Happy 4th of July!

Home Life - No Comments » - Posted on July, 4 at 11:57 pm

Well we just wrapped up our 4th of July. None of us were particularly interested in watching our money go up in smoke (literally!) so we opted to enjoy the firework displays that our neighbors were putting on. Boy did they go all out. We were surrounded on three sides by a magnificent fireworks display. Lots of aerial fireworks that lit up the night time sky. The only downer to the show was the fact that the mosquitoes were out with a vengeance. It rained earlier today which made it worse, I think, because it was also a bit muggy as well.

We had a simple barbecue outside. Potato salad, baked beans, old fashioned style hot dogs, chocolate cream pie (Mom is allergic to apples, so no apple pie) garlic and onion burgers, sliced veggies (carrots, celery, and radishes). Nothing particularly fancy, but enjoyable none the less.

Aside from the fireworks we had another entertaining show to watch - the sight of yours truly falling flat on her back. The outdoor faucet apparently developed a leak, which none of us noticed earlier in the day. So as I was helping to clean up outside I happened to step into the big puddle of water on the concrete. My sandals had no traction, what so ever, and I wasn’t expecting a slippery-wet surface there either. One minute I’m walking, the next I’m flying through the air to land flat on my back. I saw stars for a moment, and not the ones in the night sky, not to mention I landed in the puddle so I was soaked to boot. Other than that though, I was okay.

Everyone enjoyed a good laugh at my expense of course.

It only took a few seconds to find the culprit. One of the outdoor faucets, a newer one in fact, has a leak. We tightened the knob but it’s still dripping consistently so it looks like someone (not me!) gets to take up a home project tomorrow. The faucet wasn’t one of those nice Grohe faucets or anything, just a cheap no-name brand one so it’s not surprising it didn’t last long.

Other than that, I had a very laid back 4th of July. What about everyone else, how was your 4th of July?

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Posted in Home Life | No Comments »

EagleRider: We Rent Dreams

ORLY? - 1 Comment » - Posted on July, 1 at 5:33 pm

While I was at the DMV today my eyes wandered over to the display of license plates they had mounted on the wall. Aside from the POW, volunteer firefighter, and veteran license plates that you can choose from, New Mexico also has two different styles as well as multiple styles for students and alumni from New Mexico State University (NMSU) and Univery of New Mexico (UNM). Amongst all of the license plates there were a couple of special designs for motor cyle plates. I couldn’t help but to think that there should be more available.

Still though, it had me wishing I had a valid motorcycle license. Sure my bike is pretty much scrap heap, but I could always rent a bike and head off on my own motorcycle adventures. It would have been so cool to rent a motorcycle and do a road trip. Alas, the DMV here is not very accomodating when it comes taking the driver’s test for the license. Without a street-legal bike of my own to take the test it’ll be awhile before I get the license.

I was looking at EagleRider.com a moment ago and was rather dissapointed to see that there were no close pick up/drop off sites near me. I sincerely wish that there were more places readily available that you could rent a motorcycle from. EagleRider isn’t all about Harley Davidson’s either, they have a selection of Honda, BMW, and Yamahas as well. Not to mention, my dream bike, a Ninja!. They also rent snow mobiles, ATVs, dirt bikes, trailors, and water crafts too. Definately the site to visit if you’re planning some fun.

Posted in ORLY? | 1 Comment »

Over an Hour in Hell

Rants and Raves - 3 Comments » - Posted on July, 1 at 5:20 pm

Ugh! I just spent about an hour and half waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to renew the tags for my mother’s truck. Actually, since I didn’t start watching the clock as soon as I came in, it’s likely that I spent more than an hour and a half waiting.

Anyway, she didn’t want to have to take off from work too early so she asked me to go in and renew them for her. I got there around 3pm and it was packed. I was number 483 for crying out loud! Talk about a mad house. The system they had implemented was also chaotic as well, and since numbers were being called, seemingly at random, it didn’t help anyone’s agitation in the least. Since they were so packed they had a different system in place. Upon entry, you automatically went to the machine at the front desk and got your number, then you found a seat or stood somewhere and waited until your number was called.

