Something New, #193

People say that women tend to turn into their mothers as they get older. While I have found myself doing things that my mother does, like planning a route to avoid left hand turns, (yes, I will actually admit to that), today I found myself turning into my father.

I drove a 12-mile round trip out of my way to save money on gas.

I've never done this, because here in JoCo Kansas, the department of public works loves their traffic lights and it really takes a while to get anywhere with so much stop and go. But I found a station near my old office that is always much lower than the QT that's a half mile from my house. So I made a special trip, just for gas.

It was totally worth it, as it was 10 cents cheaper per gallon at $1.89. So I probably came out ahead as far as time and gas spent.

Something New, #192

jubilant [joo-buh-luhnt]–adjective
showing great joy, satisfaction, or triumph; rejoicing; exultant: the cheers of the jubilant victors.

I'm not sure this qualifies as Something New, but this is the first time I've ever used the word "jubilant" to describe my mood.

I love it.

Something New, #191

I, and several other million voters, elected a good and decent man as president of the United States.

After I voted, I went to Wal-Mart. Right after I parked, a woman came running over to me. She must have seen my Obama bumper sticker. She was probably in her mid-60's and was dressed in a sparkly sweatshirt, lots of gold jewelry, perma-nails and had what I call "Texas Hair," big and blonde. We've all seen this woman and know what the stereotype is. She said, "Oh, I just wanted you to know I just voted for Obama, too!" Appearances can be deceiving. So I hugged a total stranger in the parking lot at Wal-Mart.

It was a great moment.

I made the girls stay up late to watch the acceptance speech and hope they someday will understand the enormity of it. I had the neighbors over, and we all cried together. We popped open a bottle of champagne, and got most of it on TNG, but she didn't seem to mind. I even drunk-dialed for the first time to a friend in Chicago.

My neighbor's brother is married to an African-American, and they have four boys. When he put them to bed, he told them when they woke up in the morning, there would be a president that looked like them. So I'm even happier, because I can imagine it would have been horrifying for them if McCain had won.

Please President Obama. Don't break my heart.

Something New, #190

I filed a petition for court in person. I've filed lots of petitions, but never hand-carried one to the court house and had the clerk file it. And after dealing with the court clerk in person, am not so anxious to have a public servant job.


On the up side, I did get to check out our county's legal library at the court house. It was the tidiest library I've ever been in. THAT would be my dream job.


I also learned that my trash company has a limit on how much trash they will pick up on one day. I had about 14 bags and boxes of trash on the curb after all my cleaning, and they left eight. I guess I'll have to take the trash out in shifts now. However, I am DONE with the major purging and feel really great about how things look now. If only I could keep it this way...

Coolest Plate Ever!

When The Little One and I were hawking Girl Scout cookies, I saw that one of our neighbors has this license plate on his bright yellow mini. The photo is not the best quality, as it was done with my phone, but it's still legible.

My neighbors rock!

Something New, #189

The Little One is selling Girl Scout cookies and wanted to go door-to-door in the neighborhood. She's very motivated, because if she sells 115 boxes, she gets a stuffed horse toy.

Those people at the Girls Scout office are geniuses. The two things little girls love most, stuffed animals and horses, rolled into one. They should have a record year.

She sold 40 boxes in about an hour, which I thought was pretty good. The hard part is collecting the money when the cookies come in, but we've had good luck in the past.

Just what we need around here. Another stuffed animal.

Something New, #188

I Dumpster Dived for the first time today.

I know this has been something people have been doing for ages. I've never done it, not because I think it's gross or anything, but because I never had the opportunity.

I was picking up a love seat from the consignment furniture store with my Cute Friend Mel, and we noticed there were all these books in the dumpster. There's a Half Price Books next door, so we figured these were titles that just didn't sell. So we helped ourselves. They were all clean and we took about a dozen each.

I think it's a sin to throw a book away, except when they belong to The Ex.