Are you Siri-ous??

     So I finally decided to jump on the bandwagon and become an iPhone user. I really needed a new phone because my Droid was having what I called "phone seizures". I am not sure if a button was getting stuck or if it was trying to do an update or what. The phone would start cycling through different screens and contacts and would not quit until the battery was removed. Also, on the droid, it wasn't staying charged as long as it used to. The final funny thing that my droid did was when my family was sitting at the dining room table for our Thanksgiving meal and I think it was my Mom or Dad who asked, "Who wants to say grace?" Right on cue I got a text or email and my phone said, "Droid."


        As an early Christmas gift this year I got the iPhone 4S. So far , my favorite feature is "Siri" the talking assistant. Just yesterday I told Siri "I love you." and it replied "I hope you don't say that to other phones!" Then I asked her if she would marry me and she said no because she didn't know who I was. Apparently I needed to identify myself in my contact list on my phone. Tonight I asked her if she could change a diaper after one of my Facebook friends said she wished that Siri could. I asked my Siri and her reply was "I don't know what you mean by 'Can you change a diaper for me.' " Just now my friend Jennifer had told her's "You are the wind beneath my wings" and Siri said "I am?" then Jennifer said yes and then Siri said "I thought so!" 


       Siri is also good with reminding me to do things, which is perfect for me and my short term memory. I can tell her what I need to remember and when she should remind me. Her reminders always arrive on time. She is my equivalent of Jem's  Synergy. Synergy was a holographic computer system that created realistic holograms of virtually anything using special star-shaped earrings, Synergy transformed Jerrica into the glamorous pop singer, Jem when she would say, "Showtime Synergy!"  Just now I tried "Showtime Siri" and all she told me were movie times for the nearest theaters..

So I guess one day we will be going from this:

To this:

       

Like I chose to have 2 major surgeries back to back.....

Well it looks like our last apartment complex didn't appreciate our cleaning before we moved out. The only reason we lived in that particular apartment in our old complex is because 2 years ago I had a heart valve replaced and then my shunt replaced. I also had the Chiari Malformation which for a while had messed up my coordination on  stairs. The nice landlord that we had at the time let us move from the upstairs apartment we lived in to one on the ground level.
       I guess our first mistake was not having to go through all the formalities of renting a new apartment. We payed a $200 deposit for the ground level apartment and got $000 back when we moved out. There was a new landlord when we moved out. She was the one that didn't know how to change a light bulb and lost 2 months or more of our rent payments. I would have written this blog entry sooner, but I was giving that complex the benefit of the doubt and thought they'd actually get a check to us.
       Again, because the move was so sudden back then we did not go through all the formalities of signing a brand new lease, nor did we have any paperwork in our possession. Jason wasn't really surprised that we never got our money back. ..... 

Why don't you just send Ronnie the bill?

Well folks, do you recall in my last entry how the phone company told me that in 2 weeks our name should be on the caller ID? GUESS WHAT? It still hasn't changed. We are still hearing from people we call that our name shows up as "Ronnie Murphy". Did he agree to pay our bill? They also advertise a "whole house" DVR. We are supposed to be able to start watching in one room and be able to start where we left off in another room. That didn't work for us either. We ended up messing with some wires that the installer put in and finally got rid of an error called "ocap" I think they left an "R" out. (o-crap).
       Next, I was at a friend's house the other night trying to connect wirelessly to their internet, and it wouldn't connect. I never had that problem with our last ISP.  Shouldn't we be exempt from paying the bill or at least get a discount? Speaking of bills, lately we've been getting mail for other past residents. At least we can recycle paper. Does your city charge you to recycle? We recently discovered ours does. We thought it'd be the other way around. Can we forward the bill to Ronnie?

Unlucky Technology...

