Rants » Mi Vida Ocupada

^%$#%$#%$ Mazda CX-7 Headlights!!!

Oct 252010

Can I assume for a minute that everyone who reads this has changed a lightbulb in your car at one point or another??? This is minor maintenance that usually takes no more than 10-15 minutes right?

That may be the case…… unless you drive a Mazda CX-7 like I do! A few weeks ago my drivers side low-beam went out, so I went to the Auto Parts store to pick up my $10 bulb. When I got home with my bulb and got my car manual out to see what I needed to do, I was shocked to see that replacing my bulb involved removing the mud panel under the wheel-well. Really??!! (Well the other option is to completely remove the bumper cover and then the headlight assembly). So I got out the tool box, climbed under my car and then spent the next 75 minutes swearing at the dang car for being so difficult. I finally get in to the tight place I need to be, disconnect the old bulb, pull off the covering and then I can’t get it out because of a clip holding it in place. Holding it so good that I could not get the bugger out for the life of me!! Next thing you know, the piece that holds the bulb inside the socket has broken off!!!! This is NOT GOOD. I determine that I have really messed things up and need a whole new headlamp assembly. Only $400+!!! I typed a search in Google about my headlights only to discover that practically everyone who owns this car has had the same problem. How frustrating and stupid!!! Thanks a lot, Mazda for the genius design. Real user-friendly. NOT!!!

So I have been waiting to have a few extra bucks in my pocket to buy this big, bad part, driving with just one headlight for the past two weeks. Can you believe I haven’t even had a chance to buy this headlamp assembly and a few nights ago THE PASSENGER SIDE HEADLIGHT GOES OUT TOO!! So at the moment I do not have any low beams that work on my car!!! And it is not equipt with fog lights either. Its either highbeams or parking lights.

Could this happen at a worse time of year now that our days are getting so short????

I am afraid to try to replace the other bulb because I know the same thing could happen and then I am looking at another $400+ on top of the original $400. No thanks!

So that is my rant of the week. Grrrr!

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

TFT: Meals Gone Wrong…..

Food and Drink, Rants, Thoughts for Thursday 6 Responses »

Mar 112010

I may have led some of you to believe that since I have been trying a lot of new recipes lately, that I am a good cook. Well, sometimes I am, but sometimes my meals do not turn out as good as expected.

Example….. I found a crock-pot recipe book recently and thought I would try a recipe for pork chops in orange sauce. It sounded good at the time, really! I thought it would be kind of Asian-like. WRONG. I started the recipe before working a 12 hour day and had been looking forward to dinner all day long. What a disappointment it turned out to be!! YUCK. Like inedible, waste-of-food.

I had taken photos of the whole process like I have been doing lately so I will post a photo of the final product but I refuse to share the awful recipe. Looks a million times better than it tasted.

What is the worst recipe you ever made??

Thanks for reading, have a great day ;)

Thoughts for Thursday: Skinny Jeans on Guys

Rants, Thoughts for Thursday 29 Responses »

Oct 222009

You want to know what I think about skinny jeans on guys???

FUUUUGGGGLLLLYYYY!!!

GUYS!! Please, I beg you……… DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT WEAR SKINNY JEANS. Not even if your life depended on it!! I seriously don't get why they are fashionable. They are sooooo unflattering. They shrink the length of your leg, make your butt look gross and they're just plain repulsive to look at.

Why?

Please tell me I am not alone! Ladies, I know you don't let your men out of the house wearing these hideous pants…..

Like Humpty Dumpty……

Rants 5 Responses »

Sep 012009

The worst part about my trip to Colorado this summer was that I accidentally dropped my Canon G9 and broke it. Wahhhhhhhh! I instantly felt sick and it wasn't just from the 10,000 ft+ altitude! No performance plan on this baby :( My little brother thought he could maybe fix it, so within minutes it looked like this…..

Can you see the 100 screws laying about???

Unfortunately like Humpty Dumpty, all the King's horse and all the King's men, couldn't put my sweet little camera together again :( (Or rather the camera went back together but still didn't work. Thanks anyway for trying, Jeff!)

Political aftermath….

