mas updades
So, on Sunday, there was church, of course. But we also had a little get-together in the afternoon. I made Jackie's cold spaghetti, and it came out pretty good, if I do say so myself. And it all got eaten anyway.
At the get-together, there was a softball game. It was supposed to be parents vs. teens, but even from an objective point of view, it wasn't fair at all. For one, it turned out to be parents vs. kids. Meaning we had like 6 and 7 year olds on the kids team. So IF the kids actually hit the ball, and IF they knew which direction to run in for first base, the ball was already there by the time their little feets carried them there.
Of course, for the parents team, if a parent was too *ahem* heavy to huff and puff from base to base, they could have a separate runner.
Anyway, what do I care? *whistles*
I didn't really play. By the time I got there, they game was already going. However, when most people broke to eat, a couple of us stayed on the field and practiced. I am very glad to know that I can still hit like nobody's business.
[memory]
Back in the day, maybe when I was 9 through 11, I used to play in a softball league. During that time, my family was in the house on Strickland, across the street from a driving range. Needless to say, we ended up with a bunch of golf balls in our yard. Well, my dad and I used to gather up a bunch of golf balls and use those for hitting practice. Once I got decent at hitting little bitty golfballs, hitting softballs was no sweat. I guess I got conditioned at hitting well and it still holds true, after years of not playing. I should tell my dad that, he would be pleased. ^_^
[/memory]
[memory]
And this is a cool story so I like to tell it, even though it has nothing to do with me. At a previous church get-together, another game of baseball/softball was in session. Mr. Joe Markiewicz batted. Mr. Joe is a friend of the family. When I was younger, and before he had any kids, he used to tease me, telling me that I couldn't have any boyfriends until I was thirty, and THEN he had to meet them and okay them first. :) Mr. Joe is also an avid baseball fan. He collected various baseball paraphernalia and what not, and I suppose he used to play semi-seriously. Anyway, he was batting in the game, using a metal bat, and one time he hit the ball so hard, he flippin broke the bat in half! I've heard of snapping wooden bats with some serious effort, but never metal bats!
Needless to say, I was quite impressed. Still am, I suppose. :)
[memory]
Anyway, we ate and chatted, had a meeting about the missions trip. Yep, I'm going with them this year too. Not to Tijuana, though. We're going to Lakeland, Florida. We'll be doing the same kind of stuff, but it's much cheaper and will be ESPECIALLY awesome cuz they've already got a revival going on down there. Exciting stuff. Good stuff.
Monday night I finally cooked the Chicken a la Pasqua. That was cool. That was one of the "special" dinners my mom would make, like for special occasions. Ironically, it wasn't Moma who taught me how to cook it. I would watch Moma make it, but really I was too young and it happened to infrequently for me to remember how to make it. So I got Nana to make it when I was down one summer after Moma died. And I wrote down the recipe. Gosh, that was probably when I was 15 or 16. And this was the first time I made it.
Moma always used chicken pieces with the bones, I made it was chicken tender things. And I put extra garlic salt in the batter. And it was yummy. I double dipped it too. :) I remember at least one time when Moma did that when she was making Chicken a la Pasqua. She made a big deal out of it, like it was something special. Now, I'm pretty sure she did it just to intrigue my younger mind. After the first couple of pieces, I realized that "double dipping" from egg mix to bread crumbs, make to egg mix and again to bread crumbs... it didn't make much of a difference. It just made a mess. :) And I did it anyway. Cuz it was special.
Nana also suggested that I could do the same I did to the chicken with potatoes. Moma never did that, but it didn't sound like a bad idea, so I tried that. And it was also nummy. And I ALSO tried my first attempt at steaming broccoli. And that was delicious too.
That night is where this post came from. :)
The rest of that night and early the next morning I spent time researching who I should I vote for in the primaries. I already posted some notes about that.
So after getting about 3 hours of sleep, I scuttle over to a voting place to cast my votes for the primaries! And I voted for freakin Ron Paul, gosh darn it. I know he's got like 21 delegates to McCain's 1200. But I appreciate him hanging in so that Republicans technically had a choice. Honestly, Democrats get all the drama. LOL. Not that I mind. It was an easy choice for me. And although it's unrealistic, I would prefer Ron Paul be president rather than anyone else vying for the position.
I managed to annoy myself at the voting place, though. After all the researching I did and hours of sleep I went without, I managed to NOT research a position! I just didn't realize the position existed. The lack of local voting info is saddening.
And instead of choosing the person with the best name (which apparently, some people do, wtf), I just left it blank. Oh well.
And all day I was asking people if they had voted yet. I shocked by the amount of people who responded, "No," and said that they had no intention to vote. Aaron (from work), who I'm guessing is a registered Republican, said that there was no point because McCain was going to win it one way or another. Well, fine, if you want to look at it that way. But when I asked him what about the local primaries, he had forgotten about the local stuff. And he wasn't the only one! I asked people who said they wouldn't vote because there was no point, "What about the local stuff?? Governors, senators, representatives?" People just hadn't thought about that. UGH.
Pisses me off. Perhaps more than so I'm entitled to be pissed off. Maybe it's a good thing. The people who don't care, don't vote, and then my vote counts more because it's not washed out by everything else's.
*snort*
Yeah right.
My second reasoning to these people who shrug about voting is that we've got the right to vote. We might as well use it while we still got it. You never know when it's going to go away. Cutie from the cafe mentioned that I had a good point. (I should write more about cutie... That's for another post though.)
