What's the point of appointments?

If you've been reading my most recent posts, you've seen the wonderful luck I've been having with tires. For the sake of keeping all four of my loyal readers updated, let me inform you of the ....most...recent.... information....

Last week I went over to Discount Tire Co and bought a new tire. This is two days after Eric rescued my brother and I by loaning me his spare tire. I tell the dude by the name of Misael that I need a new tire and somewhat explain to him that I need a new spare too b/c the one on my car is not mine. He does some slow-mo typing on the computer and tells me that he can get me a replacement tire for the one that died for free. But on top of that, he suggested I get another tire for the driver side rear tire. I was unaware that they worked on commission until he suggested that.

I told him that I was planning on doing that pretty soon b/c that particular tire was a used one that I bought when that tire blew out. (Bad luck with tires remember?) He said he could get me a new tire to replace the used one, another wheel, and a really good used tire that I could use as a spare. I agreed to that because it sounded like a good deal.

I'm sitting there waiting, watching my Attack of the Show Podcasts on my Zune and sitting in awe at the amazing beauty of Olivia Munn. I end up waiting for quite a while. About 45 mins later, Misael walks over to me and tells me that he has the wheel but the new tire he was going to give me was missing or something like that. He said he was going to be off the next day but he would go pick up one of the tires from another location and drop it off for me there. I said ok, grabbed my keys, and bolted out of there b/c I was late coming back from lunch.

I called the next day to see if Misael had dropped it off, and of course he hadn't They said this was something he usually did and he usually gets there at about noon on his days off with tires for some of his customers and that they would give me a call when he got there. Of course they never called.

Fast forward to Saturday when I'm junk yard shopping with Gordon.

I called them and talked to Misael, after being put on hold for about 9 minutes, and he told me that he wasn't able to go pick up the tire and he would go on his lunch then call me as soon as he got back. Well this time he called me back, except at that point I was already in Red Oak getting ready to go to Allen for the peewee football game. I told him I would have to stop by there during lunch again sometime next (this) week.

I called yesterday and thankfully Misael is the one who answered so I didn't have to explain the long drawn out story to anyone. I made an appointment for today at 12:15 fully expecting to be late from lunch again.

I didn't take into account, however, that I would be 30 mins late to work this morning. At about 9:30 I decided I would just take a 30 min lunch and it would be copasetic. At about 11:15 I remember the appointment and kicked myself for forgetting. I finished up a few things before noon then high tailed it out of here to go get my tires.

An hour and a half. That's how long it took. The funny part of that is this. Last week when I asked how long I would have to wait if I didn't set an appointment and just went in at lunch, the dude on the phone said, you guessed it, an hour and a half. So I ask you, what's the point of the appointment?!

Sheesh that means I'll probably end up staying at work till 6 to make up for the lost time. Or take a 30min lunch tomorrow and stay 30 mins later. I don't know I'll figure something out.

Cloverfield Snack Bar

What an interesting weekend I had. Sheesh where to begin? I guess the beginning is as good a place as any.

Friday night Gordon (the stepdad) texted me and told me he was going to go to the junk yard to find a sideview mirror for Nicole's (the sister) car. He wanted to know if I wanted to go to and try to find one for my car. My driver side mirror has been dangling since Mother's day when I backed into a pole whilst stopping to buy a watermelon. I agreed and he said he would pick me up from my house at 9AM sharp. I instantly regretted it because I wanted to sleep in. But I sucked it up and woke up at 8:40. I peed, brushed my teeth, and washed my hair. I figured I would go out in the heat, sweat a little, get home, and shower then relax for the rest of the day. Nope not the case.

We went to the junk yard and he told me that Nicholas (the nephew) was having his first peewee football game (actually a scrimmage) that day in Allen TX, which is about 45 mins from lovely Oak Cliff. I'm thinking sheesh I don't wanna drive all the way over there but I really wanna go.

This was the first time I had ever been to a junk yard, so I was at the same time excited and a little scared. I wasn't really sure what to expect, other than a bunch of.... well... junk. We arrive at the first place and walk in and tell the guy behind the counter what we were looking for. A sideview mirror for a 2001 Chevy Mailbu and the same for a 1995 Mazda MX6. Right away he says he won't have the one for the Mazda because they don't carry foreign cars. (Is "we don't carry that" the proper terminology for a junk yard? Sort of like them saying, "No we don't have that trash in stock. You have to go to another trash can.") The guy behind the counter calls out to some other guy who's sitting behind us on a old lounge chair from the 70s. We'll call him Jack cuz I forgot his name.

"Hey Jack! Go get these guys a mirror for a 2000 Malibu." Gordon and I sort of stand there not really sure if we were supposed to follow him or wait there. He motions us to follow, so we do. Gordon is making small talk and I'm soaking in the atomsphere. My first thought is that this was what Wall E must have felt like. There were cars everywhere in various forms of disarray. It was what I expected it to look like, yet somehow I was still slightly taken aback from the sheer magnitude of the...well...junk.

Meanwhile, Jack has walked up to some sort of really old Cadillac (I'm not good with cars) and gets in. Again, Gordon and I are just standing there, not really sure if he's planning on finding the part and bringing it to us or if we actually have to ride with him in the car. He opens the door, looks at us, then says with just a twinge of sarcasm and frustration, "Well get in!"

