haven't seen in the last 5 years...ha ha ! I'll start letting you know what I watch.

First, I have a gripe about the queue. I have a movie on my list that shall remain nameless, alright, it is Xanadu [I want my niece to see it], and it is NUMBER ONE on my list. So I returned a movie the other day fully expecting to get my number one movie next. But, no, they sent me my number two movie. Now, what's up with that ?? This is their official response :

BLOCKBUSTER Online® is committed to keeping your rental experience uninterrupted. Because our goal is to ship movies as quickly as possible in order to meet an estimated shipping time of 1-3 business days for delivery, the system reviews all "Available" titles in your Queue and determines which movies are ready for shipment from your nearest distribution center. If the estimated shipping times for your top selection(s) fall outside an acceptable shipping window, they may be skipped over for other DVDs further on your list.

Even though some of your selections may get skipped, continue prioritizing your movies in the order you would like for them to be shipped. We do our best to continuously distribute copies among our distribution centers based on demand.

Now, if I didn't want it next I wouldn't put it next, so I think they need to honor my list especially, since the movie's status was AVAILABLE and everything. I returned another movie yesterday so we will see what happens this time.

Next, a movie review. For those of you that know my daily insanities.....you know I tend to get obsessed, maybe that's too strong a word, how about attached, to certain actors when I see them in a role that I like and then I want to see EVERYTHING they have ever done. My current "attachment" is to Matthew Gray Gubler, currently playing Dr. Spencer Reid on Criminal Minds. He played a background character, INTERN #1, in the movie I am reviewing today. He had like two lines and an awful perm, but here's the review.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou [ 3 out of 5 stars ]

Brief Synopsis : Steve Zissou, sea-film amateur a la Jacques Cousteau, has reason to be melancholy: his partner has been eaten, perhaps by a mythic jaguar shark, his wife may be taking up with her ex-husband, a young man appears claiming Steve is his father (Steve hates fathers), his most recent films have tanked, he's having trouble raising money for his venture to revenge his partner, and he's attracted to a pregnant reporter who prefers the pretender. At sea, in pursuit of the shark, will he escape pirates and mutiny, forge the bonds of fatherhood, place his arm around his wife, find the monster of the deep, re-establish box office hegemony, and discover a reason to smile?

My Review : Now, before watching this movie, everyone told me it was weird. Basically, that is the word everyone used......weird. I like weird. So, with that in mind, I watched the movie last night. I thought it was.......weird. But, in a good way. I was entertained. I don't really know how to describe it much better than the synopsis above and all I can say is if you enjoy the off the beaten path, take a chance, weird kind of movie, you might like it.

Later.

Eeekk....I don't want to fall behind again

So, here is an update.

I went and saw the Harry Potter movie and thought it was very good. An odd thing happened, as I was watching it, I felt like I had already seen it....kind of a deja vu moment. But, I think it was because I had recently [in the last nine months] re-read the book. So, I guess what that means is that the visuals I got in my head while reading the book were just how they made the movie. Pretty cool. Of course, there are things missing from the movie that were in the book and that is expected but I thought it was really good.

I picked up two overtime shifts this week, today I am working 1oa - 7p and tomorrow I am working from 8a - 5p so that will be nice extra $$ on my check before I go on vacation and I might now be able to get my ticket to Disney. Woo hoo ! But, the downfall is that I am working 12 days in a row.....ugh.

As you can see, I added a VACATION countdown to my blog above. This is my annual trip to Florida to hang out with my parents and brother. I haven't had a vacation since May 2006 so I am really looking forward to it. I will be gone for 11 days. My sister and her family are going before me....and they leave in 9 days and will be there for a week. When they get back it is just 10 days until I go.....so my parents and brother are going to be busy with visitors for almost a month.

No big plans for the next few days except work, but I am going to try and post a picture blog sometime this weekend. Stay tuned.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Eeeee.......I am going to the midnight movie tonight and I am already tired. I have to work at 8a tomorrow morning and will probably get to bed by 3a if I am lucky. I'm going with friends, Courtney, Mandy, Brian and Zachary.....should be a blast. I'll let you know how great it was tomorrow while I am sitting at my desk with my eyelids propped open with toothpicks.

CUJO squirrel

OK - here are some pictures I've taken in the last 6 weeks that might also help catch you up on my life since my blog hiatus. This first one is of my bird feeder. As you can see, I have a tree right outside of my patio and I wanted to hang a bird feeder since I am home all day so I could watch birds.....I know, pathetic.

Now, enter CUJO SQUIRREL :

He looks harmless. But, after only having my bird feeder up for a few days, he tore it to shreds.

