odd water bill

I checked our water bill this morning to discover that it is for $14. Not $140. We don't have a credit. It's not for a partial month and we haven't been out of town at all. Odd, no? As much as I think I should be happy, it sounds really screwy. What would you do? Would you call the company or just pay it and keep a proof that you were really charged that amount (I'm leaning towards the latter). It's really not like we get outrageous water bills, but they're not $14 low. Ah, if only my electric bill could be for that amount . . . .


feeling: suspicious
listening to: Muse (Starlight)

broke yvett

The past few weekends have been pretty uneventful. It looks like they'll be that way for a while too. When we were making a budget before moving, we knew exactly how much we would be able to spend in order to not end up living in the park. Well, in the two months that we've been here, we've gone over that budget. This past month we went over by almost $3000. Hold on, I have to sit down. Ok, I'm already sitting. I have to lie down. It literally hurt when we looked over the spending report. I'd like to say that it was all just due to expenses that come along with a new house (ceiling fans, paint, window treatments, etc.). Although that was a big chunk of it, we also didn't change our rock 'n roll lifestyle. (allow me a little chuckle at "rock n' roll") Ok, we just didn't stop going out to eat and taking outings and such. So now the truth hurts and we're trying to cut down. We entertain ourselves by making shadow puppets and eat nothing but ramen noodles. Yes, I'm exagerrating.
It's actually been kind of nice being at home more. Last night I had one of the most delicious meals I've had in a long time. At home grilled by Rodrigo. You know how guys are born with a gene that allows them to be master grillers? Well, last night Rodrigo once again displayed that skill. (yikes, that last sentence taken out of context could hurt my political career :P) He grilled yummy steaks, burgers and my favorite . . . nectarines. If you have never have grilled stone fruit, you have to try it. We cut it in half, remove the pit and brush it with some melted butter, honey, a little brown sugar and cinnamon. Yum! Uh, wait, I've gone completely off my "being broke" subject. Sorry. I can't think straight. We've had some lovely construction workers serenade us with jack hammers at 5:00 in the morning. More on that soon . . . . . (see Diana, a cliffhanger for you!)

really late

Hey, have you heard about this cool new literary character named Harry Potter? Well, I just started reading the series. Yes. I JUST started reading them. I've seen the movies. The whole series for me is one of those books that you mean to read and just never get around to it. My mom has been urging me to read them for ages. What finally made me start is that I want to read the last book. I figured I should start from the beginning. I can say for sure that I'm glad I saw the movie first. I pretty much already knew what was going to happen. Had I not known, I wouldn't have been able to get my nose out of the book. Ok, I can see why people love it. I finished book one in a flash. Luckily, the day I finished it, Rodrigo had come home with the next two books for me. (say "awwwww" everyone)
I thought this even before reading them, but I should say it anyway. I am beyond praise for Ms. Rowling. I mean, she created a whole new culture. I know there are many authors that have recurring characters in their books but isn't she one of the few that actually had them grow up and follow their lives. She is amazingly creative and now a billionaire for that. That's right. With a "b". Why can't I do something like that?
It was a dark and stormy night . . . .

feeling: kind of hungry
listening to: Incubus (Dig)

kid's new shows

The new fall season is about to start and with it there are always new shows. Alec is a Nick Jr./Noggin fan and so I'd seen the commercials for new show called Yo Gabba Gabba. Ever since I first heard their ear worm, Party in my Tummy, I'd been wanting to watch this. Then I heard that the creator was a guy who was in Gleaming the Cube. Also that guests would be Tony Hawk, Biz Markie, Elijah Wood and Julius the Monkey. They had me at Tony Hawk. Let's see . . . dancing robots, someone I had a HUGE crush on as a teenager and music that is going to make my son dance (and more importantly, me laugh at him) uh, yeah, I want to watch that. Well, it premiered yesterday and I missed it. Alec watched it and like it, of course. I'm not too concerned since I know it'll be on about a million more times.
Brianna, on the other hand, is excited about a new show that's going to be on the Disney channel. It is called The Wizards of Waverly Place. Guess what? It is about a family of wizards where the kids are wizards in training. Sound familiar? I'm only shocked it's taken this long. Oh, and I sounded like a huge racist asking Brianna if the family was Asian. I thought "Waverly Place" was a reference to Joy Luck Club. Oops.
So, I am totally uncool and up to speed on what new kid shows are out there. I know nothing about new primetime shows. All I hear is about new reality shows so I haven't really been interested. Oh, and Chuck. It hasn't even started and I'm already tired of it. :P