     So we finally get settled into our new place and then we'd like to get our TV, phone, and internet hooked up. We only have a couple options here and I'm beginning to wonder why we stuck with the one that we did. First they kept "losing" our order for new service. Then instead of putting our appointment back on the original date, they kept moving it back!! (Like it was our fault and not their's that the appointment had disappeared.) I'm sure they've never had to go 3 weeks without cable, phone, or internet.
      Once we get it hooked up finally, there were several "hidden charges" in the bill and the technician had brought us the wrong modem. Again apparently it "must have been our fault" that all this happened because we had to argue with the customer service rep to get it fixed. So finally I use modern technology and social media to contact/ complain. I tweeted our final issue about the caller ID showing a different name and was told every 48 hours for the past 6 days that the name had been changed to mine and it would take 24-48 hours to correct it. The tech always initialed what he said, so tonight I knew I was talking to the same guy who changed the time that the caller ID would take to change up to 2 weeks!!! Why tell me 48 hours before? So I'm not really sure if it will now be 2 weeks from today that it will be fixed (yeah right). So if "Ronnie Murphy" calls you.... answer.... it will be me or Jason.
            So that was one technology problem that I'm having. The other is my cell phone. The apps are starting to crash before they're opened and I've restarted my phone several times. I guess I'll have to do a hard reset.... GRRRR!!!! WHY!!!!

Adventures in moving across town….

This has to be the craziest move that my husband and I have been through. We had been through one other “across city” move, but I guess we were more organized for that one. Also we were more organized when we moved across a complex. Speaking of that complex that we moved across, that is the one we left, and that was a major part of the moving headache.

We lived in that complex for 4 years even when Jason was unemployed for over a year, and we still managed to pay rent every month early or on time. The landlord that was there the majority of the time we were unfortunately got cancer and had to quit. Since then she has had at least 3 replacements. The first one we will call “the ditz”.  The ditz didn’t know what she was doing half the time and I think she even lost our rent check for a couple hours. She did not last long there at all.

The next lady I will refer to as the “Wicked Witch.” She had given me attitude about a maintenance request that I had turned in when our breezeway lights were out. We had to carry a flashlight around for several weeks just to get to and from our apartment and car. Really how long does it take to change a light bulb or call an electrician?

The third lady was a charm….. Actually the opposite.  At the end of May we turned in our rent for June and our 60 day notice, which she copied and initialed for us. The plan is to be totally out by August 1. At the end of June we turned in our FINAL rent check for this month. A few days ago after the movers had moved all our big stuff, we came back here to pick up more boxes that were still here when we were greeted by the landlord and the 2 bosses above her. She asked us if we had moved out. DUH!!! Then she asked us where July’s rent was.  I had dropped it in the “drop off” slot in the wall like we had a few times in the past since Jason works nights.  Then she wanted to see copies of the money order receipt and our 60 day notice. She was shocked when we brought it back so quickly. Later we found out that someone did cash the money order. Then the next day she calls us about JUNE’S RENT!!! We had gotten that money order through our bank, so they had record of our purchasing it and, here is the shocker, THEY CASHED IT!!! Magically after all that grief, she found them in her records… Even though we don’t want to, we still plan on cleaning our old place in hopes that we get our deposit back…. We are not holding our breath though. The rent for there 2/1 that we had there is around what we got for our nicer 3 bed 1 and ¾ bath here. We also have a garage, yard, and w/d connections (3 more things the other place didn’t have.)

So we are obviously in a better place now. The move was interesting. Our big stuff got here, but a leg fell off our armoire, and one of the guys fixed it, but took longer that expected to return it. Also our storage style headboard was to big to get upstairs.  We had a very few minor issues with the actual house, and then a 3 week wait for home phone/tv/ and internet.  The way I see it, the lack of technology was just less distractions while unpacking.

That concludes our adventures in moving across town….e-mail me if you need our new contact info.

Moving.......UGH!!!

Although we probably have over 1/2 our stuff packed and ready to go, or over at the new place, it sure doesn't feel like it. I am ready to have it all over with though. Next time we get the keys to anywhere we will be living we will make sure we schedule the setting up of Jason's life support... I mean the internet and TV service.... EARLY. Once again we really only have a couple of options and the one we went with keeps "misplacing" our order for their services. The first lady we talked to said she'd try to get us set up on the 12th or 13th.... instead of letting us know that she couldn't, we ended up calling back only to get pushed back 2 whole weeks!!!!
       I told them that with my medical issues, that I was not comfortable being without a land-line for that long. So now every day in the morning I will have to call and hope that someone will cancel their order so that we can have their spot.
        I wonder what they will do when we send them our original order sheet. Will they feel guilty? Probably not, but I can dream right?

Good riddance apartment!!!!