Now, I don't think you can really appreciate it unless you see the bird feeder in person, but I am going to post some pics a little further down.

After ripping the feeder to shreds, I decided when you get lemons you make lemonade, so I brought in the bird feeder, bought some squirrel food and started feeding the squirrel as seen in the picture above.

I keep thinking I will get another bird feeder that is squirrel proof, but nothing yet. So, without further anticipation, here is the destroyed bird feeder [please note, I lifted the green lid off and back from the top] :

Enough said.....bastard squirrel.

My DVD Library......

Like a lot of people, when DVDs became the norm, I started buying them. I bought my favorite movies, like The Matrix, Gladiator, The Abyss, Harry Potter, Spiderman, The Shawshank Redemption, National Treasure, Lord of the Rings, etc. but you know, I never watch them. I mean, half of the ones I have in my collection are movies that I can see almost any Saturday on a regular channel. So, I think I am going to get rid of my collection.

I can rent anything I want to see and once you've watched the deleted scenes or the blooper reel or whatever might be on the bonus features of a DVD, you've watched them.

I do think however, that I may start a collection of TV shows. There are some TV shows that I like that aren't shown on TV anymore or are rarely shown. Also, I think I am more likely to re-watch a TV show than a movie most of the time.

So, if anyone is still reading this thing.....do you collect DVDs ?? And, if so, what kind ??

Where oh where has my little blog gone......

So, it's been a little over a year since I started this thing and lately I have not been updating as I was so passionately reminded of by my mother last night. I don't know why. And, the thing is that once you stop for a little bit, the amount of information that you have not been relaying becomes overwhelming.

A BRIEF recap since my last post :

• My mom came for a 16 day visit to Texas where she spent half of her time with my sister's family and half with me. It was really nice having another human around the apartment while I was working and I think she got a lot of reading done. I tried to hook her on UGLY BETTY but not sure it worked.
• I colored my hair. [dark chocolate brown]
• I went and saw my niece in her ballet recital - she was in 3 dances; tap, jazz and ballet and she did a great job and was super cute.
• I registered for FALL classes.
• I passed ONE MILLION Players Plus points on NTN trivia at The No Frills Grill.
• A 'cujo-like' squirrel ripped my bird feeder to shreds.

Other than that, I went to a few movies, read a few books, wrote a little bit and basically just hung out with friends or my laptop.

So, on the calendar for the next few days......tonight, I am going to see the movie TRANSFORMERS with friends and tomorrow I am going to a STAR WARS exhibit with my friend Charles at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

I will try to use these two activities to jump-start my re-entry into blogging. Stay tuned.

I miss cookouts.....

I've been on the phone this week with co-workers and customers and everyone is asking what I did over the Memorial weekend. And, I, of course, worked. People keep telling me they had cookouts or went to friends houses or whatever. I never go to cookouts anymore. I need to get some friends together on the next holiday and have a cookout. I mean, cookouts are fun. You stand around in the backyard and you grill and mosquitos bite you millions of times and everyone just laughs and has a good time.

I miss cookouts. Who wants to have one next holiday ??

If the milk's chewy throw out the hamburger.....

...seems like sound advice coming from a former student of the Johnson and Wales College of Culinary Arts. Last Thursday, my power went out at around 3:30p when it had been raining or was about to rain but wasn't actually raining at the time. It didn't come back on until 1:00a - Grrrrr. I missed taping the Ugly Betty pilot -my current and for the foreseeable future TV obsession. I missed the 1st night of 'So You Think You Can Dance' - the one reality show I watch...and I missed the reappearance of 'Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip' .. needless to say I was quite irritated. Apparently, though, since my milk has not gone chewy - my fridge items are safe.

So, the question, what exactly am I doing when I am not in school and I am not blogging. Well, here is a little about me these days :

1. I am reading the James Patterson Women's Murder Club Books.....I am about halfway thru # 3 I think. They are good. I'm not really a mystery reader but I haven't had anything to read lately and my sister bought me the first one for my birthday so I decided, what the heck. I read #2 while the power was out .... a flashlight and some duck tape were involved.

2. I am writing. Some of you, well, many of you, may not know this is actually a hobby of mine. It started, I don't know, about 3 years ago I guess. There is this, I don't know, pod of people out there that write something called fan fiction. Basically, they take characters from their favorite movies, TV shows, etc. and they write stories for them. For example, a fan fiction for one of the CSI shows might be like an actual episode with a murder and them solving the case, or it might be about the hook up of two characters on the show that aren't hooked up. It might be a cross-over between the CSI show and oh, I don't know....Grey's Anatomy. It's mainly about story because those reading them already know the characters. Anyway, I do that.