feeling: lazy
listening to: Incubus (The Warmth)

weekend review

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was really good. It seemed sort of long. Rodrigo has a three day weekend every other week and this was one of his "off Fridays". It always makes it seem like the weekend starts earlier with him around. In a good way.
Friday we were forbidden by Brianna to go anywhere. If we had any errands to run, we absolutely HAD to be home early. Why? It was the premiere of High School Musical 2, of course. Duh! WE'VE ONLY BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR ALMOST A YEAR. So, we were home. She was able to watch her movie, then again, then again.
Saturday we were allowed to leave. We had the usual errands to run (Trader Joe's and such). For "linner" we went to El Guero Canelo. Think of your idea of the most delicious food you've had in years. Now try to imagine that as a hot dog. I'd read a lot of good reviews about this place and it definately met all my expectations. Although I hadn't really shared my yelp page with many people, you could read my review here. note: there are about a million other reviews for this place, but I went to a different location, so it shows as only one review
Now, about my yelp account, I was nearly hyperventilating this morning when I posted a review and noticed that I am now an "Elite". YAY! You guys that are already at that status know what a super proud moment this is. Yay, yay, yay for me! I rock.


feeling: super proud
listening to: RHCP (Soul to Squeeze)

antagonizing the neighbors

We're new to this neighborhood. Well, everyone is as this is a new community. We really don't know very many people yet. We know our next door neighbor and he is the type of neighbor everyone dreams of having (this probably deserves it's own post later). We've met a few familes at the park and that's really it. So, I was dropping off Alec at school and one mom started talking to me.

her: hi

me: hi

her: I've been wanting to talk to you. You live in the corner house on "my street name" right?

me: yeah, that's us

her: you and your husband are the basketball players, right?

me: (here I was trying very, very hard to not burst out laughing. BASKETBALL PLAYERS?!?! Anyone who knows us knows that we are the LAST people you'd think of as any sort of sports players. I was trying so hard not to laugh that I couldn't answer

her: we always see your guys playing basketball at the park

me: (thinking "please don't laugh, yvett. calm down, breathe") Yeah, well, the kids really like going to the park (that's all I could finally manage to say.)

She went on to introduce herself, tell me where she lived and said she hoped to see me soon. I said bye and stayed there feeling like the hugest assh*le in the world. What the heck is wrong with me? Why can't I control my laughter? How old am I? I was convinced that she left thinking that I was either a jerk or mildly retarded. Great. Between that neighbor lady that wants me to watch her kid and now this lady, I'm going to be mean and/or crazy lady that lives in the corner house.
Oh, and we don't play basketball, by the way. Alec has a basketball that he always takes to the park. Only once we get there, he won't play with it. Rodrigo and I have started playing "Horse" with each basket being one point instead of a letter. Now every time we go, we play because we each want to be the super horse champion of the world.

feeling: like an idiot
listening to: Pixies (Where is my Mind)

loteria

You guys have heard about Loteria, right? It's like a Mexican version of Bingo. I remembered because I saw a commercial on Bravo where there were some drag queens playing bingo. They said something like "if you want to date Michael Jackson, you must B-14". Well, this reminded me because in Loteria, there's all these sayings for each card. I never knew them. My dad knew a few but he'd mostly just make them up on the spot to make us laugh. My grandmother said she vaguely remembered some but not many at all. For a while there, I really wanted to find out the sayings and they were nowhere online. (this was in about 2001) So I had been asking some friends and one of them said that her mom knew the sayings. She told me that the next time they played, she'd write them down for me or else she'd just ask her mom. A few weeks later, she took me a sheet of paper with the loteria sayings. I thanked her but there was only one on there. I noticed and told her. She explained that at first she forgot. Then her mom was talking too fast and then she was just concentrating on the game. Argh! Her answer sounded so "Three Stooges" to me that I felt like slapping her or poking her eyes while saying nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
Anyway, I never did get them. I started writing here to ask my Spanish speaking buddies (which I like to call "my lurkers who never comment") if you guys knew them to send them to me. Then I looked up "loteria" on wikipedia and all the sayings are there! Only my heart is now sinking to see that neither my kids nor Rodrigo would understand any of these. Oh, and I don't even own a loteria game. That can be fixed. Uh, so do any of you know the saying with maybe a little more "border Spanish"? I don't mean to throw in English words but something more like the phrases they'd say at like church bazaar games? There's no real reason I want them, so there's no hurry. I'll be your best friend!