Rants 9 Responses »

Jan 212009

I posted this morning about what I thought about this post by Reallotterywinner.com and then deleted it shortly afterward. (Wish I wouldn't have deleted my original post but it was basically asking you to unsubscribe to his blog or to leave him a comment). I have been reading the comments to his post throughout the day today and I see that many of you have left him comments speaking your mind. He also has his rebuttles, but basically he doesn't care that he offended so many with his words. I know he is entitled to say whatever he wants, but I found his words very ugly and took offense to what he said.
Not sure why I am back here posting about this for the 2nd time today, but the topic has lit a fire under me……

PS I have seen that both Nicole and Zoe are also fired up about his post!

Was it the carrot cake??

Rants 9 Responses »

Dec 012008

Or maybe it was the chocolate cake I had last night?
Either way, I feel like I gained at least 3 lbs over the holidays.
Thanksgiving and my long weekend really messed up my eating habits.
Its only December 1st so I am in real trouble if I let this continue!
Over the past year I have shrank a couple of sizes and I never want to step foot in those fat pants again.
Time to fight the holiday pudge before it gets out of hand!

Traffic Court.

Rants 6 Responses »

Sep 242008

I confessed awhile back that I was given a speeding ticket on my way home from the pow-wow on the Rez in Shakopee. I am normally a cautious driver and drive at a reasonable speed, but on this particular day I had been in an unfamiliar part of the Cities and a cop was waiting in ambush just past where the speed limit was suddenly reduced by 15 mph. I missed the new speed limit signs and was obviously going too fast without realizing it. The officer caught me, pulled me over and gave me a ticket. I made an honest mistake, but its one that I don't want to have to pay for in higher insurance premiums for the next 3 years. Or is that junk on your record for 7 years? Whatever. So I decided I would go to the pre-appointed court date to fight the ticket.

So I made my way to traffic court. I am going to share my experience with you since many of you are probably as naive as I was when it comes to court appearances! LOL. I honestly had no idea what to expect, as I had never before been inside a courthouse or courtroom. I wasn't sure if the same police officer would be there or not!! (I was hoping NOT). I asked the receptionist what I needed to do and she just said that the courtroom would open at such and such time and I would need to check in. So I made my way to the front of the line when the doors opened, and there were two clerks checking people's name off a master list they had. I had to fill out a brief paper indicating my race. It took about 20-30 minutes for the clerks to check everyone in, there were about 50 other people in the courtroom. There was a panel of suits sitting there too, the prosecutors. I wasn't nervous at all, but I was feeling a bit apprehensive at the thought of having to plead my case to a judge and to the prosecutors in front of all these strangers!! I didn't want to look like an idiot or anything! There were absolutely no instructions as to what to expect, so I just sat and waited. So then the four prosecutors started randomly calling out names and then taking the individuals out of the courtroom, bringing them back to the clerks a short while later. I was thinking, oh, this isn't so bad if I can meet with someone individually. But then we were all asked to rise and the judge came out. The first two cases he called were DWI's who had defense attorneys. The defendants had to plea their whole case in front of everyone. How embarrassing! (But its a well-known fact that I have absolutely NO sympathy for anyone who drinks and drives and the consequences they face). At this point I wasn't sure if everyone was going to have to enter a plea before the judge, or what! Turns out he was only on the bench for about 15 minutes total, then recess was called. About an hour and fifteen minutes after the courtroom opened, I was finally called to meet with one of the prosecutors. He saw that my record was clean and offered either 1. reduced fine (ticket would remain on record) 2. Keep driving record clean for one year and this ticket will never go on my record 3. Have a trial in which the officer who gave me the ticket would be there to testify against me. I opted for option #2.

So to conclude this novel, I will be driving like an angel for at least the next year!

I hate new shoes!

Rants 8 Responses »

Sep 152008

I have said it before and I'll say it again.
I am NOT a shoe person.
I had to force myself to buy a couple new pairs of shoes this year out of dire necessity.
The first pair I wore to Darrell & Denise's wedding last weekend. My toes are just barely recovering from that ordeal!
The second pair I wore for the first time today. They were fine up until about lunch time, but the back of my heels have been rubbed raw :(
I have come to the conclusion that I might just have to move somewhere that I can wear flip-flops 365 days a year!