3. I'm hanging out with friends. I still go to No Frills Grill pretty much every Friday night with my friend Courtney and whoever else shows up. I also try to see movies and grab a bite to eat with my friend Charles as often as our schedules allow but not nearly enough. I'm always pestering my friend Jeffrey and my cousin Tom to get together but alas, they are a more fruitless endeavor....I'm not sure if it is me or them. Who am I kidding, it's them.

That's a good chunk of my time these days along with work. No classes this summer but I will pick up again in the fall. I'm trying to get to Abilene at least once a month - but right now I think that bunch owes me a visit.

So, my mom is coming on Tuesday and I will transport her halfway to Abilene Wednesday night....for a small ransom. She'll be back with me the following Wednesday for a week. We are all looking forward to her visit.

Until later.....adios.

Holla !

OK - so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me....as of Friday, I am now 40 + 1. No biggie - I still feel 25, well, maybe 28. Anyway - I headed to Abilene Friday morning for the day and met my nephew for lunch after my niece totally forgot I was coming and ate in her classroom. What-Ever-Loser.

We picked the kids up from school and headed off to see Shrek The Third - it was super cute and funny. The kids laughed thru the whole thing. Afterwards, we went to Red Lobster for my birthday dinner which was VERY nice and no one sang to me - YAY !! We went home and played on NATIONAL BINGO NIGHT on TV and then some Shrek Bingo and I actually won a few games.

Saturday we ran errands and then in the afternoon, Mason and JoLynn had to bowl...I went and watched and we ate bowling alley food for lunch, YUMMY, really. I headed home Saturday afternoon. I met my friend Chrissy for dinner Saturday night at the No Frills Grill and we chit chatted and caught up, promising to get together more often going forward. Yay, another human to interact with..... :)

Checked on-line today and got my grades - Statistics/A and Environmental Science/B - perfect.

That's all the news for me.

See what happens.....

....when school is out and my life becomes even more boring. No new blogs.

Well, let's see. This Friday is my birthday. I will be turning 40+1 - that is how I am going to refer to all future birthdays, in relation to 40. So, next year I will be 40+2. I was going to try and plan a birthday dinner out with some of my friends....but people are busy, as you can tell since they never comment on my blog anymore, so I decided to go with Plan B. I am going down to my sister's where I have at least two people that love me to no end and will shower me with hugs, kisses and I love yous for 2 days....who could pass that up. They will take me to see Shrek 3 and it will be a lot of fun.

I am thrilled to report that my mother has quit her job and will also be coming for a visit to Texas on May 29th.....two weeks from today. Everyone is very excited that she finally got away from an extremely unhappy situation and that she is coming to see the people that will shower her with hugs, kisses and I love yous for 14 days.

I do have some blog topics I am working on and I will get those up tomorrow and Thursday so you have something to read while I am out of town. In the meantime, thanks for always being patient with my lack of blogging. I'm always here.

P.S. Congrats Dirk !! NBA MVP 2006-2007

Movie Reviews, school.....

Well, I was one of the many that went to see Spiderman 3 on opening day and I must say I am glad I did. It was well worth the price of admission. I'm not going to spoil it for those of you that have not seen it yet, I will say however, this one is much more about Peter Parker/Spiderman than it is about the villains, in my opinion. The special effects, etc. were great. Definitely a must see.....I will probably see it one more time in the theatre.

I also went and saw Lucky You this weekend with Drew Barrymore and Eric Banan. It was okay. The movie is about poker and the relationship between Eric Banan's character 'Huck' and his father 'LC', played by Robert Duvall. It's not a comedy, it's not a romance. Although there is a romantic relationship with 'Huck' and Barrymore's character 'Billie', that is certainly not what the movie is about. I would say, this one should be a rental

No more school.....woo hoo !! I took my last final yesterday in Statistics, it was a little harder than I expected but I did okay. We just, in my opinion, had a real poor teacher and I felt bad for the people in our class that aren't math inclined. He teaches high-school by day, and he may be great at that....but his nighttime college gig, left much to be desired. Anyway, I'm sure I came out okay, but it was a tough one.

Not sure what the plans are for the summer yet, I am looking at several things right now. Some changes on degree plans, etc. are probably in the works. Stay turned for more on that as time goes by.

Hurricane Texas-Style

Well, I was out of pocket for most of the afternoon and evening yesterday because we had an horrendous storm here last night....my power was out from 6:00p - midninght. At one point the entrance to my apatment complex was so flooded that to come in, the water was up to some people's car windows. I was on my way home from school when it started and had to pull over into a bank parking lot because of the 70-80 MPH winds and high water.

