Friday, October 24, 2008

Autumn =) My favorite time of the year…

I love the scenery and the fact that it's the only time of the year when you have so much to look forward to! (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, New Years Eve) Then the life gets crappy again.



Last weekend we took a nature walk to check out the pretty trees. Here's a few pics from Deer Lakes Park. I love it!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Mission: "Perfect" Pumpkins

This past weekend we bought our Halloween pumpkins. The place we went to takes you on a hayride up to two pumpkin patches so you can pick your own. (I know what you're thinking.) I seriously thought we were going to be the oldest ones there (without kids) until another couple that looked to be about our age got on the hayride too. Then I didn't feel so silly! =)
So I was on a mission to find a huge, somewhat "perfect" pumpkin (perfect in my eyes at least). I found one.. Haha.. As you can see in the picture.. It was heavy as all hell but I refused to put it down because I thought someone might steal it. (Ok, that one does sound a little bit childish.)

I don't care. I wanted that one and no one was going to take it from me!
Matt was on a mission to find a perfectly "round" pumpkin (whatever that means). His isn't as big as mine. Actually, mine's just better all around. Pumpkin picking is a competitive sport you know. May the best pumpkin win! (You guys can be the judges!)



The Ride Home --->



Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Boys In St. Clairsville, OH (October 12th, 2008)

Well, at least this race was a lot closer than the last couple (finally) at about 1 hour and 45 minutes away! We left on Saturday around 4:00pm and arrived in St. Clairsville, OH around 5:45pm, went to the track so Matt and Jeff could sign up, then checked in to the Red Roof Inn... All 3 of us. In one room. (Typical trip with these two.) By then it was waayyy past my dinnertime so I was HUNGRY! There is only about every restaurant you could imagine in St. Clairsville (and I'm not a decision maker) so I left it up to the guys. It didn't take me very long to realize that it wasn't really an option anyway because apparantly they had already decided we were going to eat at the West Texas Roadhouse before we even left PA! Oh, and in case you're wondering… Here's the reason (as I roll my eyes and shake my head in disbelief): I guess Jeff had "a thing" for one of the waitresses who worked there last year when they ate there… (I wasn't with them last year thank god.) So of course they thought it would be funny to see if she still worked there and if she remembered them. From what I hear they were a little bit rowdy last year! Not that I'm surprised! 4 boys in a restaurant drinking beer... and you didn't think they would cause some kind of trouble? (Especially these ones.) So we went in and sat down near the bar and low and behold - there she was - Missy. She actually didn't remember them until they reminded her of the "Turkey Song". Last year, I guess the other guys kept telling her (Missy) that Jeff wanted to sing her a Turkey Song or something like that. Trust me, I know… I don’t understand it either? On that note, I don't think I will ever understand how 30-year-old men can act like teenagers and think nothing of it? And get this one - after dinner - they made me walk over a guardrail and down a dangerously steep grassy hillside to get to Krogers (to buy racing essentials I guess) and then back up the death hill and back over the guardrail to the hotel. (Again, not that I'm surprised.) Afterall, they are gncc racers so they're used to always looking for shortcuts (as if they needed to be the first ones to the grocery store?). So yet another one, I will never understand how 30-year-old men figure it is better to take the "dangerous" route than to take an extra 5 minutes to go the right way? We could of just drove. On to Sunday morning…

Matt raced first. I took some video of the start so you could see how it works (it's a little long)… they let a different class go every 10 seconds. Don't forget! Matt's number 45!


He did pretty good… made it up a few places from the last race (17th, I think). Of course.. he was disappointed with that number. He said he messed up a bit by making a stupid decision which led him to get stuck somewhere for like 10 or 15 minutes. Typical "Matt's Luck"… always getting stuck in a mudhole. I don’t really know what it was this time but earlier this year he did get stuck in a mudhole for awhile (which is actually kind of funny because he helped a girl get her bike "unstuck" and she ended up beating him… Haha =) He gets mad when I make fun of him. (But it is kind of funny. Mudhole - that's a funny word.)
lam

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Part II: "Deer Whacker" Thursday, October 9th, 2008 (6 Days Later)

<--(I found this pic on the internet. This is exactly what they looked like. See below!)