Gmail is blocked from work :(

Rants 3 Responses »

Aug 292008

Whatever am I going to do???
I hardly ever have time to write personal e-mails at work anyway, but now I can't read them either. (Until I am eligible to get my iPhone, I guess)
Boo Hoo!
Oh, and AIM is blocked too.
What on earth did we ever do before e-mail???!!!!!

Camera Trouble x 2

Rants, Raves No Responses »

Jul 112008

It has been a whirlwind this past week with my family in town…..lots of fun! Disk golf, bowling, BBQ, fishing and boating. I have been depending on other people to either take pictures or let me use their cameras since mine broke again. I hate not having my own! I have had too much going on to drop my camera off at Best Buy, but I am pretty sure that it has broken enough times (per performance plan policy) that I will get a new camera instead of them fixing it. I'll update about all of that when I can retrieve the photos from my cousin Dan.
Anyway, I went out to dinner tonight for a very interesting meeting with some of the Interactive Marketing people at General Mills (their treat!). The restaurant was Wolfgang Puck's 20.21 (totally fabulous). Because of the nature of the meeting, I invited my brother Jeff along. Since I am without my camera, I made Jeff bring his out so that I could do a review for Twin Cities Restaurant Blog. Dinner was amazing but somehow between leaving the table after dinner and the ride back to Jeff's, we managed to loose his awesome camera. I am totally sick about it :( We are hoping that the restaurant has it safe and unharmed (if it was indeed left there- Where else could it be if it isn't in the car??). I'm praying Jeff gets it back.

On a sidenote: Have any of you checked out Bettycrocker.com lately? They have a bunch of yummy recipes….go check it out!!

PS I haven't made it to bed before 1am in the past week (while waking by 5:30am each morning). I am dooggggg tired

Foul mood today

Rants, School & Work 6 Responses »

Apr 262008

I bombed the Praxis this morning.
Woke up after a terrible night sleep, drove to the testing site and arrived 5 minutes before I was supposed to be there to find out they changed the location to a different high school. I hightailed it through the east side to get there in time, to discover that there were a million testers and only one woman checking id’s.

The test did not go so well.

I was overconfident going into it after taking a practice test online…..I aced that so I mistakenly thought I had nothing to worry about. It was HARD. Much harder than I was expecting. The only section I feel good about is math. The social studies focused mostly on government crap….and not just US gov’t…..other countries around the world! And for the life of me I could not remember all the parts of a cell and what their functions are. Damn, I feel like such an idiot. It was so long ago that I learned all that stuff in college. I was really hard on myself and had a breakdown in the car on my drive home.

It has been cold and windy and wet and I want nothing more than to just curl up on the couch with my babe and watch a movie. Instead I obligated myself many weeks ago to go to a bachelorette party tonight for a good acquaintance. I feel bad, but I just don’t feel like going tonight (but I am going to). I am in such a poor mood that I know I won’t be my usual fun self. I will not be drinking because I have to drive all the way home and get a decent night sleep for a change so that I can spend most of my day tomorrow studying for my stupid american literature mid-term that I will be taking on Monday morning. I’m not in the mood to bomb another test this weekend, know what I mean?

Okay, I need to go get ready for my party and shake off this crabiness.

This makes me want to puke…….

Rants 17 Responses »

Apr 182008

POETRY…….

Rants 3 Responses »

Apr 092008

I just don’t get it!

The types of poems that need to be explained or interpreted, anyway.

Which really stinks right now, as I have been assigned to read and analyze several cryptic poems.

Dang it!

Dear Spring,

Great Outdoors & Weather, Letters, Rants 6 Responses »

Mar 312008

Dear Spring,

Is this some kind of joke? What exactly do you think you’re doing when you send 4-6 inches of snow on the Monday of my SPRING break??
I was not fortunate enough to go South to spend time with your cousin (the real Spring) this week, so I had hoped you would come through for me.
Every time I do think you are actually here to stay, you pull this disappearing act.
Can’t you just be consistent, already????!!!!!
Is that too much to ask?
Please come back so we can play together this week.
(The warm version).

Kristi

Smoking Ban: A Flaw in the Law

Concerts, Friend Time, Rants 14 Responses »

Mar 032008

Imagine my surprise when I showed up at the Rock Nightclub on Saturday night to discover that the bar was filled with nasty-ass cigarette smoke and a ton of people were blatantly smoking……WTF? MN banned smoking in public places as of Oct. 1, 2007.