The first time they called your number you went up to the front desk again, either to counter number 1 or 2 and stated your business. At that point they inputed you into the system, told you what counters you were likely to be called to and asked you to sit back down to wait. It took about an hour for me to get called up for the first step and easily another thirty to forty minutes for me to be called again to actually renew the tags. So troublesome.

Naturally things can’t be easy though, oh no. I get called to the counter, I fill out the check and….wrong amount. Apparently the notice they sent in the mail had the wrong amount listed on it. So the guy had to get some help to see why the system was pulling up a different amount. Turned out it was a system glitch, but still, after all that waiting my patience was wearing thin. Thankfully after that there was no more trouble and I got out of there as quickly as possible.

My mother showed up some time after four, but despite the place being open until five, they lock the doors at four. If you’re outside at the time, tough cookies. Apparently this is also a new development that they’ve started doing. Can’t say I like it. I mean seriously, it’s bad enough they’re always slow and rarely have all the counters manned. Not to mention their hours of operation are funky to begin with. Now they’re essentionally chopping their hours of operation down by another hour. Sucky, sucky.

I swear if I never hear people screaming and bitching at the top of their lungs or babies crying again it’ll be too soon.

Praise be to laptops and free Wi-Fi connections though!

Posted in Rants and Raves | 3 Comments »

Bye Bye Anxiety

ORLY? - 1 Comment » - Posted on June, 30 at 5:00 pm

When I was going to college it seemed like the professors in every single department sat down together weekly to go over their schedules. They would find out who was administering an exam that week, the difficulty level, and an estimation of the amount of material covered and how much study would be required. Then they would all brain storm to see what other assignments the other professors could dish out to coincide with planned or upcoming exams and tests.

This is why, no matter what college you’re in (Agriculture, Arts & Science, ect.) there was always an abundance of assignments due on or around the same time. And of course, each one took a lot of time and interfered with your completion of other tasks and assignments. No I am not being paranoid, I honestly believe that the professors did this sort of thing. Maybe it wasn’t campus wide…but it was certainly department and possibly college wide.

It was during those stressful times, when I was putting in as many hours as I could at work and studying every chance I got, that something like AbsoluteCalm would have been a big help. I remember being so tired and wound up at night that I couldn’t even sleep, so I would taking sleeping pills that left me groggy in the morning. Taking AbsoluteCalm, which is made from Magnolia extract, would have been much preferable. It’s a natural remedy safely neutralizes the occasional stress, anxious and depressive states you can fall victim too.

Posted in ORLY? | 1 Comment »

The Verdict on Chili Flavor Ramen

Food and Drink - 6 Comments » - Posted on June, 27 at 6:32 pm

Normally, when it comes to ramen, I buy Ichiban Ramen. Mainly because the broth made from their mixtures is the closest that any brand sold here in the US comes to the authentic instant ramen I’ve had from Japan. That’s not to say that I don’t like other brands, like Top Ramen. So when I say a flavor in the stores that I had never seen before, let alone tried, I had to give it a shot. The flavor, as you might have guessed from this post’s title, is Chili flavor.

Ah, I feel as though Uzumaki Naruto has taken control of my body in some manner. After all, that guy lives and breathes ramen. I imagine that if he had a blog his posts would all be similar to this one. Probably interspersed with posts that read something like: Sasuke-teme is such a bastard dattebayo! and rambling on and on about what a cool shinobi he is, how he’s going to become Hokage, and how turbo-chaged and ultra-powerful his new version of the Rasengan is. But I digress.

I love chili as much as any other native of New Mexico, and I like ramen, so I was curious to see what the combined effect would be. It wasn’t like I thought it would be. With the chili flavor mix in it, I’m sad to say, that it tasted nothing like ramen in the least. On top of that, the texture of the noodles did not complement the broth in the least. They clashed badly which resulted in the feeling of eating noodles with chili-flavored broth, not ramen.

I did, however, like the flavor of the broth though. As I stated though, it wasn’t ramen, and I would probably eat it again. It’s plain to see though that if you’re a ramen lover or someone who doesn’t like chili all that much that this probably won’t hit the spot with you. Frankly, I can only see a small portion of people actually enjoying this, and no one is going to be calling this flavor “ramen” any time soon.

Posted in Food and Drink | 6 Comments »