 Jason and I are done with apartments! We lived here for 4 years and I think it was last year when our landlord got cancer and since then this complex has gone to Hell. (no nicer way to put it.) Ever since she left we've been through like 5 landlords and nothing gets done if you call in a matinence request.
    When I had my medical issues we had moved from an apartment in this same complex on the 2nd floor down to a first floor apartment under people that argue a lot. This apartment has had a lot of leaking problems and at one point our breezeway light was out and we had to carry a flashlight around every time we left or came home... speaking of coming and going, the parking here is HORRIBLE....not enough spots in front of our building.
     So our lease is up and we gave our 60 day notice. We found a 2 story duplex for rent with 3 bedrooms and a bath and 1/2. One spare room will be my scrapbook/family research room and the other will be Jason's "Man cave". Right now those rooms are combined... not working. We will also have washer dryer connections and a mailbox attached to our building that the mailman will actually pick up mail from. And last but not least it has a garage.... no more carrying groceries in the rain for us...
         Now the fun task of moving..... packing and unpacking......

New (Rent) Home Search.....

After 4 years in our current apartment complex, we've decided we are ready to move on. More space is a must!! Lately Jason claims that my scrapbook stuff is taking up space in his "man cave", I think it is the other way around ;-) We also want a larger master bath and at least one and  1/2 or another full bath. Lately I've been wondering how we ever survived in our first place together which was a studio apartment (basically a hotel room with a kitchenet,)
    If it hadn't been for my health issues over the past couple years, we would have stayed upstairs. I thought being downstairs would be great so that some of my friends could come visit....wrong!!! They put us in one unit in our building that has 2 steps up to the front door. We got stuck under a couple that fights a lot,  and another family that thinks the breezeway in our building is their own personal space.  We'd like our own personal space, a yard for a small dog or 2, and our own parking space!!! (Garage or carport) The parking spaces here are not assigned, and some people think it's ok to park over the line.
     Speaking of misplaced car parts. Some lady thought it was a good idea to place a shiny metal CAR HOOD on her balcony. The purpose of that wasn't just to get on our nerves I don't think... but every afternoon guess where it shines? She also has a larger breed dog. When we first moved to this unit, I heard her in her old lady southern accent talking to her dog, " GOOO PEEEE!!!" (short pause) "I said, GOOO PEEEE!!!" Jason and I gave her the nic-name "The Go Pee Lady".
        Lastly, we are ready to be a 1 to 1 ratio as far as tenant/ landlord goes. I think it's safe to say if someone that owns a house but is renting it out, they'd still like to keep the place more than  halfway decent looking. Ever since our favorite landlord here had to leave for medical reasons, this place has gone downhill and has been through about as many managers as years that we've lived here. Is it August 1st yet?
     

Carpal Tunnel Relief

As you may or may not know, I've suffered from both carpal tunnel and ganglion cyst in my left wrist.  I have had a total of 6 surgeries to correct this problem. Due to all the surgery I had scar tissue buildup that has caused carpal tunnel like symptoms.
      Not to long ago, I was going to go for surgery #7 at the "Brown Hand Center". The doctor I saw there was way to quick to want to cut me open and operate. Since I was born with a heart condition I needed to get clearance from my cardiologist before any surgery. I also need to stop my blood thinner like a week before. To my surprise, this doctor at the Brown Hand Center did NOT get clearance from my cardiologist nor did he have me stop my blood thinner!!! So I didn't show up for surgery ;-)
      A few weeks later I was introduced to a representative from the Dynasplint Jaw and Carpal Tunnel division. I told him what I have told you in this blog so far and he said that the device could break up the scar tissue! When I told him that I would need a list of orthopedic docs that could write me a prescription for one, he suggested that I just go to my pcp, because another ortho doc might be quick to want to do surgery.
     So now a few weeks later after getting all the necessary paperwork and doctors notes, I have been using my dynasplint  for almost a week now. So far I have not needed my wrist brace as much and it doesn't hurt in the different weather situations as it had in the past. The video above shows how it works.

I met my husband a decade ago...

