Peter & Jessica

I almost forgot…today is our 5 month anniversary.  Love You Peter!  Sucks that you’re on duty all day, night and half of tomorrow but we’ll do lunch tomorrow. 

In other news, the cats are keeping me entertained tonight.  They are demonstrating their full body wrestling techniques for me for the first time.  I have been cracking up watching them chase each other all over the place.  They growl & slap then tackle the other to the floor. 

I am watching TLC’s John & Kate plus 8, which has become one of the only shows I watch regularly this season.  I love 30 Rock but have only watched one episode this year.  The one episode I did catch was hilarious & Peter watched parts with me & loved it as well.  J&K+8 is about a family in PA who have 2 sets of multiples, one twins & a set of sextuplets.  All the kids are so funny & each of their little personalities is developing & with each show you learn a little more.  I can’t imagine having 8 kids but watching someone with 8 kids on tv is wildly entertaining.  One of tonight’s episodes featured their trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo & the curator took them on a little backstage jaunt to meet some animals.  They brought out two penguins for the kids to pet & they went crazy.  Made me think about Krisann’s obsession with penguins when we were young. 

She still has Pepi the penguin. 

My new career at Nationwide ROCKS.  The loss of my company car is the only item that stings (& only slightly.)  Certainly I will bristle while I spend the summer paying upwards of $3.50 a gallon at the pump when I have not paid a cent for gas in the last several years.  It’s been sweet, I’m not going to lie, but my stress level is so much lower now, not to mention the fact that I leave the office everyday & go to a home where there is no longer a remnant of any customer, contractor or sewage damage claim.  No car sitting there full of equipment to schlep around, no company cell phone ringing with new claims and after hours messages.  No a**hole customer bitching at me about why I don’t work on a holiday like New Year’s Day (I’M HUNG-OVER B*TCH SO LET ME GET BACK TO PASSING OUT!)

Wow! Sorry.  Anyway… My neon has consistently failed the last two attempts at a VA state inspection.  I have ordered some new headlights from E-Bay (Shipps Corner Citgo can do it for $300 including labor but I can get a pair of new ones on E-Bay for $46 & my sweetie Petey can put them in for a kiss!) which should yield a Pass, Finally!

I feel like I have let that little car down over the last several years.  Mom gave it to me & I enjoyed it thoroughly until a newer position at Natiowide presented me the alluring (but ultimately entrapping) world of company cars.  Who would spend money on gas for their personal car when the company pays for your personal gas in the company car??  Uh yeah.  Doesn’t take a genius.  So little Neon spent her time twiddling her CV boots while I ran around the eastern seaboard in a Windstar minivan.  Then, I took my last field position & upgraded to a Freestyle (slightly sportier, more personalized) which I really enjoyed.  Meanwhile, Neon continued to sit around collecting pine straw.  How many times did I let her maintenance slide because I was off cheating on her with a Ford? 

No wonder she has been failing, it’s all my fault.  I didn’t keep her routine maintenance up-to-date & I let her sit there while her gas has probably transformed into some sort of gel. 

She meanwhile, has been nothing but patient.  Her slightly fuzzy fabric seats are still sparkly & uncrushed- just waiting to cushion my adulterating ass.  Her dash is uncracked & lacking in dust bunnies, ready to reflect the bright beach sun into my sunglass protected eyeballs.  How could I??

Sweet Jesus Neon! Can you ever forgive me??  I’m sorry!!!

So I have been thinking for the last few months (until my sudden & unexpected change of heart earlier this morning) that I would be better off with a new or newer car than the neon.  I have been scouring the cars.com, E-Bay & Autotrader websites.  I spent all day yesterday researching new vehicles online.  I joined Consumer Reports a month back so I read their opinions on new & used vehicles.  I researched safety online at IIHS (Insurance Institute of Highway Safety for those of you not in the biz) and NHTSA (National Highway Traffic & Safety  A…uh, something.)  I averaged insurance costs.  I have always been a fan of Car Talk & listen to that whenever I hear it (I have yet to remember the time they are on my local NPR station so I can tune in regularly) but I have managed to get a good idea of their general opinions over the last few years.

I narrowed down my choices & built my own vehicle online at each & every automaker’s website to get an idea of prices & options.  I made up a spreadsheet & painstakingly color-coded it.  (Attaching below for Your reading enjoyment.)

 As soon as I got home from work, I forced Tired-Peter into the shower & when he came out he was Slightly-Less-Tired-Peter (a trick I figured out one sluggish weekend)  & we looked at cars in person for a change.  Mitsubishi was closed when we got there at 6 pm.  We stopped at Smart & their cars are on order for ten to twelve months.  We couldn’t remember where Toyota was so we tried Honda.  I test drove the Fit, which I liked.  It was nice, but horribly cheap- only expensive!  Roomier than a Smart with a nice sized rear & loads of versatility (fold flat seats, stand up seats & long mode, it was never-ending.)  It had lots of headroom for Peter.  The thing that really irked me was the crapet (that was initially a typo but I feel it is very appropriate so I’m leaving it.)  Instead of having regular car-carpet, Honda lined the bottom with thick heather-gray felt.  Felt that seemed oddly familiar.  I remember!  It used to be used to line the trunks of older cars!

