Who would have thought?

I had some doubts about Cina with a cat. I thought that poor Tasty would have to live in the bathroom.  But no.  They have become fast friends. Cina still gets a little annoyed, but I think she is happy to have a little friend.

And we're back!

After much blood, sweat, and tears, I think we've successfully made the leap to our new home.  After about 3 and a half years with ipowerweb, I got fed up with their crap (support is awful, how about 45 minutes on hold before you get to talk to someone?), and their move to a new "improved" interface was horribly mismanaged and a bad implementation in the first place.  I'm now happily on HostGator and it's just as cheap, a lot quicker, and overall, a much nicer host.

I've poked and prodded everything I can find around here in the last few days, and hopefully found and fixed all the bugs.  Please let me know if anything doesn't work as it should, so I can pull the plug on the old site after I'm sure I don't need anything from there.  Only things I'm aware of that didn't survive the move is the old guestbook and one comment on Morgan's last post (sorry Ryan!).

Victim...the continuing saga

I wrote three emails to city council persons and RenoDirect. I also mailed a letter to the business that owns the parking lot.  Oh, it is Maytan Music, by the way.  The booting company is Sierra Booting (no website - not a surprise).

But check this article out from the Tahoe Tribune here.  Talk about shady.  Plus, the guy that says he wouldn't have employees is the same guy that fought with me.

About the bicycle. I don't think they would have booted it.  Shit, I can buy a bike for less than the fine.  I paid it, but I just feel that is unjust and horrible that someone would stake out a lot like that just to make a quick buck.  The business owner near by said that he has seen up to 25 cars booted in one day!!! Makes me wonder if they ever boot any other lots? Why would you have to?  Also, they told me it had been a random check. Yeah, right. The guy was just sitting in his car when I pulled in waiting to make his money.

As for Maytan, why not lease the spots to the other businesses and make an honest dollar that way?  You know that it is never full for Maytan's customers.

Just a Victim

Tonight, I went to Dixie Rose to meet some friends and make an appointment.  I met Marc at work and then took the Vespa down while he took the kids home. I pulled into the parking lot for a neighboring business.  I thought that by parking on the very far edge and not taking up a space, this would be satisfactory.  There was another gentleman just loitering in his car. I did see the signs, but did not feel that I was really 'parking.' After all, I was driving an unregistered vehicle because it is not required by law.  Kind of like locking my bike up, did not feel that I was unjust.

Twenty minutes later, a woman walked into Dixie Rose to inform all of us that whomever was driving the scooter had been booted. For a brief second, I thought it had to be a mistake. I went outside, and there was the guy from Sierra Booting with his machine asking whether I wanted to pay cash or debit. Yep, the same guy that had watched me pull into the parking lot, park, and walk away. I felt ambushed. What was I supposed to do?  I had to pay it.

I was livid. I tried talking to the guy, who had no interest in anything that I had to say. There was no argument.  Even upon talking to a guy in another vehicle, I was told that i was in the wrong and there was nothing to be done.  Poor guy, he had been called from Sam's Club to drive his big gas guzzling vehicle down just to bring the right kind of lock for the scooter.  Even after asking about the 10 minute grace, I was told that he had cell phone records of when he had been called away from Sam's Slub.  Get this, the fine was $90!!! Can you even imagine?  Having your son sit in the busy lot, booting cars all day? I am surprised to see that a business address that I found was an apartment off of Grand Summit.

I talked with a business owner next door to where I had been . He said that they sit in the lot and wait for people to park there, especially at lunch due to a successful, busy restaraunt nearby.  Predators.  That is exactly what they are. There needs to be some regulation. Whyy can't the business be responsible and call when there are people parked in their lot?  I'm appalled that a local business would associate with such scum.

Confession

I am a sucker for romantic movies.  I love romantic comedies. I can read the ending within the first five minutes, but I don't care that I know what is going to happen.  I LOVE them!  I am now watching The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and Jude Law.  Yep, love it.  Getting worked up even though I have seen it and know what is going to happen. Just watched 27 Dresses the other day and loved it, too.  Maybe all started with Pretty Woman? No, I think it was Pretty in Pink. Wait, it was Can't Buy Me Love. Hold on another sec, I am thinking that one of my all time favorites is Say Anything. I have thought about 6 others while writing this blog. I can tell you if you are interested or become my friend on Netflix.

I think that I am just a sucker for good movies. I know that there are those out there that don't agree with my choices. But my thought is - isn't it nice not to be scared, not to think how the world could end, and know that you can swim in deep water?  Sometimes, I think that Marc and I have this perfect love story movie.....met online, were engaged shortly after (I had no intention of marrying when I met him), the perfect wedding, the perfect relationship, the perfect kids, and now the perfect life.  See....they do really happen.

Saying all this, I do have some other favorites.  There are movies that I like that I would not want to live out.  Random titles would include: Thirteen, The Patriot (it is the Heath Ledger fantasy - check out 10 Things I Hate About You), Hotel Rwanda, The Savages (most recently), Rear Window, The Apartment, The Princess Bride, etc..... Okay, there are sooooooooooo many that I could list.  These are not even the best choices - there are so many coming to mind now. Plus, TV series!  Six Feet Under and Arrested Development are two of my top favorites.  I know that so many more will pop into my head as favorites.  But my confession is.....I LOVE romantic movies!!!!! Happy endings are the way to go for this viewer....oh yeah, The Notebook....another GREAT romantic movie.  There are so many!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy movie watching!