Even though I am not a regular bar-goer, I do go to clubs quite often to see concerts. It has been wonderful that they have all gone smoke-free. Of course not everyone thinks so…many bar owners say the new law is killing their business. Some how someone (a lawyer) discovered a little loophole in the smoking ban…..apparently actors in a performance are still given the right to smoke.

So guess what the Rock and a few other bars are doing now to allow customers to smoke? They have turned a few regular events into "performances". This is the play program that they posted and handed out:

This had my friends and I in an absolute uproar…are you kidding me??!! How can they get away with this? Anyone who wanted to smoke was charged $1 to get a button that identified them as one of the "actors".
Heather gave me a pair of earplugs and I told her I was going to wear them as noseplugs instead! Here is a staged photo of me demonstrating how much I love smoke:

The show itself was decent and many of my friends came out to see Richie play. Too bad we didn’t do much but bitch about the smoke the whole time!

So despite how much I hated being at the Rock on Saturday night because of the smoke, I got talked into going back there on Sunday night to see Drowning Pool and Saliva. I could care less about either of these bands, but a friend of mine is the promoter for their national tour. Hard to beat free tickets! PS Smoking was NOT allowed on Sunday :)

I can’t believe I went out three nights in a row and got very little sleep…I hope this week goes fast!

Icky Poo-Poo Flu….

Feeling Under the Weather, Rants 5 Responses »

Feb 272008

Washing my hands 1,000,000 times a day wasn’t enough, apparently.

I’ll spare ya the N-A-S-T-Y details, but I DO have some suggestions to avoid mass contagion in your households, once those little sneaky germies gets inside:

Have a "sick" bathroom. Only the barfy/poopy person should be allowed in this bathroom. Have Lysol on hand to spray as often as possible
Keep sickie quarantined to his/her bedroom…no need to spread the germs all over the house!
Replace toothbrushes immediately
Wash all linens ASAP
Wash, wash, wash hands!!!

I seriously hate the stomach flu!!!!!!!

BIG OOPS!

Rants, School & Work 1 Response »

Feb 072008

So last night was actually NOT the first night of class…..LAST week was!! Apparently I was not alone in thinking this….four others showed up for the first time last night too.
Made me feel like a total dumb-ass!! This class is with an unfamiliar professor as well, so accidentally missing the first class made me feel even worse because the last thing I would ever want to do is give a professor a bad impression of me!
Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. She is giving us newbies until next week to turn in the assignments she had already assigned for last night.
The class is an integration of teaching social studies through the fine arts. We have many art projects to do, but most of them we will be doing in class. Compared to last semester, this class should be pretty easy.
Its my distance-learning American Literature class through LSU that is going to be the butt-kicker! We are reading a ton of great material in that class, but I have to analyze and write a million essays. I swear I haven’t written an essay since I was in college…..and that was many, many moons ago!

Dear McDonalds,

Letters, Rants 10 Responses »

Jan 232008

Or should I say WacArnolds?

Or Crack Don’s??

Mickey D’s or whatever.

Its OVER between us.

I know it has been a LONG time since I have been to visit you, but as the whole world as my witness, I will not be back to your restaurant for a LONG, LONG time, if EVER again. Not unless you offer the only food left on earth. (And even then maybe I would rather starve to death??!!)

It has been 6-7 months since I last visited during your "regular" menu hours because I was sick of you screwing up my order every dang time. When I say NO CHEESE I mean it. I cannot eat your nasty-A$$ American cheese. I do NOT want your filet-o-fish with enough tartar sauce smothered on it to gag a whale. And why would you give me honey mustard for my nuggets but fail to put the nuggets in the dang bag???? Countless calls to you and promises of "free"coupons to make up for the nasty food I had already paid for and couldn’t eat would’ve helped, but NEVER ONCE did you send me any of my coupons you promised.

I told myself that I would not be coming back to visit you, however your breakfast service at my local McD’s was actually quite good. Very friendly. And since there is nothing else (breakfast-related) on my way to work, I actually looked forward to my sausage and egg McMuffin WITHOUT CHEESE every couple of weeks or so.