feeling: busy on a project
listening to: Morrissey (Piccadilly Palare)

i hate people

Have I ever told you that I hate people? Well, I do. I could go for a while without hating someone, then one jerk has to come along and remind me that I hate everyone. There is now a lady whose name I just found out, who I had never spoken to before other than "good morning" that is making me furious right now. She feels that since I don't work, since I have a daughter and since "I drive by all the time and I always see your car here" that I should watch her child. She came over to my house and I thought she was here to sell me something. I recognized her from the kids' bus stop but we had never had a conversation before.
She started telling me that she worked a lot, she can't find anywhere else to leave her kid and that she's been driving by to see if I'm here and I am. Therefore she was going to drop off her daughter here at 6:00 am then the kid goes to school. After school she would be here until 8:00 pm.
Uh. . . . . I was shocked at how she was sort of telling me and not asking me. I told her that I couldn't and she made a face like I had just kicked her dog. She sort of scoffed and said "but you don't work". I felt she had a lot of nerve. She doesn't know whether I work or not. I could work from home. She knows NOTHING about us. How could she want to just leave her child here. I mean, she didn't even know my NAME until that same day. She then gave me that "I drive by all the time . . ." sentence and I was getting really mad. Because I'm an idiot, I went on to say things like "Yeah, I've been home lately, but my kids are in sports and cheer leading and once that starts up again . . . . ." She interrupted me by saying that I could take her daughter too. I told her that I actually do the cheer coaching and I couldn't watch her. She said that her daughter could play with the girls. I couldn't believe I was having to give explanations. Now I think of about a million things I should've said but at that moment, I was saying things like "uh, duh, uh . . . ." There's no real reason why I don't want to watch her kid. I just think I felt like she was pushing her on me and was making me feel obligated somehow. I'm just not keen on the idea of having to look after somebody else's kid. I mean, if I wanted to watch more, I'd have another one. Either that or place an ad saying that I'd do it. I've never even offered to anyone. ANYONE! By 8:00 pm I've already helped my own children with homework, fed them dinner, gone wherever we need to go, bathed them, talked to them. I mean, we have a sort of routine that I like having. The whole family dynamic would change.
Anyway, I kept telling that lady that I couldn't do it. All she kept saying was that of course she would pay me and to think about it. I still said no. She said that it would be good for the girls to play together. Still no. She left and said "Just think about it for a day and I'll come by tomorrow". That was last week. I haven't seen her since. The thing is that now, she's not even watching her own kid at the bus stop. She always had before. Now she just has her daughter go to me. This morning I was shocked and furious when we opened the door to walk out of our house and the little girl was there. She said hi and started walking behind us to wait for the bus. I don't even know where this person lives or else I'd have gone and told her that I am not responsible for her child. WTF! Why does this kind of crap always happen to me?!?!?! I was talking to Alec's teacher about this last Thursday. (because like the idiot that I am, I was asking around to see if there were openings in the kid care there) Anyway, the teacher told me that I have a kind face and so people tend to try to take advantage. I was a little surprised because I had been told the same thing before not too long ago. I think I'm going to walk around snarling all the time now.
I did a search for "I'll watch your kid ads" in this area and there's like a million. Why the heck does she want ME then? Anyway, this Saturday night, I dreamed that she had brought her daughter over with a whole bunch of luggage and was forcing her to stay here. I was thinking about how careless this lady is. I mean, like I said, she knows nothing about us. What if we were some sorts of perverts or criminals? She has no idea who lives here. What if someone in my family was sick and needed care? What if I came and blogged everything she told me :P
Ok, so here is where I'm judgemental. She said that both she and her husband work very long hours. Twelve hour shifts and longer. Fine, but I can't help but wonder about her priorities. I mean, she came in a super luxury car. The kind that someone like me who knows nothing about cars still knows that these are super expensive "rich people" cars. So where are her priorities? I mean, drive whatever you want and work as much as you need to afford your lifestyle, but don't make other people care for your responsibilities. How could she just want to dump her child off on someone who she just met? -I step off my soapbox-

feeling: still frustrated
listening to: Audioslave (Like a Stone)

i'm me, really

Fixing the whole credit thing has been harder than I thought. I'm seriously considering just getting married already only to change my name. Let me explain . . .