Anyway, here's who I voted for and who ended up winning. Really, I'm recording these for my own benefit. To see if I'll be kicking myself later on. :P
- N.C. Court of Appeals (Wynn seat)
James A. Wynn (The guy who's already there. I want to reelect him.) ~ James A. Wynn
- M.C. Court of Appeals (Tyson seat)
Kristin Ruth ~ Sam J. Ervin, IV (not my second choice, but whatever)
- U.S. Senator
Elizabeth Dole (the guy who was running against her was a joke) ~ Elizabeth Dole
- Governor
Pat McCrory ~ Pat McCrory
- Lieutenant Governor
Jim Snyder ~ Robert Pittenger (he was my second choice... however there was a specific reason for my choosing Snyder... that I can't remember at this point. Maybe it's in my notes... Oh well, doesn't matter now.)
- N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction
Eric H. Smith ~ Richard Morgan (Again, Morgan was my second choice, but there was a specific reason I chose Smith.)
- U.S. House District 4
William (B.J.) Lawson ~ William (B.J.) Lawson
Not bad.
That night, Carrie and I watched M*A*S*H! :D
On Wednesday morning, I brought my car in to the Infiniti place. I love going there because they give me really spiffy loaner cars for no charge while my car is getting looked at. However, in the afternoon, I got some bad news that made me just want to pitch a fit. First of all, when I brought it in, there were TWO codes from the check engine light. One was something about a park neutral safety switch, whatever the heck that means. Cost of repair, about $250. The second code was for the EGR valve, which I knew about. Apparently, when they replaced the EGR valve almost a year ago, they THOUGH that would solve the problem, but it didn't. They would have to dig in there and clean out stuff and try to figure out where the problem was coming from. Cost of labor just to see what was wrong with it (not including parts) was going to be able $600.
Angie was not pleased. At all. After a few minutes of contemplation and reflection, I called the Infiniti people back and told them I'd bring the car BACK to the transmission place, since the the park netural safety switch definitely sounds like a transmission thing. I'd figure out the other thing once this was taken care of.
So I went to pick my car up and headed to church.
Normally on Wednesday nights, I'm in the soundbooth while the other leaders take turns on the stage making announcements, doing tithes and offerings, or whatever. Well, for whatever reason, Janet had me down on the schedule to do announcements. That's cool, I don't get stage fright or anything with this group. So I abandoned my post in the back of the room and came up front to give the announcements. And the teens started cheering for me. Some of them stood up and started hooting! I know they were probably just goofing off, but it made me feel loved and acknowledged. :)
*warm fuzzies*
After church, I joined Tom, Athena, Raimel, Allie, and Antoine for bowling. I bowled pretty well... I beat Tom and Antoine for the most part anyway.
After bowling, Athena and Tom came back to the apartment and we chatted for a bit.
So Thursday morning, I brought my car back to the transmission place. They determined that the parts would cost about $125, but they wouldn't charge for labor. Sounds good to me. But they have to order the part and it'll take away.
Great, fine. I'd like some time between spending significant amounts of money. :P
Anyway, I noticed that they had reset the check light engine. And then I noticed that it was still off when I got to my office. And I went out to lunch with some of the guys (managing to get somewhat lost) and came back without the check engine light coming on. Hmm... At that point, I was at about 25 miles...
So when I got back from lunch, I got excited about it and told the guys I was "running an errand". LOL, you could say that. I was driving around Raleigh, trying to get some more miles on my car. Which is sick because gas is ridiculous.
Anyway, had someone been tracking me by satelite, they would've been puzzled. Cuz I was circling Raleigh, driving in circles and smaller circles, spiraling until I ended up with 50 miles on my car and landed at the Meineke place that I like.
Man, the closer I got to 50 miles, the more stressed out I was feeling. The closer I got to 50 miles, the more pissed off I would've been had the check engine light turned on. And I was prayin, lol. Praying over my car! And why not?
And...
IT WORKED! I got to the Meineke place, told them I needed to get my car inspected, so they inspected away, and IT PASSED. IT EFFIN PASSED!!! They weren't even going to fail my windshield wipers. And they were falling apart. After he said my car passed, I asked him specifically about the windshield wipers. Upon further inspection, he agreed they needed to be replaced and so he replaced them. As I was paying for the inspection and wipers, he chatted with me.
"So, do you have exams?"
"Actually, I'm graduated!"
"Ah, so you don't have all that stuff to stress you out."
"Nope, just my car."
"Well, if that's all, then this must be a good day." and he handed me my receipt and grinned at me.
He had no idea! This was a great day! And don't *really* have to worry about my car for another year. I figure I'll go ahead and fix the nonsense that is still left over before it makes things worse. But I can do like one thing per paycheck or whatever and not have worry about it.
*sigh of relief*
Ironically, after that was done with, I felt exhausted. Like I finally let myself relax and I was suddenly very tired. It probably helped that I had stayed up all night with the primary stuff. I called Jackie and told her I wouldn't be much help with the girls' math tonight. I'd probably end up cranky and impatient. She said that was fine that we'd just take a break this week.
I was crazy tired, but I still wanted to celebrate. So on my way home, I stopped by McDonald's and got myself a hot fudge sundae and a sweet tea with extra ice. And they were YUMMY.
When I got home, I reveled in the fact that I had a TV and simultaneously had no plans on Thursday night. I plopped on the couch and watched Ugly Betty (still <3 Christopher Gorham), Grey's Anatomy (drama flying EVERYWHERE), and Lost (EEEEEEEE!!). After that, I watched A Knight's Tale. Heath Ledger was so hot. :( The rest of the movie was pretty much WTF. This is supposed to take place during medieval times, right? Why was the chick constantly wearing clothes that would be fashionable NOW? That bugged me. And I can buy modern rock music in the score of the movie, but when the characters started DANCING to it... that bugged me too. :P
Then I went to effing bed.
I woke up the next morning, stressed, trying to remember if I needed to take my car anywhere that morning. And I remembered that it had passed inspection. And I squeed and went back to sleep.
And was late for work. Whoops.