Graduation Time Already?

Yesterday, I got measured for my cap and gown and had graduation pictures taken.  I picked up my graduation packet and passed on ordering a ring.  All that's left is to order graduation announcements.  I can't believe I'm actually (almost) done!

The last two years have flown by.  Two years ago, I started my life over in a new city where the only person I knew was my brother.  I admit, that was a little scary.  But I survived and am loving life.  The last two years have been filled with joy and heartache, jokes and tears, roll-on-the-ground laughter and pull-out-your-hair stress.  I've made a lot of new friends and have reconnected with some old ones.  I've managed to find my way around a new city and even have some favorite local spot.  I've started a couple of blogs and dropped the ball on a couple of classes.  I've gotten a new puppy to keep me company and said good-bye to some people I love.

In two months, I will walk across a stage, pick up my diploma, celebrate with family and friend, and then......start studying for the bar.  My plans after graduation include crawling into a dungeon for the next two months and learning everything there is to know about Texas laws and procedures.  A few months after that, I (hopefully) will be celebrating again with family and friends when I get my results. 

Until then, I'm going to keep wondering, is it really graduation time already??

Fall is Here!

Fall has officially arrived in North Texas.  I woke up this morning and temperatures were in the 60s!!  As much as I love summer, it was time for some cooler weather.  I've noticed a couple of Christmas wreaths on door lately, and seeing those when its 95 outside just feels wrong (of course, I'm ignoring the fact that they're even out in September!!). 

In honor of fall arriving, I thought I'd take a minute to share the things that I love about fall:

• Walking to my car without breaking a sweat.
• Wearing long sleeves or a sweatshirt/jacket and not having people give you funny looks (you need these while indoors, but people look at you funny when you're wearing them outdoors in 90+ degree weather).
• Being able to use the oven again (cookies, brownies, and cake, here I come!)
• Playing tennis (or any other outdoor activity) without worrying about heatstroke.
• Watching the leaves turn colors.
• Extra blankets on the bed.
• Celebrating my birthday!

Family Weekend

This was a good weekend.  My parents came to town for a much needed weekend of togetherness.  I love these weekends, when you don't have anything planned but hanging out with the people you love. 

They arrived around lunch time Saturday, which of course meant our first activity was lunch.  We met up with my brother and sister-in-law and headed out to a local eatery for some good food.  We ate so much that nobody was hungry by dinner time.  My dad and I settled for late night sandwiches, and my mom skipped dinner altogether. 

That might have been the most exciting part of our weekend.  We (my parents and I) did a few more things that day, and we saw my brother and SIL for a little while on Sunday, but for the most part it was a very laid back kind of weekend. 

I miss having these kind of weekends.  Yes, I love living in Fort Worth and I like having busy weekends, but I miss just hanging out with family.  I think we all need one of those weekends every now and then.  I don't get them nearly as often as I used to, and nowhere near as often as I'd like, but that just makes me treasure the ones I get even more.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my niece's first birthday!  I can't believe it's been a year already.  I have literally hundreds of pictures of her, and that's not nearby enough.  Now that I think about it, I don't think I've gotten any new ones in a while.  I need to get on her parents about that.

Anyways, I was looking back at some of the pictures from when she was first born, when I first met her (at 4 days old), and everything since, and she sure has grown up.  I don't get to see her nearly as much as I'd like, but I treasure every opportunity.  I can't imagine the world without her now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY B!!

Bike Thieves

Unfortunately, bike thieves have recently hit my complex.  I have always stored by bike inside my house, but lately I had been thinking I should move it to the bike racks.  It doesn't take up much room, but I don't have all that much room to begin with, so every little bit helps. 

And then I ran into a neighbor trying to figure out what size tire he should buy for his bike.  When I first bought my bike many, many years ago, I remember being told to always be sure and lock the frame and front wheel to the bike rack.  Now I know why.  Check out the pictures.

This bike belongs to my neighbor.  He locked the frame, but not the front wheel.  He now needs a new front wheel. 

However, he's still doing better than this other neighbor.  He locked the front tire, but not the frame. 

Looks like the thieves managed to build themselves a new bike.  So what did I learn from this?  I'm keeping my bike inside.

Mary Kay Car

Every time I see a pink car, I laugh and say that it's a Mary Kay car.  Well, today I saw an actual Mary Kay car.  And yes, it was pink. 

For some reason, I always picture old granny cars as Mary Kay cars, maybe because I always picture old grannies selling Mary Kay.  I know that neither is actually true, that's just what happens to pop into my head when I think of Mary Kay.  Anyways, this was a Cadillac SUV, and it wasn't anywhere near as pink as I thought it would be. 

For some reason, I always picture Mary Kay pink being the same as Pepto Bismol pink.  That's not true either.  This was a very light pink, almost pearly.  I actually really liked it and might even consider getting a car that color one day. 

Seeing as how all my assumptions about Mary Kay cars were wrong, how do I know this was really a Mary Kay car?  Well, I guess I can't be 100% sure, but it had a Mary Kay decal on the back.  I'm not talking about a bumper sticker or other sticker decal, it was an actual chrome decal.  That just made it seem more legitimate to me.  I'm sure I could probably find one online and stick it on my car, but who would actually do that?  But then again, who would buy a pink SUV?

New Blog

As some of you know, I recently got a new puppy.  Like most people that have something new, I talk about her a lot.  Instead of boring you with her antics and random puppy stories, I've started a new blog to track our adventure.  If you're ever in the mood for a funny puppy story, or want to laugh at me as I try to figure out how to take care of a dog without losing my mind, check out Puppy Adventures.  Hope to see you there (and back here!). 

Breaking in a New Barrista

I'm pretty sure the new barrista at my neighborhood Starbucks doesn't like me.  She did fine the first day, but she's had a few issues the last three times I've been there.

