Things to remember today...

The sun will come up tomorrow.
My dogs will always be happy to see me.
I will go to Santorini someday.
My past does not define me.
I have a wonderful family who will do anything for me.
The best is still yet to come.
There's always Cartoon Network.

Theft and Unhelpful Glass Repair

This past Wednesday I awoke to find my car, along with ten others in my complex, had been broken into. My driver side window was smashed, and the thief reached in, opened my console, and took my 30G iPod, the iPod case, the holder attached to my AC vent, my iPod FM tuner, and even my stupid plastic sunglasses. Not to mention ruining my morning, and being out the cost of the stolen items, I am also having to come up with the money for my window repair. I immediately filed a report with the police, who actually sent officers out to assess the damage and attempt to take fingerprints.

The very next thing I did was to find a glass repair place as soon as possible. I managed to find a somewhat reasonable quote from Safety Glass Company, who has offices throughout Texas. They got back with me rather quickly, and made an appointment to come to my residence and do the repairs on Friday afternoon between the hours of 1pm and 5pm. Although I was not happy about being sans window for the rest of the week, I was happy to just have it done before the weekend since I had made plans to go out of town. On Friday afternoon, when I had not heard back from anyone by 3:30pm, I called to find out if there was a problem. The lady at the office told me they were running behind due to overbooking, and she would have the technician call me back immediately. When the gentleman called, he explained that he was out in Sugarland, did not have the glass with him, and did not think he would be able to make it to fix mine before dark. I told him I did not care that he had overbooked, it was not my problem, and I needed my car repaired that day. I spoke again to the lady in the office, and she wanted to assure me that the glass would be repaired that evening, but she wanted to make sure I was not going to "yell" at the technician. Apparently he has a fear of aggressive females. Later that evening, I got another call from a different technician stating that he had been given this job at the last minute, that the glass was unavailable, and that he would have to do it in the morning. I went off on the guy. I tried calling the office AGAIN, but naturally it was closed. I spoke again to the second technician, and explained my situation in a calmer manner, and he assured me he would take care of it the following morning even though it was his day off.

I never heard back from anyone all weekend. Now I'd like to tell everyone not to use this sorry service for ANY glass repair, as they are obviously not interested in customer service. Also, as a precaution, don't leave items plugged into the charge outlets in your car. It is an open invitation to thieves that you most likely have electronic devices in your car. Each person whose car was broken into in our particular situation all had items plugged into their car outlets.

New year, new beginnings, and Scott Weiland is the coolest!

No posts for over a month, sorry. The day after my last post was the day my dad died, and the two weeks leading up to the holidays were difficult ones for that and several reasons. The holidays were very good, however - actually just what I needed. With the beginning of a new year came the promise of good things to come, and I am hopeful now as I have not been for a while.

Over the weekend I was fortunate to see Scott Weiland (finally) after many years of somehow missing each and every Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver concert. This was my second concert at Warehouse Live, and I love the venue. It is small enough that no matter where you stand you have a good view, but large enough to support big names like him. He played a lot of his new songs, but also played to the crowd with a few STP tunes, and even some covers from bands like The Smiths. His opening band wasn't one I'd heard of, but reminded me of some early Killers stuff. Scott's new music is quite a bit more toned down than his Velvet Revolver stuff, and he seems to be having a lot of fun with the music and the band he has put together. Certain songs you can tell he enjoys doing, because it seems like they are "jamming" similar to a jazz band, and he stretched those moments out way more than when he was playing the older material. For one thing, he absolutely does not disappoint, and that is his incredible stage presence. He never stands still - he moves all over the stage, interacts with his musicians, the crowd, and the music almost simultaneously, all the while looking as cool as possible. The other puzzler is how he manages to not only smoke cigarettes in a non-smoking venue (who would tell him he couldn't, really?) but also to take a huge drag and then proceed to belt out very long notes. I hope he continues to make music for a long time to come, and that his drug issues are behind him, because he's an incredible talent and phenomenal performer.

Counting Calories

I decided to get a little more serious about my dietary intake, so after doing a bit more internet surfing, I entered my information in the handy little calculators on the MSN health and fitness page. This will tell you how many calories you are currently burning as well as calculating your calorie target in accordance with how much weight you want to lose, and how long it will take to lose it.

The best results seem to come from people who keep a food journal, and I know this is a common practice in most of the major diet programs, so the most detailed (and free) one I found is My Calorie Counter.com. You can keep track of all your meals, and enter the information yourself if your food isn't listed in their vast cache.