It looked like something Krisann & I could have constructed over a two day weekend all by ourselves.  The dash was buttoned to the felt, the seats were so “cheap fabric” I half expected the foam to disintegrate & mush right out through it, like this round orange chair from the 50’s my Grammy pawned off on my little sister.  The front was pretty quiet but Peter informed me later that is was very loud in the back. 

Krisann’s response was, “Awww…so you wouldn’t pay $15 g’s for a car made of felt & buttons? That’s too bad.  I would.  Buy the Yaris!”  She then forwarded me the following car from Craigslist.

I think the dune buggy is pretty cool but I am looking for something I can drive home for Christmas without having to wear an umbrella hat.  If you’re interested,  search Pittsburgh Craigslist for Street Legal Dune Buggy posted on 05/07/2008. 

I guess I will try out the Yaris, although it has a definite advantage due to my low expectations now.  If only I can figure out where they hide that place…

Any car suggestions?  Please email them!

Krissy-poodle moved a few weeks ago from her beloved apartment in Shadyside.  I drove up for the weekend to help her move (Peter was conveniently busy at work ;) and we had a blast, as usual.

When I arrived, she was sawing logs with Pupp-o on the couch.  Aaaw!

Moving day came & other than her freakishly organized sock drawer, we still had a lot of packing to do. (Please note that the sock drawer is 10″ deep and there are several layers of neatly folded socks under this one.)

I bossed her around a lot & we were completely packed in no time.  I discovered that I am an amazing packing supervisor & great at packing others belongings.  I suck at packing my own stuff though, I find that I can barely get started!  Then she put on her moving Fez & performed like a trained monkey.

We had lots of help to move all that stuff out of her THIRD floor apartment into her first floor (Thank god!) new apartment.  Her new roommate, Carl, several coworkers, Dad, Maria & Gram and another Pete were great.  Thanks Everyone!!

We snapped the following picture of a top-secret Dude-Convention  when none of them were looking.  There were several of these throughout the day.

So we found a place we both LOVED & he is closing at the end of May (hopefully…the structure is there but the builder is complaining they may not be finished by then)

It’s a huge 3 story townhouse right up the road from my office.  4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, giant kitchen/dining/living room on the second floor.  There is a patio out back as well as a balcony from the living room.  The community has walking trails and a pool.  We are disagreeing on paint colors & patio furniture but everything else is going swimmingly. 

His father & brother are heading down around that time to help us move, which I am really excited about because I have never met any of his family.  Anyone interested in helping, let us know!  & If you have any tips to help me get motivated to pack, send them along!

Also, if you want our new address, please email.  I am uncertain of the house number but as soon as we find out, I’ll let you know!  We ARE planning a house warming but we can’t schedule it yet because we don’t know the exact day we can move in & his work schedule over the summer is very hectic.

We were bored.  We both love Monopoly.  We were rushing through Toys-R-Us.  I chose the cheapest Monopoly (who knew they range in price from $14 to upwards of $50!) because we didn’t need the one with all the bells & whistles, & Peter didn’t want the pink Barbie one (Damn it!).  This is what I picked up…

We got it home & set it up to start playing. 

Then we noticed something funny.  We looked around the board. 

We checked the box more closely & confirmed that there was no mistake.  We bought the spanish version. 

Since we had set it up & were so excited to play, we decided to keep it.  Neither of us know enough spanish to translate everything on the board and on the cards.  Luckily we had every Community Chest & Chance (Arca Communal & Casualidad) card & space memorized in english because  we both played it so much as children.  We didn’t have any trouble until we needed to look something up in the rules.  That was a little tough but we worked it out together.

Hasta Luego!

Still the same place I am currently working at but I am taking a new position.  Instead of working on homeowners claims outside the office I will be handling theft and lightning claims from inside the office.  Since I won’t be required to make calls on nights & weekends I can toss the work cell phone & laptop!!  No more 60+ hour weeks!! 

I will still be making the same salary except I will only be working 40 hours a week.  Due to the amount of time I have been putting into my career it will be like I am increasing the value of my time. 

I will be losing my kick-ass car, but I will be gaining the money that is taken out of my check for the vehicle.  I am sure it will be an unfortunate transition into paying for gas, maintenance and repairs for my own car again but it will be worth the lack of stress.  I have decided to buy a used car & trade in my old neon.  It runs fine but I would like something that is more comfortable to drive long trips in (not to mention big enough to fit the dog’s crate in!)