Side note for those that care......Firefox 3 came out today.  I have only been using it since writing this blog.  It really 'rocks' so far!!!

just a little something

Well, Nana has come and gone. We had a wonderful time besides her getting sick.  We shopped, played, napped, and ate.  It was relaxing and fun.

Tasty is fitting right in. She and Cina have become fast friends. Okay, Cina is a bit annoyed.  Tasty wants to play all the time and loves to crawl, claw and bite Cina.  She is most intrigued by her wagging tail.  It is great that they are getting along so well and that Tasty has fit in like a perfect piece of our perfect family puzzle.

Sid is battling the stomach flu again.  It is so hard to watch someone so little be sick and not be able to tell you what is hurting.  His little personality still shines through at moments and gives us hope that he is on the mend.

Congratulations to our VERY good friends, Tina and Bart, on the arrival of their daughter, Matilda Adriana.  she weighed in at 7lbs 10oz and 21.5" long.  We can't wait to meet her.  We have had to hold off due to illness around here.  Here is a picture of the new family!!



Another quick...kinda gross story, but one for all parents.  We were in Kohl's shopping with Nana last weekend.  Lola had just trotted off with Marc to the bathroom, as she loves to check out all public bathrooms and they have a family bathroom with a toilet just her size.  I was wandering around with Sid in the backpack looking for great deals when I suddenly was taken aback by a horrible smell.  Yep, Sid.  Ugh.  I caught Marc as he came out of the bathroom and asked him to take Sid out to the van and change him.  We took him out of the backpack and noticed that he had leaked just a bit.  As Marc turned him over to see for himself, two large pieces of fecal matter....okay, shit, fell out. They plopped onto Marc's shoe before rolling off and finally halting on the carpet of Kohl's.  For a split second, I wanted to walk away and pretend that nothing had happened.  Instead, I went to the bathroom, grabbed some paper towels, and picked it up as if Sid was my pet in the park.  Gross.  It was an awful feeling.  Marc left with Sid, we grabbed Nana and left. Lola was kind enough to let Nana know that we had to leave because there was poop on the floor. The horror that Nana's face took on was priceless as well as the comment, "Well, I hope not."  Yep, there had been poop on the floor and we needed to leave.  The lesson that I hope Marc learned was to trust my words, treat this type of situation more delicately, and accept the assignment as directed.  For me, the lesson is that, truly, you can see anything as a parent.  There is no way to be prepared.

Happy Father's Day to all of you fathers out there.  Especially Grandpa Dave, Marc, and Pop.  A special shout out to the new daddy, Bart.  I can't wait to see how the father-daughter relationship will change your life!!

Reno street view

Really cool, Google Maps now has Street View for Reno!  Photos appear (at least in NW Reno) to be from sometime around spring 2007.

Things I did and learned in Vegas....

I went to Vegas for a few days. Here are a few things that I realized:

1. After not being there for years, I will find it even more irritating when people automatically assume that if you are from Nevada, you are from Las Vegas.


2. It is VERY dirty. There was trash everywhere!!


3. Everything costs more than it should. There are not that many 'good' deals. Whatever happened to 99 cent breakfasts? Oh that's right, we are in a recession.


4. A lot of sarcasm from service people - ie that bell boy that made sure to let me know that he would not the one there when I picked up my bag. After being so snide, I quickly put away the tip that I was gong to hand him. After all, my bag only contained a few clothes and dirty underwear. So what if he 'misplaced' it? Should have been nice, taken your tip and then been done with it. Customer service was not a strong point where I was staying. But I also wasn't staying at the Bellagio or Trump Towers. The Stratosphere was cheap and worked.


5. Stratosphere was not close enough to the Convention Center to walk in the shoes I was wearing. I am now nursing a HUGE blister on the bottom of my foot.


6. The Monorail sounded like a great quick way to get there the first morning. Upon arrival to the stop, I found that it was $5 for one way!!! I was only going two stops. I was duped and had no choice.


7. Since I sat at the blackjack table for 4 hours and gave you all the money I had, you could at least buy me breakfast. The older gentlemen that I played with kept commenting on how they used to just give you free things and now you have to beg. I begged and got a $15 comp for breakfast. It was a LOT less than I had lost and I only could choose from half of the menu. (Again, everything costs too much.) I guess it is true that beggars can't be choosers.


8. The person staying in the room next to me must either have passed out or not been there. No one needs to listen to the TV that loud.


9. The water out of the sink smelled like sulfur. It makes me sick even thinking about it. I contemplated the idea of going down to the casino and brushing my teeth in one of the bathrooms.


10. I had a great view of the air conditioners on the roof. Yep. Nice view.


11. The sandwich was really worth the $8 that I paid for it. I was starving.


12. I missed my family while I was gone. I am so used to being with someone - I can get lonely really fast.

I think that Reno should market themselves a bit better. We aren't as big as Las Vegas, but we have a lot of the same commodities. It is so much cleaner here, smells a lot better, and a tad bit greener. It is good to be home.