Happy Birthday Gregg!!

Today Trina, Gregg, Raven, Amber and I celebrated Gregg's birthday with sushi and homemade ice cream. He is 35 today. He is one of the coolest guys I know. He is a good husband to one of my best friends, a great stepdad to my stepdaughter Raven and her sister Amber, and he is an awesome friend to me. Happy Birthday Gregg!!

Introducing Pepper, my NEW CAR :-)

The Dorkanese Phrase of the Day: Feline Water Boarding: As a last resort when Lucky is being a brat (like scratching on the door and not letting me sleep or attacking me so no reason) I will hold him down in a standing position by the scruff on his neck and dump water down his body from his ears to his tail.

It's not that I didn't love my old car, a 2002 Kia Sportage (named Pretty Girl) its that, well, she was old, she got 16 MPG city (on a good day) and in the last few months she has needed 4 new tires, a new timing chain, a new battery and a new alternator. Still, I would have kept her a bit longer, but then when they started doing the Cash for Clunkers thing, Dad started talking about "maybe you should get a new car." We looked online at 2 models : the Kia Soul and the Nissan Versa, both of which my Dad had seen either on person or on TV and liked.
Then yesterday morning, while I was at the gym, my Dad just happened to go by the Hyundai lot and took a look at a 2009 Elantra SE (not the base model, the GLS, and not the super-nice hatchback, the Touring, but the middle "trim" package) and when he came home he told me we may be going to look at it later, if the dealer calls him back with "the right answer." Of course the car is a metallic "chili-pepper" red. Dad always points out red cars when we are car shopping. As if the car being my favorite color is some kind of deal breaker (in his mind, since I'm a girl, that must be all that matters, right? LOL)
After much haggling with the dealer and battling with the DMV (FYI if you plan on doing the Cash for Clunkers thing, bring 2 things: 1. The policy letter from your auto insurance company that gives a summary of what kind of coverage you have on the car and how many years you've had the coverage and 2. enough proof of registration certificates to prove you have owned the car for the last 12 consequetive months, because if you don't have them, you get to be on the phone with the DMV and your insurance company at the car lot like we were) Dad gave me the OK to start taking my stuff out of Pretty Girl and putting it into Pepper (so named because of her paint color.) While in the process, I found 13 cents in Pretty Girl. When I test drove Pepper, I brought her back with 12 miles on the odometer, so I thought the 13 cents I found was a lucky sign (12 miles and 1 to grow on) so I put the change from Pretty Girl in Pepper's ashtray. Once I finished putting all the random stuff I had in Pretty Girl (my fondue pot, my beach bag, some CD's, some books, etc) into Pepper's trunk, I said "Goodbye and thank you" to Pretty Girl, then pulled Pepper up to the front of the dealership and got Dad and drove away. I felt happy and sad at the same time. Pretty Girl has seen me through getting my AS degree, the end of my marriage, two jobs, driven around who knows how many friends and been there after dates and witnessed many a good night kiss over the almost 5 years I had her. That car was there for what has been a big transitional part of my life, and now her engine is going to be filled up with sand (that's what the dealer said they do to make sure the "Clunkers" aren't resold) and she will never drive again. She got me this far. But now, as I start at a new school and another new chapter in my life, I am fortunate enough to have this new car, with shiny paint, updated features (it has a hookup for my iPod and XM satellite radio free for 3 months) and best of all, it gets between 26 and 33 MPG, so I will be making less trips to the gas station.
Today Gregg got to be the first passenger and I played with the XM Radio a little bit. I found a 90's station right away that was playing "What Is Love" on it, and we drove down the street bobbing our heads like dorks while on our way to pick up Raven from a friend's house. Raven got to be the first in the back seat and she liked how much more room she had. Trina and I went on a couple runs to the store in it later and basked in the tornado-like AC. I can't wait to take it on a nice long drive on the freeway and really spend some time in it. I'm really starting to like my car. I especially like the fact that Dad paid cash, so no car payment. She's 100% mine and I am so grateful.

Happy Birthday Brian!!

Happy Birthday to my Big Brother Brian Harvey Chandler! Your annoying Little Sister loves you very much!

Exploring the Gold Coast and Croc Hunting with the Princesses

The Dorkanese Phrase of the Day: "Why don't I...place this on your table?": 1. Adapted from the Terminex commercial (in which a giant bug brings pizza to the door trying to gain entry into a house), meaning "I'm ordering us a pizza."