    It looks like I already wrote about how I "picked out" my husband on AOL instant messenger 10 years ago. Today marks the 10th anniversary of the day we met in person for the first time.   My friend Jenny U. had gone up to the Chili's in Grapevine with me to meet him. This was one time I was glad that I had lied to my parents because I don't think, "Mom, I am going to Chili's to meet this guy that I have never met before but have been talking to on the internet." would have worked for my Mom. (Even though I was 22 at the time.) Jason and I were both very shy, so my friend Jenny had to ask us questions to get us talking. Later people who noticed that we were both shy would comment on the fact that it was "amazing" that we met and talked to each other at all.
         I always make remarks in my head when I see commercials for E-Harmony.com and other dating sites. Maybe one of thos sites  worked for you, but I took a risk and met my husband for free. We are friends with a couple that dated off and on a few times before they got married. Jason and I think it's funny that as long as he knew the guy and I knew the girl, we never met each other before April 7th 2001. The important thing is, we have been together for the past 10 years...I love you Jason!!!

8 years married!!!

Jason and I were married 8 years ago today. I had "picked him out" using the  find a buddy feature on AOL instant messenger. I just typed in that I wanted to browse males, between the ages of 22 and 27 in Fort Worth Tx. His screen name was one of a few that popped up. Then I saw that he was offline at the time but I had left him a message briefly describing myself. We then ended up writing and chatting back and forth on AOL. About a month later we decided to meet in person. I was 22 and still lived with my parents, so I took a friend with me to go meet him. I told my parents that I was just going out to eat lunch with my friend who later acted like a mediator on the date since Jason and I were both very shy.
     Two days later we met for lunch by ourselves... Within a week or so I finally told my parents that my friend had introduced me to him. Then I had him pick me up at my parents house. My sister was 9 at the time and she immediately asked him what his last name was... When he replied "Lee" She said "Kimberly Lee ..... THAT SOUNDS FUNNY!!" I though Jason would turn around and run out the door!!! But he didn't. He understood that she was only 9 and attempting to be cute.
                So we continued to date and after a misunderstanding with my parents, I moved in with him.Then 1 year 4 months later we were at my cousin Melissa's wedding in Virginia Beach. At the reception he caught the garter and I caught the bouquet. It was a sign... On our flight back to Texas, Jason was wanting to get me to stand up so he could get down on his knee and propose. I didn't stand up, so he had to think of another way.

   So he borrowed my palm pilot and  found the date 3/22/03. Then he typed "My wedding" and handed it back to me... I thought he had someone else's palm pilot!!! While I was staring at it he pulled my Grandmother's 50th wedding anniversary ring off my right hand and then put it on my left hand. Of course I said yes.

After we landed Mom picked us up and asked how the flight went. I kinda shook my left hand and said "This guy proposed to this girl and she said yes!!" Mom did not catch on... so we walked over to baggage claim and Mom finally asked me what the ring was doing on my left hand... I just said, "Remember that couple on the plane that I told you about....."

Tweet vs. status update

I decided to give Twitter a shot. I get that your supposed to share random thoughts facts or feelings and can reply to others, but I am not sure that I am doing it right. (the replying part anyway). I am supposed to put different symbols in front of  Twitter ID's to reply or mention another person (I think). Anyway if you are reading this and know what I am talking about... HELP!!!
    Is Facebook not "in" anymore? I can spot status' and comments no problem...To me Facebook is more direct to your friends and vice versa. Am I right?

Random thoughts (by someone who woke up too early)

       1)    Is it just my brain, or do you have extremely weird memories from your childhood also?  Maybe it is being in the neighborhood that I grew up in, or maybe being here turns me back into a child and sends my brain back there as well. For example, I was in a bathroom at a friends house, and when I was younger, another friend and I had seen something through the shower's frosty door that was probably something to do with the lighting or whatever, but to us we saw a "black cloakey  looking shadow, and from then on, that bathroom had a "ghost".

       2)   Right now my husband and I do not have any pets.  Maybe that is why while I was eating breakfast and my friend's cat started chasing a rubber band around the floor, I started cracking up.

       3) I wore this shirt yesterday and my friend's Grandmother thought it was a Coke shirt:

4) Well, it's 3:24 pm... I am still awake! (But my brain isn't.)