A few years ago, I started working at Chase bank. I didn't have an account there when I started but since I was always there anyway, I thought I'd just get one. I did. When my co-worker was opening the account for me, of course he needed my ss#. I gave to him and he asked me to repeat it. I did. He asked if I was sure and he then told me that there were other accounts with my same number but a different name. I was shocked, mad . . .everything. Like I've said before, I had messed up my credit pretty badly in college but had since done a lot to repair it only to have someone else be using it. We were somehow able to open my account (really only because I worked there. If I'd been just a customer, they wouldn't have done it). I was lucky that I was working there, otherwise I would've just been told that they were not able to open my account but not told why. Working there, we were able to look up our own accounts as much as we wanted. We were only not allowed to make our own transactions. So, I looked up my ss# and found that the person had a mortgage, and a few more accounts with my credit. I was livid! I disputed it and that part has since been fixed. The catch was that I couldn't use company information. So, I couldn't say that I'd found it by monitoring my own account at work. I had to go through the credit check steps and all that.

Now . . . . . I recently checked my credit to make sure everything was ok. I check it around my birthday so that I won't forget (sidenote: if you don't know, you are entitled to a free credit report per year. You can go to annualcreditreport(dot)com for info) Anyway, everything seemed good except for two accounts that I didn't recognize. From the dates they were opened, I would've been 11 years old when I got those. It turns out that they're my mom's. Well, my dad's actually. He has some accounts on which my mom is an authorized user. He added her by name ( not ss#) and since I've had their same address before and my first name is the same, I'm screwed. I disputed those and was assured that it would be taken care of. Now I've been informed that isn't the case. In essence, I have to prove that I am me. I have to prove that I have a different name than my mom (middle initial) that I live in Arizona instead of Texas and that I am 31 instead of 51. Also, to find this out took HOURS of phone calls. I hate having to do all this. HATE it. Oh, also my credit score is going to lower after this because once my mom's accounts are removed, I'll have no credit card debt. That's right. Apparently you have to be paying on something to show you're not a bum. That sucks because I was trying to get my score as close to 830 as I possibly could so that we could refinance the house in a year. Now I'll probably have to open up a credit card. Suck. Now I'm going to have to search around for a super low interest card. Suggestions?
So, a word of advice . . . .first of all, be extremely careful with your social security number. I never did figure out how someone got a hold of it. Also, I've said this about a million times to lots of people, but it's best to not name your children your same name. I know some people love their spouse soooooo much that they want their child named after them but it is such a hassle. It sucked growing up and having our mail mixed up when we lived in the same home. It sucked when my brother filled in a change of address form and my dad's mail was all going to my brother's apartment. It sucked getting business type of phone calls that my mom thought were for her. (Especially when I was getting late payment calls in college) All of this was such an inconvenience that I still keep asking them why they named me this way. Also since I'm such a spinster, I still have the name last name. Ok, well time for more phone calls now . . . . -sigh-

feeling: aggravated
listening to: The Shins (New Slang)

boy cheese

A few weeks ago, my son asked me if he could have some "boy cheese". At first I thought I wasn't understanding what he was saying. I pretty much ignored it thinking he was asking for something else.
Yesterday right after school, Brianna asked me for a grilled cheese sandwich. Right after Alec said, "Yeah, and I want a boy cheese sandwich".
Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!! He thinks Brianna is saying "girl cheese" and that's why he asks for "boy cheese". Cute but uh, ewww. I explained and I hope he hasn't told his teacher that he likes boy cheese sandwiches.

feeling: cracking up at my son
listening to: that Diary of Jane song. I don't know who sings it