Yesterday I had Trina, Gregg, Raven and Amber over to my Dad's for a pool party. Amber is 6 now, so Trina lets her dress herself. I remember being that age and thinking of getting dressed as more of "What do I want to be today?" rather than covering my nudity in fabric. You'll note from the picture that on this particular day, Amber was wearing a prom/figure skater dress, so I asked her if she knew we were going swimming and not ice skating and she looked up at me and said "I brought my swimsuit."
We went swimming and I introduced the kids to a make-believe game that my friend Vivan and I used to play in the pool when we were kids. It was called "The Guided Tour" and it involves one person getting in the inner tube while the other one drags them around the pool and pretends to give them a tour of some famous body of water, complete with "rapids" and "water animals". Vivan and I used to use the inflattable croc and inflattable Shamu my parents bought us, but in this instance, whoever wasn't in the inner tube (only Amber would fit in it) and whoever wasn't being the tour guide (I do the voices, I pick the body of water, hence I am always the tour guide) played the part of the "animals" attacking our "boat." While exploring the Gold Coast off the shores of Southern Austrailia (I was doing my very best Steve Irvin impression as Tour Guide) I got attacked by killer jellyfish (3, to be precise) and Amber had to save herself. When I did a tour of the sea floor off the coast of France (doing my very best Jacque Cousteau, you know "Here zee ocean iz teaming wiss life", that sort of thing) Raven recognized the accent from when I used to do this same bit with her bath toys when she was small. She's 12 now. They get big too fast!
After the pool we enjoyed Petrillo's Pizza and watched Shrek the 3rd. Then, as is the custom when the girls come over to my Dad's (whether he is home or not) the "Princesses" got to enjoy ice cream out of the "Special Princess Glasses" (which are really just hand-blown colored wine glasses from Romania.) My Dad started this when Raven was little and carried it over to Amber the first time she came over. He really adores them both. Kinda gives you a window into how good I had it as a kid, huh? Yep. And I'm still a Princess, at least to him anyway.
After a fun afternoon of sweets and swimming, we went croc hunting. Literally. We went hunting for Crocs. There is supposed to be a store in Fontana off of Sierra, but its not there anymore, so we ventured into a store none of us had been to yet: Bass Pro Shop "Outdoor World". Dude. Seriously. And I'm not a hunter or a fisherman or much of a camper anymore, but DUDE! That place is awesome. Lots of fun stuff to play with and look at. Kinda makes you want to go camping just so you can go in there and shop. They did have the Crocs I wanted (yes, they make Crocs now that I will wear, that look like regular shoes) but they were $40. Maybe in a week when I get my next check I will go back for them.

Grrr!! (OWWWW!!!!)

The Dorkanese Word of the Day: Nerdsicle (nerd-sik-ul): Noun: A combination of the words "nerd" and "Popsicle" meaning a nerd who is cold even when those around him are comfortable or even warm. Example: The Nerdsicle wore a long-sleeved shirt and jeans to Disneyland while everyone else wore shorts.

Today was my first day of weight training since the end of January. I must say I did better than I expected. I stretched. I did a high impact warm-up. I was ready to rock. I was able to do all of the stuff I could do before, even some stuff I didn't think I could do (you should have seen my face when I actually did 10 knee-ups), I remembered how to breathe (oh yes, there is a specific way to breathe while lifting weights), I remembered proper form (so very important or you can hurt yourself) and most importantly I didn't run out of steam. I did upper AND lower body today, as well as abs. I even finished my cardio after I did weights, which I was worried I may have been too tired to do. In truth, with about 13 minutes left I thought about getting off the treadmill, but I sucked it up and finished. I also ate good things today: lean meat, complex carbs, veggies, fruit, which is good given the fact that I'm in full blown food craving mode right now AND there is cake and ice cream at my Dad's house. So that's the Grrr!! of my day.
But there is a drawback. Just like with any other deeply physical activity, if you haven't done it in a while, your body will let you know the next day. And that's where the OWWWW!!!! comes in. I feel fine right now, but tomorrow morning, I'm gonna be limping around like an old person, and there is nothing I can do about that. Thankfully my plans tomorrow involve some good friends and a jacuzzi, after my morning cardio (I'm at it 30 minutes a day this time, instead of an hour 3 times a week) of course. But Thursday morning, its back to the gym for more work.

Movie Day with the Girls

Whew! Its a 3 post day LOL we did Friday, Saturday and now Sunday. Today Leigh, Jonie and I had planned to do Movie Day at my house. I went to Trader Joe's and bought, eh, a few things. Some hummus, some pita chips, some salsa, some tortilla chips, some cookies, some crackers, some cheese and salami, some sparkling juice...OK more than a few things. I'm a bit out of practice with the whole hostess thing. Our plans were to watch at least one movie, either "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" or "Primal Fear" or "Swimming with Sharks", but we wouldn't know for sure which ones til we all got together. I put my spread of goodies out and Jonie arrived shortly after 4pm. Leigh, who is normally punctual, was not here and not answering her phone. All we could do was call and text the crap out of her and then hope that everything was OK, then we put in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" at around 5pm. Then we watched "Swimming with Sharks" so it was like a mini-Kevin Spacey-marathon. Since I was returning "Primal Fear" to Jonie I wasn't too sad about not watching it. All three are very good movies and I highly recommend them. Maybe next time Leigh can join us (we're both hoping everything is alright) and we can watch "Primal Fear" and "American History X" and have a mini-Edward Norton-marathon. :-)

Birthday with the Family

On Saturday my Dad took my brother Brian and I to Red Lobster for lunch to celebrate both of our birthdays. Mine was Friday, July 31st and Brian's is next Saturday, August 8th. My poor Dad. We would have gone to North Woods Inn (that's the Chandler family "special occasion restaurant) but I wanted crab legs. Brian wanted a steak. Yes, I know they serve crab legs at North Woods Inn. They also serve steak at Red Lobster. It wasn't my decision, it was Dad's. ("He who pays the check picks the restaurant.")
I got my crab legs and they were GOOD! For the last few years, since I started watching Deadliest Catch, I always wonder what boat my crab legs came off of. Maybe at some point in my life I have eaten crab that was caught by the Hillstrands on the Time Bandit, or by the Hansen brothers on the Northwestern, or by the Harris clan on the Cornelia Marie, or by the Colburns on the Wizard. Dad reminds me of how many crab boats there are in the Bering Sea, but I counter that with a reminder of how much crab I have consumed in my life (between crab legs and the sushi rolls I eat with crab in them, its A LOT) so I think my chances are pretty good.