Happy Administrative Professional's Day!

Hope you all had a great Administrative Professional's Day on Wednesday. I know many of you don't actually have a job where that is your title, but everyone supports someone.

I was spoiled rotten here at work, even though I wasn't at work on APD. I got gift certificates to Starbucks, Barnes & Nobel and Borders. And flowers. And lovely cards telling me how wonderful I am. It was really very nice. I felt like such a princess!

I wasn't at work Wednesday because I had a flat tire on my way home Tuesday night. I had attended a seminar at OMSI (SuperCompetent: The Six Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best - it was excellent) and was heading home on I-5 when I heard this really loud bang. Freaked me out. I figured someone had a) hit me, b) shot at me, or c) my tire had blown out. I pulled over as soon as I could and hopped out to take a look. Sure enough, flat tire.

I wasn't really paying attention my location before the blow out, and I wasn't where I could see any signs, so I had to guess where I was located. I have road side assistance included with my car insurance, so I called them and tried to describe it. Unfortunately, the call center for the road side assistance is located somewhere else, so they had no clue what I was talking about. When I told them "Oregon, I-5 northbound, just north of the Interstate Avenue exit" it got translated to the mobile repair company as "I-5 northbound, just north of the Interstate bridge." Which, as you Oregonians and Washintonians all know, if you are north of the Interstate bridge on I-5 is in Washington, not Oregon. Luckily, they were able to find me. I'm pretty sure I was the only 2000 Ford Expedition on the side of the road with a flat tire on the northern 5 mile stretch of I-5 in Oregon.

Anyway, the repair guy came in about 20 minutes and changed my flat for me. In the Expedition, the spare tire is stored under the back end of the truck and you have to do some fancy gyrations to get it out. It's great to store it there because it is totally out of the way, but it is a pain in the butt to get it out or put it back. I was back on the road in less than an hour. Best of all, I didn't have to pay anythign for it. Yay insurance!

Since I had the spare on, I decided not to push my luck and drive to Gresham with it on and went to Costco in Vancouver to see if they could fix my tire. It had a hole the size of my pinky in it, and I was sure I was looking at buying one, if not two, tires. Lucikly, they were able to repair it, put the regular tire back on, put the spare away and made sure all my tires were filled. It took a while though, so by the time I was done it was after noon and I decided to take the rest of the day off. Not much point in driving to work for a few hours. Gas is too darned expensive!

So there you have it. That was my APD. What did you do?

Over!

So I made it through Lent and kept my goals. I drank enough pop today to make me sick (even though the vending machine was out of diet Coke and I had to have diet Pepsi instead....yeeech). And I've been playing on my computer (read: Facebook) all night. I feel so naughty!

Hope everyone had a good Easter. Greg wasn't feeling well, so we had a quiet day. I watched most of Jesus Christ Superstar. Do you think that's enough of a religious celebration of Easter? I have to say, whenever I picture Jesus, he looks just like Ted Neely. Okay, that might be blasphemous. Sorry if it is, but he just looked the part so well!

Did you read about the modern trial of Jesus? I thought this was really interesting. I wish I was smart enough to talk knowledgeably about it. Since I'm not, I'll just say it was interesting.

What's New?

So not a lot is new around here, but I felt like I should post something. Not that anyone is actually READING my blog any more (or if you are, you aren't commenting!), but whatever.

So it's the middle of April already. I've survived two budget hearings, already got my tax refund back, and have finally gotten rid of the last of the cold that lingered around forever. I also have a new nephew. That was kind of exciting. You won't believe the amount of angst shopping for premie diapers caused me.

What else? Went to the 2011 Spring Flinger letterboxing gathering and had a fabulous time. Taken the dogs to the CASEE center a couple of times between rain showers and let them chase the frogs (we even saw a turtle last time we were there).

I've stayed away from the evils of diet Coke since Lent began and also stayed off the computer at home after 5. It hasn't been easy, but when you make a promise to God, it gives you good incentive to stick to your goal.

I've got one more budget hearing to go (hopefully it won't go to two more) and that headache is over. This year has been a lot better for me, as the budget team has been reconfigured and the responsibilities were distributed differently. I actually got to be just an admin!

I really, really want to go see Wicked in Eugene in the next couple of weeks. Got to find someone to go with me though.

So that catches you all up on what is going on in my life. Not very exciting, but there you are.

Car Back

I got my car back! Yay! There was a problem with another one of the spark plugs.

I can't tell you how much better I feel having my own car back. It was very uncomfortable not having it!

Who knew I was such a control freak?

What's the Date, Again?

I drove home yesterday and ended up driving in a SNOWSTORM! There was over an inch of snow/hail on the ground by the time I made it to my house. WTF? Isn't it April? Weird, weird weather. This morning there was still snow on rooftops and in the grass.

Since the weather isn't getting any better, I splurged and ordered these boots:


Aren't they great?

Cars

I hate it when cars have problems. I totally take it for granted when they work and all I have to do is put in gas, change the oil, and rotate the tires. When they have to go into the shop to be worked on, my life turns upside down.

Take yesterday, for instance. My car was missing and acting like there was a spark plug problem (I only know this because I've had sparkplug trouble before). So I took it to our mechanic. The mechannic we (used) to use is over in Hazel DellTo do this, I had to go into work late, rent a car, and pay for having the stupid thing fixed. It was a giant pain in the ass.

Then I had to gas up the rental car, return it, get a ride over to the mechanic's, wait around to pay for it only to get in the car and HAVE THE PROBLEM NOT FIXED! Yes, that's right. It was exactly the same as when I took it in. Still missing and shuddering and not working. Let me tell you, I was steamed. I think the air might still be blue over there in Hazel Dell from all my swearing.

The mechannic let me use his car, which was nice, but I want my car back! Grr.

Okay, thanks for letting me vent. I haven't heard from him yet today, so we'll see what happens. Stay tuned!

My Happy Place