BUT Just when I thought you could be trusted with my breakfast order, you had to go and put CHEESE on my breakfast sandwich this morning. Gag me with an effin spoon!!!! What a waste of $2.12, straight into the dang garbage can once I got to work this morning.

So I am done, Mickey D’s.

This was your last chance and you blew it. I won’t even bother calling to complain because I am sick of your empty promises.

Don’t expect to see me around anymore!

PS Einstein Bagels was always my first choice for breakfast but they closed a few months ago. Boo hoo!

The past 21 hours have made me really CRABBY!!

Great Outdoors & Weather, Rants, School & Work 7 Responses »

Dec 052007

I am not usually a "crabby" person, although if the cards are stacked against me, it doesn’t take much.
And usually unfortunate things tend to happen to me in numbers.
We got several inches of snow yesterday afternoon. This always slows the evening commute down some, but last night was REDONKULOUS. I left work at approximately 3:22 to head downtown Mpls for a very important meeting I had on campus starting at 4pm, with a private meeting arranged after the big meeting. I won’t even begin to tell you how bad traffic was for me to travel the 15-20 miles or so to get there from work, but I did take a picture of my clock and elapsed time (E/T) when I finally pulled into the parking garage at St Thomas. Thank God the person I had the meeting with was waiting around for most of the night because of the horrible traffic….I was not the only one it took over 3 hours for.

I am so thankful it only took me 1 1/2 hours to get home after the meeting, only double what it normally takes. I wouldn’t have been able to handle another 3 hours in the car.

I woke up extra early this morning, in a decent mood. The sun is out, the snow had stopped, and I had an 8am appt. to get new tires on my car I was promised I would be out of there in less than an hour, but unfortunately the previous owners of my vehicle never mentioned that there are locks on the wheels that need a key to be removed. And with my luck, wouldn’t you just know that the key was no where to be found anywhere in the car? Previous owners did not know where to find said key. To make a LONG story short, the wheel shop did everything they could with the resources they had to remove the locks, but no such luck. They had to run to Lexus to get the right tool, which fortunately Lexus had in stock. Great, I’ll be on my way soon, right? But of course with me, when it rains, it pours. The damn tire machine BROKE with my wheel stuck to it. Took about an extra hour for someone to come out and fix the machine. 3 hours and a half-sick-day later, I was able to leave with my new tires. Too bad it cost me an extra $100 because of the wheel-lock problem. Grrrrrr.
I hope the rest of my day & night go better….I will be presenting my final lesson tonight in my health/science class. Only two more weeks of class after tonight. Can’t wait! Now I just need to get crack-a-lackin on my HUGE math project.

Wish me luck and a better night!

PS Happy birthday to Maria today!

I am procrastinating. BIG TIME.

Rants 1 Response »

Dec 022007

Its late Sunday night and I haven’t started my big math project yet.

I am freaking out!!!!!

This is very unlike me. I tend to work on projects weeks in advance, but I have had so much to do, I haven’t had a chance to get started on this one yet.
Except I did.
I had all weekend to work on it.
Instead, I ran some errands before the snow storm hit, then lounged around all day Saturday, watching the snow. Also visited with some friends, cleaned a little, cooked, did this or that and did hardly any schoolwork.
Woke up early Sunday and spent the morning finishing my health project to be presented this Wed in class. (Yay, accomplished one big item on my list!) I was just about to start working on my math project when E and I decided to go next door to watch the rest of the Vikes game.
7 hours later, I finally just made it home.
D & D are so damn hospitable and fun, the time flies when we hang out with them. Darrell made homemade lasagna from scratch and invited us to stay for dinner. We could hardly say no, everything looked and smelled so good and they made a ton of food. It was awesome!! Jere and Shannon and the kids also came over for dinner, so of course I wanted to spend time socializing with our neighbors rather than working on my project. Who wouldn’t?!
After dinner we spent a few hours playing darts on D’s new dartboard. I love playing darts and rarely get the chance. I was having so much fun, it was hard to stop. Eventually the guilt about this upcoming project won out.
I need to get started on it but I am really dreading it, hence the procrastination :(
See, just by writing this blog post I am putting it off even further.
Ugggg!!
Lord, please help me get through the next few weeks until this semester is over and I can take a well-deserved break!!!

Feeling the need to change up my blog banner, hopefully I will get to it this week???!!!