Like they say, in Texas we never do anything small. Yikes....anyway, of course it is sunny and 75 degrees here now.

Mavericks, Laundry and May....

...and not necessarily in that order. First, I cannot believe it is May already. This is my last week of school with my final final on Saturday the 5th. It looks like I will not be taking any classes this summer. Nothing can fit around my work schedule which is very disappointing. But, I will try to make the most of the summer anyway, maybe I will get a 2nd job.

Well, the Dallas Mavericks pulled off a win last night - the last 40 seconds of the game were quite dramatic. Maybe it took the hometown crowd to get them back in the zone. They still have to win 2 more games to get out of this series alive and their opponents only have to win 1 more....so I am crossing everything and praying for them.

GO MAVS !!

The other night, my brother and I were having one of our many late night phone conversations...and we were both commenting on how we needed to clean our rooms. He started to tell me what his biggest problem is when cleaning his room and I stopped him.....I said I know what you are going to say because it is the same with me...and basically at the same time, we said laundry. Now, please, don't get this mental image in your head about piles of dirty laundry in our rooms. Our problem is CLEAN laundry. Neither one of us likes to fold or hang things up. I pretty much get dressed off of drying racks every day.

About once a week, I have this grand plan to put clothes away. It goes like this, I strip my bed to wash my sheets, etc. Then I take all the clean clothes and put them on my bed. I make a pile for pants that need to hang, shirts that need to hang, t-shirts, PJ's, shorts that need to be folded, towels/washcloths that need to be folded and then one big pile for socks, underwear and bras. Then later that night, I go into my room and start swearing because I realize I have to make my bed before I can go to sleep. So I transfer all piles back to clothes baskets and my rocking chair and then make my bed and go to sleep and the cycle starts all over again.

An update on my plants/seeds tomorrow.

Mavericks Fever

Okay - so I like a lot of sports, baseball, football, hockey, basketball, golf....etc. I know pretty much how all of them are played and while I am not obsessed, when a good game is on, I can get into it and watch. When my home town team is in the playoffs, I definitely get invested.

But, last year, I really got into basketball....specifically, the Dallas Mavericks. They have a good team and they are local....and I wish I could say that was the draw....but alas, it was this picture that drew me in.....

DIRK NOWITZKI - I mean, come on.....7 feet of sizzle.

Anyway......right now they are also in the playoffs, I think they have a good shot at going all the way, and DIRK is on track for NBA MVP this year. Their current series is against the Golden State Warriors and heading into game 3 tomorrow night, they are 1-1.

So, you'll find me at the local sports bar on the nights they play wearing my Mrs. Nowitzki t-shirt......[just kidding I'm not that obsessed].

GO MAVS !!

We interrupt this TV Show review for a moment from our sponsor....

....just an update on life since I have been MIA for a little bit. I'll go back to my TV show favorites after this.

So I worked last Saturday to cover a shift for my friend Curtis. In exchange he worked for me on Monday. So, I was sleeping in - a little bit - on Monday when I hear my cell phone in the other room ringing around 8:30a.....I ignore it, thinking that it is someone in my family trying to get me up. Ten minutes later, it rings again....I moan from bed, but ignore it again. Then 10 minutes later it rings again. This time I get up, wander to the living room looking for my phone and answer it. It is someone from my job wanting to know why I am not logged in. I say, because I am off today. I worked for Curtis Saturday and he is working for me today. They say, oh I am so sorry, I didn't know or remember. I say, no problem. And they apologize again for waking me and tell me to go back to bed. Doubtful. Now I am up and start my day. I listen to the two voice mails left from the first two calls....the first one is from Human Resources wanting to know where I am and the second one is from the phone console coordinator who monitors the phones, etc. I laugh....I mean, the phone console person and the person I actually talked to where copied in on the email that approved the change and why is someone telling Human Resources to call me......sheesh, I am never late, I never call in sick.....surely someone could have figured out what was going on before calling Human Resources. Oh well.....

Next week, is the last week of school for this semester....I have a final on Monday and one on Saturday....and then that's it for the semester. Yay ! That is why I have been absent here - too much stuff to be finalized before it ends. It looks like due to scheduling, I won't be taking any classes this summer....which stinks. I may have to push my graduation date back by a year.....oh well, I keep plugging along. I'll get there.

Anyway - there is an update. I will post more TV stuff in the next couple of days and then more on me later.....including an update on the seeds I planted.

See ya !