Most importantly, I am expecting the stress level to drop tremendously due to the lack of the expectation that I should put in so many unpaid overtime hours. 

So here’s the suggestion:

Corporations expect a lot from employees.  These expectations are great to push, or ‘inspire’, an employee to work at their best. 

The expectations *suck* when it implies that you need to be working 24-7 but your salary reflects a 40 hour week.  For an example, I am including a pretend scenario to help illustrate this point…

Management:  I’m going to need you to call customers back the exact date they initially call you and go visit them same day or next day, mmmk?

Peons:  That’s great customer service & I love to serve our customers because I feel valued here.  Our numbers will surely go up! 

Management:  Terrific!!!this does include nights & weekends.Thanks for coming to the meeting, have a great weekend!

Peons:  But what about the calls that come in on Friday or Saturday- if we call them same day we won’t have to inspect until Monday, right? Surely you wouldn’t hold that against us?

Management:  No you do not have to work on weekends but Sorry, we’re going to have to count that against you if you don’t so your numbers will be going down. 

So my suggestion is this: Do your business during regular business hours.  If you have an emergency, BY ALL MEANS DO SOMETHING/CALL IMMEDIATELY- DO NOT WAIT!!!  For everyday issues & calls- save it for Monday through Friday 9-5.  Nobody likes working nights & weekends. 

Think about it- if we all did our business during regular business hours we’d have time to spend with the ones we love because they would have off nights & weekends as well.  Obviously, not every person across this nation will be able to have a 9-5er, some don’t want one.  But if we all tried a little harder to do our errands, make calls to service businesses etc. corporations would respond to the lack of traffic on nights/weekends by staffing more people 9-5. 

I am aware that there are many issues with this idyllic notion but just remember what your mom always told you, ” Treat others as you want to be treated.” 

Peter took me for a ride on his Suzuki GSX motorcycle on our 3rd date.  I was so afraid to ride it almost made myself ill but 30 seconds after I got on it, I loved it!

We ride at every opportunity we get & I have become completely crazy about riding.  Luckily, Peter has two spare helmets that I have used to this point.  But today…

Today!!!  I got home & Peter was nowhere to be found.  After calling him, I discovered he was at the motorcycle shop looking at bikes.  So I run down to meet him & have a look at the bike he likes.  It was a nice bike but the best time to buy a bike is not when you’re looking into buying a house. 

So we ventured inside to have a look at gear.  He walked right over to the pink jacket section and picked up a cute little pink jacket for me to try on.  We settled on a jacket that was fuschia with black & white trim (to match my favorite boots ;)  I loved the jacket but what was really a priority for me was having a better helmet than a borrowed size medium so I tried on a few of those.

We had been to this gear shop before & I knew the inventory of ladies helmets…

1. pink & white with butterfly
2. pink & white with fairy
3. abstract pink & white
4. pink & white
5. white & pink
6. & so on…

& I wasn’t fond of any of them (especially to mix with a fuschia, black & white jacket!) so I chose a basic black Shoei [showy]. 

The overall look…pretty flippin hot!

We had a little visit to my Mom’s house over the last few days.  We had loads of fun!!! 

Peter and I headed down there for Mom’s 50th birthday (early) and to surprise my grandparents.  They didn’t know we were coming down. 

Friday was spent in Summerville at the Flowertown Festival, they fill up the local park with craft & food booths & people run wild.  Nobody bought anything much except for a necklace that caught my eye.

We rode the bicycles & played with the turtles up the road.  We took dog food for them but they were more interested in Peter’s splashing.  There were so many of them  flocking toward Peter it was freaky.  They were literally FALLING OUT OF THE TREES!!  Yes, thats’s correct– Turtles falling out of trees…who knew?  Apparently they climb onto the low slung branches & stack up on top of one another.  Until Peter comes along, that is.  Must be some sort of natural attraction there- I can’t imagine why they’d flop out of their perches in the trees just because some tourist splashes water at them, surely they know the difference between food & water droplets. 

On Saturday the girls went shopping.  The boys worked on the HoneyDo list.  Peter installed a new outdoor fan on the screened porch & fixed Frank’s bike (because he broke it the day before.)

Sunday was great- we visited Patriot’s Point & we played on the guns and cannons.  Then we took a boat ride to Fort Sumter.  The fort was great, as usual.  We had a tourguide who gave us some hilarious history, we agreed he was the best we have ever experienced.

 Frank worked on Monday so the rest of us went shopping again. I got some cute work clothes because I GOT A NEW POSITION AT WORK!!!  See one of the following posts for the details.  We packed up Monday night & took off Tuesday.  We made great time driving to & from this time as well.  Peter drove it (mostly) and made it in six and a half hours.  I was sad to go, but we had a blast!