Post-holiday bloating

Something about stuffing yourself on holidays makes me want to diet like crazy after. We had a low-key holiday weekend and shot some fireworks in the front drive. You can see a few of them over on my YouTube page.

I found a cool little calorie counter that I'll be putting to use so I can get back in bikini mode before the next long weekend. Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th!

Snow in Baghdad

I was touched by the story about the snowfall in Baghdad last week, and I had to share it with my favorite political blogger on the People's Republic of Seabrook. It seems it touched him too, and he gave me a shout out about it - yay!

Snow in Baghdad

I'm in Trouble Now...

After months of agonizing over it, I finally broke down and bought an RX-8. It is little, red, SO cute, and rides like a dream. Someone finally bought my old car, and after I test-drove this one, the decision was made for me. Now I just have to keep from getting any speeding tickets so I can afford the note! Loving the speed...

Memorial

I haven't been posting lately because this has been a trying month for me. I'd just like to take this space to memorialize a really great man, my stepdad. He lived life to the fullest, and never regretted a day he spent on this earth. He left behind a family that will miss him tremendously, but I'm so glad to have known him.

His Drag Racing Days...

A New Day

Will miracles never cease? The heat wave is finally over, and all my relatives still have their homes. Not all intact mind you, but they all still stand. As evidenced from the picture above, there are very few trees left in my grandmother's yard, since most of them landed on her house. Thankfully, she, my mom, my stepdad, my brother and his wife were all here with me "hunkering down" for the storm. I was one of the (insert adjective here) ones who decided to stay in Houston and ride it out, avoiding getting caught sitting on the freeway for countless hours in 100 degree heat with no food, bathroom, water, or gas.

We are all now one big happy family in my not-so-large accomodations until they can restore power and allow the SE Texas residents back into their homes. My place is also currently home to 2 cats and 3 dogs. I am happy to have them here, and I'm so glad they didn't stay there during the storm. We are the lucky ones, however - they know their situation is temporary, and there will be insurance money to replace the holes in their ceilings, and for the most part, almost all their belongings were spared, not scattered to the winds or looted by soulless people. It is an eye-opener to experience the previous hurricane through those who aren't as lucky. Take a look: Operation Eden

Hurricane Rita Drinking Game

Most of my family is from the Beaumont area, so I can afford to joke about it. They all made it through okay, though we don't know how everyone's homes fared. I guess we'll see when they can all return home. Until then, we are having fun watching the footage and laughing at the anchormen.

Take a sip when:
1. Anyone loses a hat while standing in 50+ mph winds.
2. Anyone loses the feed and cuts to someone who has no idea they are on TV.
3. Anyone finds someone toothless to interview about "riding out the storm"

Take a big gulp when:
1. Anyone says "hunker down"
2. Anyone says "this place is like a ghost town"
3. Geraldo Rivera finally shows up on Fox News

We are all drunk now. Happy hurricaning!

Modern Day Atlantis

It puts things into perspective when you are going through a rough period in your own life and then something like Hurricane Katrina happens right in your own area - you become less focused on your own problems, and grateful for what you do have. It is heart-wrenching to see what has happened to these people, and I'm living with it every day because most of them have come here to my city. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of you who have been affected by this tragedy, and I'm so glad to live in a city so full of people who are willing to go above and beyond to help others in need.

Whoopee cushion makes international news

It's pretty bad when they have us jumping so much that a common joke prop can make an international incident.

Sorry I haven't been posting lately - life is dealing me a bad hand right now.

What's in a Name?

Slender, delicate, soldier??? No wonder I'm confused... apparently my name is a contradiction in terms.

And here is what Googlism thinks of me... Googlism on Adina

Ever driven through Adina, TX? Take a picture and send it to me.

I'm also a cosmetic company, a line of jewelry, and a finite element analysis system. Who knew?

Selling my Car...

Know anyone that's interested? Send them this link.

Happy Birthday MOM!!

I love you!

Brand New Blog

Although I've kept my .Xanga Blog page for some time now, I'm trying out this new Blog simply because Google is awesome, and I want to support it. Also, I like the features they provide, such as being able to post as many links as I want, etc. I may keep up the other page, but hopefully I can use this as my main site, and eventually do away with the others.

Update: New blog page is working out quite well, and I'm only using the Xanga site as a reviews page. I took out the link to the Geocities page, since I feel it is unnecessary. Thanks for keeping up with me.