Now it's 6:49 and my brain is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

Old Room.....Old memories

Ok...well this isn't my old room exactly, but I am visiting a friend who lives in another one of my friend's old house. The room that I am staying in belonged to the "another" friend....Did you get that?
Anyway this room always reminds me of specific memories from my childhood. One memory was when I spent the night in this room as a child and the girl who lived here had a stuffed gorilla. I had woken up thinking that the gorilla was a whole gorilla's hand and he was trying to grab me!!! Another memory was when I set off their motion detector when I got up to get a glass of water. My memories are very random. How about this one the very first family had 2 sons....the one that had this room used to have some sort of electronic football game that looked like a football field. Very high tech for the early 1980's. I also have several memories from way back about the current family...one big one was dinner with a teenage crush.... Hmm I wonder if I will be able to nap now....

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How many maintenance men does it take to screw in a light-bulb?

      No, unfortunately I do not mean for that title to be a joke. I guess sometimes it's nice to rent and sometimes it's not. It is nice to be renting when something big that needs repaired happens, and we are not financially responsible for the repair cost......but on the other hand, sometimes it's annoying to wait on the small stuff to be fixed.....all we can do as tenants is turn in a piece of paper or  make a phone call and cross our fingers that it'll be taken care of sooner rather than later.
         ONE LIGHT-BULB PEOPLE!!!! With the hours we are awake now, we need lights to see. Now the checklist as we go anywhere... purse...check....cell phone...check....keys....check....FLASHLIGHT......<sigh> check.....Really???  No, we aren't camping (although the surroundings might fool you.) That is just what we need to take with us now. What really gets me is that the maintenance man lives in our building. Maybe he eats more carrots than we do, but he also has to have trouble seeing at night I would think...
         Jason would go out and change the bulb himself if it didn't have a spotlight type casing around it, plus we don't own many tools or a stepladder. In the time it is taking me to write this blog, the light bulb could have been changed. Just the one light-bulb in our breezeway.  Oh yeah... when we did actually have snow and ice here in Texas, our breezeway was pitch black. I realize the maintenance man could have slipped, but there are ways to get rid of snow and ice. Anyway, I feel that we've been more that a little patient. This will be request 4 or 5....I've lost count...

Who do you think you are??

That show on TV always inspires me to want to work on my family tree. I am up to 834 people, 17 generations,  and 332 different surnames!! The earliest birth I have is in the year 1435 that belongs to my 14th Great Grandfather on my paternal grandfather's branch. The research has been interesting and fun...
      Speaking of research, today I have been stuck on finding the date of my Great Grandmother's 2nd wedding. I was very surprised to find her name, and my Grandmother's on a census that was taken after my Great Grandfather had passed away, but listed my Great Grandmother as married, and showed my Grandmother as the head of household's step-daughter. I would have never thought to look for that information had I not received an email from ancestry.com with the "ancestry hint" leading me to that census.....

         Good grief!!! It's been 20 minutes since I finished that last paragraph. I had gone back to my tree looking for more ancestry hints.... I did find some hints for my husband's side of the tree. One tree had his Great Grandfather on it. After searching the tree, I figured out that the lady who made it is a very distant cousin to Jason. There were a few other trees also....

   I am also waiting to get more stuff in the mail from my Uncle Bob to help with my Mom's family's branches. I'm a little worried about our lack of mail lately though. Three whole days without mail....Who does he think he is??? (He= the mail man)

Family, Friends, and (Mess)-Up's

I'll let you guess what I wanted to say in place of  (Mess).....

Today I received an e-mail from a cousin of my Dad's step-cousin... Yes, you can read that again if you need to. My Dad's Aunt Laura had a son from a previous marriage.  I had written her after I found my Dad's Aunt and Uncle on her page. It's amazing how many connections that I have made since I've started my research. I now talk to distant cousins on both my Mom's and Dad's sides of the family. It's really neat to find out what traits run in the family.

After more family research and trying to make connections, I called my friend Jennifer. We chatted on Skype for like 2 hours.The pictures below are not in order....

I was feeling dorky:

Screen on screen on screen on screen....

 I am drinking out of a glass...Jennifer just took the picture.

    Those are the latest "Skype Bloopers"... I have an album with that same name on my Facebook page. 

SPEAKING OF BLOOPERS.....

               Shortly after I signed off skype I knocked over my Dr Pepper and spilled it on our "coffee table" tray.   That was so much fun to clean up..... NOT!!  The tray is plastic though, so it wasn't too bad. 