The first time, she was on the register and messed up with my gift card.  After I get my drink and am about to walk out the door, she calls after me.  I didn't know she was talking to me, so I kept going.  Another customer got my attention.  Apparently she didn't put in the payment right and I wasn't charged for the drink the first time and she couldn't figure out how to get past the screen.  I went back and paid, but I wasn't too happy because I was already in a hurry.  I'm sure if I would have said something, the manager would have given me the drink for free, but like I said, I was in a hurry.

The second time, I made her re-do my drink.  I never send drinks back, so you know there had to be something wrong with this one.  It wasn't a big deal, she just forgot to put the mocha in my mocha. 

Finally, this morning I get to the front and she says, "Your total is $3.72."  Since I know the prices for the various things I order, I know this is wrong.  I say, "No, my total is $3.30."  She gives me the strangest look, like she can't decide if I'm crazy or just joking with her and trying to pay less for my drink.  I think the girl on the next register heard me because she came over and told her she put it in wrong.  Girl #2 fixed it and charged me correctly.  When I walked past her again to leave after getting my coffee, she still had that odd look on her face.

Updated Blog

A while back, Blogger made changes to their blog site, giving you a lot more options for your blog design.  Today I decided to try out some of the changes....and I don't like the result.  Here's the problem, I don't really have time to mess with it right now, and I can't figure out how to get it back to how it was before.  Oh well.  I'm hoping to get it back to something decent (or at least something I like) soon, but bear with me in the meantime.

Lazy Carpet Cleaners

Like many apartment complexes, mine will clean your carpets for you whenever you renew your lease.  I recently renewed my lease, so I figured I'd take advantage and schedule that cleaning.

In preparation for their visit yesterday, I picked everything up off the floor.  They called shortly before arriving, so I decided to take the puppy and head out to run some errands and visit my sil while waiting for them to finish.  We came home a couple of hours later to clean (and damp) carpet.

Things looked good initially, but then I noticed a few things.  First, they didn't clean under the coffee table.  I didn't expect them to move the couch or bookcases or anything like that, but how hard is it to go under the coffee table.  Second, they didn't move the chairs; they just went around them.  Again, how hard is it to move a couple of chairs.  Finally, the went around the puppy's ball!!  I thought I had picked up everything, but I missed the puppy's ball, and they didn't even bother to kick it out of the way.  That's when I decided that these carpet cleaners are really lazy. Actually, I think it's more work to go around it than to move it out of the way.

If I had actually paid for the cleaning (yes, I know they just include it in the rent), I might be a little upset.  But yesterday all I could do was shake my head and laugh.

Cake Wrecks

I'm definitely not the most creative person, so I love when I come across creative blogs.  And if they feature cake, even better! 

Cake Wrecks is one of my favorite blogs of the moment.  Their tag line is "When Profession Cakes Go Horribly, Hilariously Wrong."  Basically people send in photos of cake they've ordered that bakeries have managed to mangle.  A classic example: Someone calls the bakery and makes the following request, "Please write 'Happy Birthday' and underneath that 'Jane' all in red."  However, what they get is a cake reading, "Happy Brithday & under neat that Jane all in read."

I think if I were to receive one of these cake wrecks, I would laugh.  But unfortunately there are plenty of wrecks wedding cakes too.  While I still laugh at those, I can imagine the bride and groom were not as understanding.

Earlier this week, they had a "lawyer" themed post -- it was like you were reading a commercial for a personal injury attorney.  Since I'm a soon-to-be lawyerly type, I thought it would be appropriate to mention it in my little blog.  If you're interested, click here to check it out.

Puppy Adventures

First, I'm going to apologize to anyone who likes to read this blog.  I recently got a puppy.  I tend to write about whatever is on my mind at the moment, and lately that has been the puppy.  What that means to you is that you'll probably be reading some puppy posts for a while.  But the good news is that you can always skip to a later post or stop reading (just be sure to come back eventually!).

Now that that's out of the way.....

Over the weekend, the puppy discovered rain puddles.  We spent the weekend at my parents' house, and we got some rain one night.  The following morning we went for a walk.  Since very few cars pass through the neighborhood, I let her off the leash so she could run around (and maybe get tired).  She's seen rain before, and she hates it.  In fact, she refuses to go out into the rain.  She's seen puddles before too, but nothing like the ones this weekend.  And apparently, now she LOVES rain puddles.  She loves to splash through them over and over until her legs and belly are completely soaked.  And then she loves to jump on me.  I kind of want to be mad at her for getting me all wet, but she's so happy and having so much fun that I can't make myself scold her (or stop her from running through the puddles).  Instead, I let her run around until she's tired, then we go inside and give her a bath so she doesn't smell like a wet dog.  It's amazing how something so simple can make her so happy.  :)

Confusing Street Signs

I spend Labor Day weekend with family and had a great time.  Unfortunately, every time I go visit family, it means I eventually have to drive back home.  Tonight I found myself driving with a ton of people who were obviously very confused about the meaning of two particular street signs: "Left Lane for Passing Only" and "Slower Traffic Keep Right."  I personally think they're pretty self-explanatory -- MOVE!!

I understand if you want to drive 50 mph in a 70 mph zone.  I understand if you like to drive slower once the sun goes down.  I even understand that sometimes you get on a freeway to avoid ONE traffic light.  I'm really ok with all of these, but why do you insist on driving in the left lane at the exact same speed as the car in the right lane?  Why is it that you insist on blocking all traffic behind you for miles? 

Anyways, in honor of those oh-so-confusing street signs, here are some truly confusing signs from around the web:

Photos by: www.majorlycool.com, www.thatsweird.net, jalopnik.com, strangepictures.net