Shocked by his tone and bluntness, we climb into the car. I shift over the various car maintainence tools and sit down on the dusty brown seat. Jack puts the car in reverse and then turns around and starts driving down the bumpy road to view the aisles and aisles of merchandise. After maybe a minute and a half, he realizes his tire is extremely low and makes his way back to the front to fill it up. For the third time now, Gordon and I are not sure what to do. Do we get out and watch? Try to help? Sit in the car awkwardly while he puts air in his tire? We chose the third option.

The second trip to the merchandise was much more eventful that was when I ran into cars like this.

That's when I decided that this junk yard had to be where the Cloverfield monster came when he had the munchies.

Jack and Gordon were in the front talking up a storm about various cars and the parts that we're looking for. I'm looking out the window. Suddenly the radio is turned up full blast and we're searching for a side view mirror to the tune of a Eagles sounding rock song. It was a very Tarantino moment.

Jack turned the radio down and started telling Gordon some sort of story that I wasnt really listening to. I started listening though, when he started talking about how he used to do lots of coke. Let me see if I can paraphrase. I'll replace his more colorful words with the word cookie.

"So I was out playin basketball and the ball hit me in my cookie nose and cookie broke it. I had to go to the cookie emergency room and they had to wrap up my cookie nose. then they told me I had to have cookie surgery to fix my nose and I told them well I'm always doin all this coke and then that dr tells me I need to stop doin that for a few days so he can get the cookie surgery done. I tell him fine but I'm thinkin I'm doin way too much cookie coke to just stop for a few cookie days. So I just didn't never have the cookie surgery."

To make a long story short, we found the mirror we needed for my sister's car but never found the one for mine, even after visiting two more Cloverfield Snack Bars.

Now on to the rest of the day. Gordon made a comment at some point that I was going to have fun when we got back to their house and I was finally going to be able to jump on the lawnmower and cut the grass, which I did.

After turning a nice golden brown on the mower, Ernie and Javier (The brother and The quasi-roommate) and Aron (The quasi-roommate's brother) showed up at The mom's house and we all jumped in The Liberty (The car, not the mom) and made The Long Journey to The nephew's football game. Final score, 8-6 in overtime. The nephew's team lost. I also apparently got slightly burned on the face and developed a lovely farmer brown tan.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon and you'll see that I've already picked up Dallas, my sister's 14 year old malteese. Mix that with my 10month old chihuahua shih tzu and you've got a night filled with polar opposite interaction. I'll have Dallas until tomorrow when Monica will come pick her up. Right now they are both in my room. Mocha is without a doubt making a huge mess while Dallas is most likely sitting in a corner looking at her with lazy judgemental eyes.

Mocha Pre and Post Groomed.

I took Mocha to get groomed today and snappeda few pictures with my phone. Isn't she just adorable!?

Jason Mraz Widget

You know who's awesome?

Well besides me of course. Jason Mraz. I heard him perform live on Kidd Kraddick earlier this year and I was like wow this guy's good. The actual word I used was, "Dreamy." Last week I bought three of his albums from Zune and I've been listening to nothing else since then. He's going to be at Nokia in October and I'm planning on going. But before I do that I have to know every single ones of his songs so I can sit in the front row and stare at him and make him uncomfortable.

Mraz is my new mancrush. Move over Timberlake, you've been replaced.

One Fish Two Fish Dead Fish....Dead Tire...

Bruce the Betta died yesterday. Read my previous post for the story. I was kinda bummed about that. But honestly, it's a betta so it wasn't going to live for a decade or anything. Yeah I know some people have had those things for years at a time, but I really wasn't expecting Bruce to last too long.

After work I went to pick up my brother from his job. When I walked out to my car I noticed my tire was a little low. My insides turned over just a little b/c of the recent bad luck I've been having with tires. Especially since I just bought that tire from Discount Tire Co no more than a month ago. Me being the idiot that I am, I didn't stop at the gas station to put air in there. To be honest I was scared the tire would blow up in my face again. That would not have been good, especially since I don't have a spare tire because that pretty much exploded too. (Remember bad luck with tires lately?)

I went to pick him up then drove around in a few circles trying to find a parking spot at the exotic pet store down the street from his job. I didn't find anything but I did see a few cool birds that were making cool noises.

After we left, we're on our way home and, you guessed it, my tire went totally flat. We turned onto a residential street and I'm thinking maybe if I drive real slow, I'll be able to make it to a gas station to put some air in there. I move about five feet and the sound of my tire folding over itself is fairly obvious so I stop and start thinking what I should do.

Good old Eric answered my call and came to the rescue and loaned me his spare tire. It took him, myself, and my brother to change my tire. I ended up putting my new to me jack in the wrong spot and put a nice little hole in the bottom of my car, causing a nice little fabric bubble right by the brake pedal. My crappy jack ended up stuck in the hole. Mondy stopped by to pick up my brother so they could go to the baseball game and he had to power house the crappy jack out of the hole. So in answer to the question "How many mexicans does it take to change a tire on a 1995 Mazda MX6?" Four.

Story update coming soon.

Bruce The Betta

Sadly my betta fish died today. I changed his water and I think the water I put in there was a bit too warm. I turned away from my computer to give him a few flakes of food and noticed that he was face down on the bottom of the tank.

When I put my finger to the tank to see if he would scurry away like he normally does, he did nothing. He is now flushed into the great beyond.

Rest in Peace Bruce.

Haven't posted here in quite a while...

Well that's mainly because of the new job and I forgot about it here and I don't really have too many people that actually come and check this. I'm working on that though. Hopefully I'll start posting more stuff here and some people will actually read it. I've got a lot in this curly-headed noggin.