    My last thought of the day is that I'm getting old. One of my sister's friends, that I think I've known since they were in preschool or kindergarten turned 20 tod- (well technically yesterday.) That means that it won't be too long till Haley is 20.....<felt a gray hair sprout up on my head>. 

        Well now it's time to catch up on my DVRed shows...

    

Digging Up Dead People....

Were you just thinking to yourself, "WHHHHAAATTT??" I saw that on a friend's Facebook status and couldn't figure it out myself. She was referring to tracing her family tree. I have been actively been tracing both my Mom's and Dad's sides of my tree for around 2 years or so. Before I got on ancestry.com I would just randomly Google a n ancestors name or  two..... I actually came across a website that had one set of my Great Great Grandparents on my Dad's Mom's branch of the tree!! I had written the moderator of that site and have kept in touch with her and her daughter on Facebook. More recently I found a group on Facebook researching that surname and found a guy that shares 3 generations of the same relatives ending 2 or 3 generations back....He resembled my Dad a bit...

       Speaking of my Dad, his Grandmother Beulah (pictured above) is who I get my looks from. I had discovered that I looked like her a few years ago when we received more old family photos.I always wondered what she was like as a person.... Just how strong is the Brown (Beulah's maiden name) family DNA.... I have a picture of my Grandmother Ruth, Beulah's daughter, when she was a child. I found a picture of myself around the same age and compaired... very similar features...One day a couple months ago my Dad even blurted out "You look like my Mom" when I was posing for a picture with Jason.

       But on the other hand, a few weeks ago, my Mom told me that I reminded her of her Mom... my Grandma Kate. That was based on how I have my recliner in my living room. So what if I have a TV tray next to it with evrything I think I will need for a while on it, ie. remote, nail file, kleenex, drink holder, trashbag, etc.... What can I say.... Grandma Kate was a smart lady!!  I've had luck on my Mom's side of the tree thanks to a copy of my Grandma Kate's family tree that one Uncle loaned me, and 2 CD roms of pictures from my Mom's side of the family that I got from another Uncle. I love this old wedding photo!!! (My Grandparents on the right)

       One mystery that I do hope to solve is how exactly Jack Haley (The Tin Man from The Wizard of OZ) is related to my Mom's family.   Rumor has it, and My Mom told me, that when she was growing up she had always heard that Jack Haley was her Dad's cousin. I haven't been able to find the names of his parents, but I do know that his real name was John Joseph Haley. There is a John Haley who was my Great Grand Uncle that I could see possibly being "Jack" Haley's father...

 They make it look sooo much easier on the show "Who Do You Think You Are"......

    

I'm BAAAAAACCCCCKKKKK!!!!!

  I had totally forgotten that I had this account set up back when I still had my card business going, oh well. Now the question is, What should I write about? Today as been alright so far. Jason and I really miss our former landlord though. The new one that replaced her is not as personable as our last one. For example, we were able to talk about our day, my health issues and general stuff like friends and neighbors normally do. Visiting this new landlord is like going to the Principal's office (not that I know what that is really like.) I understand that maintenance request have been piling up because of the recent winter storms. I won't go into too much detail, but what I will say is that small jobs that could be fixed in a shorter time than the large ones and could affect the safety of a tenant should be dealt with in a shorter time than 4 days.
      Jason and I now have to run our errands  in the late afternoon and evening. I guess it's the former "Front End Supervisor" in me, but lately I've noticed more and more employees at different places not working on the clock. Today I noticed 1 regular register, an express lane, and all self checkouts open. There were only 2 cashiers and 4 slackers.... I mean sackers. There were at least 4 customers ahead of us in our line and the same in the express lane. My experience told me that they should have been calling for back-up cashiers. Of course we got to hear all about "Johnny" and "Lisa's" weekend and what they will be doing on their next day off...
        Don't get me started on the amount of expired items that I've found on the shelves. Today we actually didn't see any (shocking) expired food, and we had gone to 2 different stores. I really hope that I'm not borring my readers too much. After the trip to the first store we saw our landlord and I kid you not I heard the music for the Wicked Witch of the West as she flew ....I mean drove by on her broom... I mean in her car....
           Now it's time to spend quality time with my husband... Thanks for reading!!