People watching

Is it awful of me to want to take a photo of the middle aged man on the airplane that is wearing tapered (and frosted!) denim jeans with the matching frosted denim jacket?? I so want to post this on my blog. Even better, the set looks newly purchased. He's going way out of his way to remain in his youth.

Closure

At lunch today, we received a certified mail letter from the Sheriff's Dept saying that our car was at XXX Towing. I guess that means it's found.

This past Monday we settled with insurance and have already replaced the car (the new one is grey, instead of red ... sniff, sniff). So insurance owns the car now.

But in any case, we got to see. It was fine. It was found at Big Lots in West Columbia. It's been smoked in and had cigarette butts in the front console, the Temporary Owners didn't take care to keep dirt and sand out of the car, and somehow they broke the rear windshield wiper and had it sitting in the back seat, but other than that, it looked good.

Even the gossip magazine I was reading on the trip back from Dallas were still in the car, and were definitely used. And my iPod was gone, but that was pretty much a given.

So what can we tell about our theives? They are Broadway Showtune / Celebrity Gossip loving smokers that like to buy discount household products probably because they do not bother to wipe their feet before going inside.

Anyway, I knew you all would want to know. I'm praying things are on the way up for us!

Preparations

Dr. J's sister arrives on July 16. Our guest bedroom has a decent sized closet except that it is overflowing with our stuff already.

Here I go about to install some new shelving. I love an excuse to use a drill :) Wish me luck!!

Ivanka the iPhone

I don't name vehicles, but I do tend to name electronics that talk to me. The navigator in my car is Natasha and Dr. J is guided in his car by Ximena.

Having your car stolen brings about many follow up tasks, including yet another 11 hour drive down I-20 to get another Tiguan. One actually was, since we had been contemplating iPhones and my iPod was in the car when it was stolen, we got iPhones for our birthdays / someone-took-our-car-and-iPod.

I never imagined how much I would use this little guy. And as I sat in the car just now for 82 minutes trying to get the Sirius Account transferred from the stolen vehicle to the new one, I had games to play, facebook to check, To Do Lists to modify. I think it helped me not go nuts as I baked in the car ... in July ... in South Carolina. Because since the car wasn't activating properly, I had to get out from under any trees. and sit. and wait. and dehydrate. I didn't know it would take so long or I would have prepared myself with beach gear.

I have found some cool apps though. (Mancala, fuzzle, and I paid $0.99 for Dominoes). And of course a movie trivia app that's very me. There's a grocery list app that I am still debating whether I will use it or not. But this is the first time in 4 days I've used an actual computer. Dr. J has taken to playing on his phone in bed and we no longer talk.

Maybe I should find an iMarriage app so that we can communicate when we are in the same room.

oh! my secret yearning to be a writer for the Daily Show has never been stronger than at this moment. Thank you Governor Sanford!!

I couldn't bring myself to vote on The States' poll that Gov Sanford should resign from office because then people would think I want him out based on his not-so-fatherly-weekend-getaway ... and that's not the reason I'd like to see him go bye-bye.

If anyone missed the Daily Show's take on Sanford's latest debacle, The State has them all here. The last two are the best and I can't WAIT to see tonight's show.

http://www.thestate.com/news-extras/story/838938.html

"... someone has to be in charge when Iran decides to make good on its age old threat to attack Charleston with weather ...."

Brilliance!

It's Crazy that June is Over in a Week

How on earth is that even possible?? This has already been a crazy summer which is a nice change because up until now, I've been taking classes each summer. Now I'm completely certifiable ... err ... certified.

In a couple weeks I'll be on my way to San Fran for an all expenses paid trip to a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Workshop at Berkeley and I am totally stoked about it and I know how nerdy that makes me sound but I do not care in the least!!

When I get back from that workshop (and Dr. J returns from his 2 upcoming trips), his 17 year old sister who has recently graduated from her high school in Colombia is coming to visit. FOR SIX MONTHS. She'll be here through the fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and will leave a few weeks into January. So we're going to have a teenager in the house, who speaks occasional English. Either my Spanish will improve immensely or her English will. I hope both, but truly, I simply anticipate much fodder for the blog.

We get it, you want us to leave, we would if we could, I assure you

Today should have been a great day. Dr. J's career proposal was funded yesterday. This is a big deal and it should mean a lot for him getting tenure. Anyone who knows him knows that he is the hardest worker and he has worked so much for tenure. He's a great researcher and he deserves it. Today is his birthday too.

But this morning when we got up our car was gone. Our new one that we just got. After doing every thing right. Our financial planner tells us to save up and try to pay for you car, so you don't have a car payment, so we did that. And we found the car we loved and found one used and drove to Birmingham to get it.

We saved up to have a good down payment on a house. And we got a small house in town that we could afford and got a security system installed since houses in town have more break ins. And it's been broken into twice. So we installed security doors.

And neither of us rushed into marriage. We got our degrees, found each other after grad school. I wanted to have a job that would accommodate a family, so I start teaching and we start trying to have a family but it's been more than two years.

Storm Chasing in Texas

We drove in last night dodging tornadoes ... in and out of green skies and massive winds - anyone from north Texas knows what a green sky means.

We bolted in my parents garage like we'd been shot out of a cannon, and made it in not a moment too late. Everyone was shaky, but safe. No one thought for a moment to call and make sure my grandparents were safe because of course, they weren't sitting in their car at the local grocery store. No wait a minute ...

Turn outs, my grandparents skipped church last night. If you know them, then you know they are The First in the door when it's unlocked. Last night though, under the pretense of "we have lots of guests coming in town for my granddad's 90th birthday party" they opted to go get my Grandad a pedicure and swing by HEB (grocery store) instead of going to church.

Post pedicure-grocery-shopping-trip, they were paying at HEB when the clerk remarks about the tornado spotted in Waxahachie. Trying to speed things along, grandmother tells granddad that he'll have to count the change in the car because they need to get home now! So off they "scurry".

My granddad can't really see, so when they are safe inside the car, she starts handing him coins and telling him the amount so he can make sure the change is correct and she drops a dime ...

IN the gear shift jamming it so they can't put it in drive!

Before you panic too much about this sad lot of senior citizens who have barricaded themselves in the car, remember that they were skipping church so granddad could get a pedicure. :) Of course they got home, we heard the story the next morning. Grandmother muscled up a hearty tug and got them home safely. Why they were worried about counting coins amidst an oncoming tornado ....