"Deer Whacker." Matt's new nickname for me. Yep! You guessed it! I nailed two of them! The funny part is that when this happened I was on my way home from the auto body shop after getting an estimate done for the first incident (see part I). I couldn't even believe it! I kept thinking it was just a dream... I was about a mile from my driveway when two leaping deer jumped right in front of my car! My only thought at the time was, "No, this can't be happening!" (I wasn't even speeding and I'm not just saying that.. I really wasn't.) I didn’t even have time to react! I assume the normal reaction would have been to slam on the break and I didn't even have time to do that! I nailed the suckers. I've never seen a deer fly so far in my life. It was rather scary looking. One deer jumped right after the other so I hit the first one and he flew in to the air with his hooves facing me and landed like a bag of bricks in the opposite lane a little further down the road. I hit the other one a split second later. At that point I must have had my foot on the break (I don't remember) but all know is that I only knocked the 2nd deer over. (I don't remember every detail because my body was in some sort of a shock I think.) Before I knew it my car had come to a complete stop. I was trying to gas it so I could get away from the scene and back in to my own lane (instead of in the middle of the road) but my car wouldn't move! It was making that noise like when you're trying to drive up a steep snowy road and your tires are spinning but you're not going anywhere. Then I figured it out... There was a deer under my car. I wasn't sure what to do so I sat there for a few seconds... (good thing there weren't any other cars on the road during all of this). I quickly made the decision to just gun it. I mean, what other choice did I have? I put the car back into "drive" and I went for it… Let's just say it was like driving over a huge speed bump! So not only did I knock the poor thing out but I ran him over too! Actually, he was a she. They both were. Once I started going again I frantically searched for my cell phone so I could call Matt and tell him what just happened. (It was sitting right on my lap but it took me a minute to realize that.) I called him and very calmly told him that I just rammed a deer (well, two deer). Then I broke down into hysterics because I couldn't believe it happened! And while on my way home from the auto body shop at that! I was so upset! Then later on that night I felt bad for causing the tragic deaths of the deer (Matt doesn't think that they died but I have a pretty good feeling that even if they didn't they weren't going to make it much longer.. He calls them BIG rats). I was shooken up for awhile. Matt called the police and had them come out and write up a report. He felt we might need a little more evidence to prove to the insurance company that we really did knock out 3 deer in 6 days! My car is "undrivable" at the moment.

(I wasn't going to mention this next thing but I can't seem get it off my mind.) The night before this happened (Wednesday night) I had a dream that I wrecked my car and Matt wrecked his truck. I know that sounds terrible! But it's true. I've had déjà vu a couple of times before. I once dreamt about one of the law offices that I worked at before I even worked there! I dreamt about a cubicle that had piles and piles of papers on it… And when I got hired at that office the real one I sat at was exactly like the one in my dream! Weird.
lam

Part I: The "Evidence" Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Friday night one of our friends asked us to go out for a drink. I was in the middle of trying to finish up the snickerdoodles I started baking (FYI - they came out better than the last time I tried to bake) so Matt decided to take my car and go to the ATM to get some cash and was going to just pick me up on the way back. No big deal.. right? Well, when he pulled in I noticed the two of them out in the driveway "inspecting" my vehicle. I knew it! Right away, I knew it! I went out onto the porch and said, "What'du do? Wreck my car?!" "No!" It wasn't his fault. "A deer ran into me!".. He says. (I knew he wasn't lying.) The same thing happened to me 2 years ago... A dumb deer ran right into the driver's side door of my Cavalier. He dented my door so bad I couldn't even open it! I had to crawl over the seats and get out through the passenger's side. I seriously thought his antlers were going to come through my window and stab me in the head but they didn't. (I know, I have a wild imagination!) Before that happened I didn't even think it was possible because I didn't think that these animals were THAT stupid. Boy was I wrong!
So now my 2005 Chevy Equinox (that I just got in June and believe it or not - is the nicest car I ever owned!) has deer dents in it AND deer fur stuck in the cracks! There was also a piece of deer skin stuck to it until Matt pulled it off.. Gross! I took some pictures so we have "evidence" in case the insurance company questions anything... I mean, that's what insurance is for isn't it?.... In case deers decide to commit suicide using our vehicles as their murder weapons?

(Needless to say, I had more than 1 drink that night.)
lam

Monday, October 13, 2008

Swimming Cell Phone

Just as the title says…
My cell phone went for a swim the other day. In the toilet. At work. I know, funny.. Isn't it? Of course everyone thinks it's hysterical.. Because you all have working cell phones! I am going to go ahead and answer the two most popular "personal" questions everyone keeps asking: 1. Was it clean water? Yes. If it was a "number 1", I maybe would have fished for it... Anything else and it would have been flushed and probably end up stuck in the plumbing somewhere... but yes, it was clean water! 2. How the heck did that happen? Well, if Matt didn't send me a text message at the same time I had to pee, I probably wouldn't have taken my phone to the bathroom with me... I NEVER do that! This was the first time I had ever taken my cell phone into the ladies' room with me at work. And of course, I did something really stupid while I was in there… I set it on top of the toilet paper dispenser (bad idea). I must have bumped into it because my cell phone slid right off into the toilet! Yet another one of those, "I can't believe this is happening" moments. I guess there is a third question everyone keeps asking: 3. Did you clean it with anything? Yes, I did. Thank you to the person who invented Lysol wipes. =)

P.S. For those of you who don't already know.. It works now. I let it dry out for 4 days. Luckily for me, I don't have to buy a new phone since I just got this one in June!
lam

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Devil Cat


Now what can I say about "The Cat". BTW, in case your wondering what his name is it's, "The Cat". Don't ask. I seriously don't know how Matt and I are ever going to agree on names for our future children. Anyway, he is SO BAD! He is such a meany head but for some reason I still love the darn thing. You can't pet him for more than like 2 minutes because he gets bored. I never met an animal who didn't like to be petted more than this one! He's 4 years old now. Here's the story: I still lived at home when this thing came into my life. My sister wanted him. See.. this guy her friend was dating came across a bunch of kittens in the warehouse where he worked. Supposedly, he couldn't find the mom so he took it upon himself to assume that the mom was never going to come back and that he had to find homes for them. Of course my mom and dad said "no" but at that point in time Kelly (my sister) didn't care. She told whatever his name was (I don't remember) to drop one off at our house. I came home first before my parents and saw him. He was SO tiny! He couldn't even eat real kitten food yet and he was suckling on a blanket - it was almost as if he was looking for his mom so he could eat. So of course we now have to take care of him because we can't just let the poor thing die! So Kelly and I went to PetSmart and picked up a bottle and some formula and nursed him from tiny baby kitty into kittenhood. This was during the summertime. About 6 months later (around Christmas) mom claimed that he peed under the x-mas tree (I still don't know if I believe that… I really think she just didn't like him… probably because he was mean back then too!) Growing up we had a lot of different pets and everytime mom and dad didn't want one of those pets anymore (because they were too bad or something) dad took it to "the farm". (I don't know if I believe that either… for all we knew he could have just drove it down the road and threw it over the hillside. I'm kidding. Sort of. I've never actually seen "the farm" though so I don't know!) But that's where this little kitty was going to end up if I didn't take matters into my own hands. So what did I do you ask? I told Matt and begged him and Mitzi (Matt's mom) to take him in and they kind-heartedly did so. He lived at Matt's house up until we got married and then he moved in with us. I have to give the thing some credit… he did fairly well for all the transitioning he went through. He's a fairly good cat at our house, I mean… he doesn't pee or poop on the floor, or scratch anything up with his claws. He's caught 7 field mice and a little mole since he moved in. (We didn't have carpeting in our house for awhile so it was easier for little critters to get in from the crawl space under the living room.) Either they don't get in anymore because we now have carpeting or because they're afraid of "Mousebreath"! (Just one of his many nicknames!) Seriously. He ate like the top half of almost every little mouse he caught. So we started calling him mousebreath. Yuck! One day he licked my leg after eating one. From what I remember, only one little mouse survived the cat attack. We found him playing with it and Matt captured it and put it back outside. I still think it made it's way back in and had to face the cat's wrath again.. (he probably ate it).Anyhow, the point is, he may be mean sometimes but at least he's good for something! I know it's a little early (September) but I put him in his Halloween costume already. As you can see in the pics.... He's a Devil this year. For those of you who have met him.. Suits him well, don't you think? Last year he was a Chicken.
lam