Collection of Thoughts

I'm discontinuing my Livejournal. Please view my blog and photo album on my new website:

http://missyjanecke.com/

Keith called me today, telling me that we have been cut off from grandpa's trust. QQ n00b, I know. It's really not a big deal, the money, that is. Last year, that money went towards the wedding, and this year it went to paying off debts. It's not like we NEED that money, but it definitely accelerates things.

It bothers me that he never told us that we were being cut off from it, and why. Could be for a billion reasons. My brother had to contact my uncle to find out what was going on, because he didn't get his check for his birthday this year.

If you've been following this drama, you know that my mom does not approve of him living with his girlfriend in Reno and showering her and her family with money (we think, buying their love). The money he is throwing around and revoking from half of his family is money that his late wife, our grandma, contributed to make. Mom feels it is a dishonor to her memory, the way he is behaving in the last couple of years. Cutting us, her offspring, out of the trust is one way to get back at her, I suppose.

Also, our family doesn't talk to each other much. It's not that we don't care about the rest of our family, but if you're not in front of our faces all the time, we generally don't talk much, unless we have a reason to. I don't even talk to my parents or brother "just because"... or most people, for that matter, actually. Perhaps he's punishing us because we don't talk to him. Well, I have news for him, the street goes both ways! I would hope that if someone wanted to know how I was doing, they've contact me. At least I sent him a Father's Day card.

If he wishes to play the role of the tyrannical patriarch of the family, who uses money to manipulate people, then he's welcome to. I want no part of his drama. Like I said, I could care less about "losing" this money, it's his attitude that bothers me the most.

I <3 my neighbors :)

I'm filling out my first ever "employee review". I'm scared, a little intimidated about the feedback/criticism I'll receive.

One thing I found was interesting was the discussion about my "long-term career goals". I think it's a part of society's expectations that you "climb the corporate ladder". Just like society expects you to get married and have children. All of it is optional.

I don't have to have kids. Hell, I didn't have to get married. But I chose to get married, and we have chosen NOT to have kids. I have also made the choice NOT to climb the corporate ladder.

When I was a little girl, I wanted to program, not to be a manager. I still want to program, and I couldn't imagine giving that up just to get stressed out and boss people around. I'm ridiculously critical of people I have to manage (I've realized this from my office manager position I was in during high school, and from having been in "leadership" position while playing cooperative video games).

I already realize that I'm unfit to be a mother, I know I'm unfit to be a leader. I don't want that kind of responsibility.

I'm destined to be a worker-bee for the rest of my life because that's what I enjoy. Being a cute little code monkey. :)

My other grandma (dad's mom) passed away early yesterday morning.

She'd been sick for a while. Pulmonary fibrosis was the diagnosis I think. They operated, and thought she was going to recover, but she slipped backwards instead, and had problems breathing for the last couple of weeks. My grandpa emailed all of us to tell us of her peaceful passing.

I guess I've been lucky. Both of them were very sick, so coming to terms with their death was relatively easy compared to dealing with a sudden death. However, it was very depressing and painful watching and hearing about their suffering.

And the ironic thing? I've had friends who had children at the same time (or near the same time), my grandmas have passed.

James and I went to Victor's Coffee to get some coffee. While we were waiting for his drink, he and I were the only ones in the cafe besides a mom with her two daughters; one was about 8, the other, maybe 11.

The eight-year-old grabbed a handful of the colorful neon straws provided and proceeded to wipe them all over her face as she walked back to her mom, who sent her away telling her to put them back. The mom was too engrossed in her book to noticed her daughter had wiped her face all over the straws. Besides, why would you want to put straws back that you have already handled? But the girl did put the straws back... in the holder... even after she wiped them all over her face.

I exclaimed, rather loudly (the mom must have heard me), "Did you just see what that little girl did? She wiped those straws all over her face and put them back."

Mom did nothing. Sat there, read her book. Ignored me, ignored her kids.

At least I told the baristas about what the girl did so they could dispose of the straws.

Good lord. Kids aren't entertained in a coffee shop. Take them to the park down the street and let them play in the park while you read your book.

* The janitors (maybe their kids?) have destroyed my African violet at work over the last week. Since I wasn't physically at work on Friday, I missed the fact that the whole root had been picked, despite my note stuck above it stating: "STOP PICKING THIS PLANT". Everything they picked off it was left on our guest chair next to it. Fuck you.

* Someone from the Saxony builders is going to be out today and see about getting the numbers stenciled in on our parking spots. I don't know if that's lip service, but if it isn't done by Friday, I will be following up with them about it.

* If you haven't seen Pirates yet, 1) make sure you pee beforehand, 2) sit through the credits to see the last scene. If you're like me, and had to pee really bad and missed the last scene, check this out. If you don't like spoilers, don't click the link :)

UPDATE: YouTube link to final scene: http://youtube.com/watch?v=b5FI4ZnHhnA

Black Mercedes, 425 VHO.

Fuck you.

UPDATE: Apparently, since the property management company has failed to number the parking spaces on this side of the property, no one can tow unauthorized vehicles from their parking spot. Grrrrr...

Cool article about my brother's job in Lawrence, Kansas:

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/may/22/birds_eye_view/

Last night, we were suppose to meet up with Ariana for happy hour at Ruth's Chris in Bellevue. We get there, and it's pretty packed. There was a back room open and no one was sitting there. I asked a waitress if we could sit there. She said yes. Before I could even sit down, another waitress said, "You can't sit there!" I protested and said I asked another waitress and she said they would need to wait for another server to come down before that room could be opened.

Richard and I stood against a wall like tools. I overheard the waitress tell another patron who was waiting that it would be another half an hour before anyone could sit in the next room. Richard noticed that some people were leaving at another table, and when I approached the empty table, I heard, "That's our table!" I said that the people there just left, and he said, "I made a deal with them..." That's when I said "fuck it" and left.

No one came to help us while were there. No one offered to put our name on a list. No one offered us drinks. Screw them and their crappy service. Despite how much I like their happy hour, I will never go there again.

Then we came home and discovered a jackass was parked in my spot. I wasn't driving because I was livid, but I told Richard to box them in. The person who parked there has been parking around Saxony a LOT. I've seen them all over the place, so they KNOW that that spot belongs not to them. There's even the words RESERVED painted on it.

BLUE JETTA, license: 594 THB

Richard decided to move my car behind our garage just so I wouldn't get towed, and then he called the towing company. He had to leave a message, and no one ever called him back that night. I went out and left a message on their car telling them it was reserved and not to park there again.

This morning, the car was still there. I called the towing company, and they said they never got the message, but they would come out in about 90 minutes and get the car. 45 minutes later, the jackass moved. It was some guy, but that's all I saw. He just moved his car to over by the mailboxes, probably in someone else's spot, where I've seen him park sometimes.

If he's smart, he won't park in my spot again. I'll call the tow company, and I'll hope that they'll be quicker about getting here to pick up that shit's car.

Fucking assholes.

I haven't updated my journal in over a month. So here are some highlights:

My birthday was last month. Didn't do much, except dinner with friends and family. Richard got me the game Viva Pinata. It's a ridiculously cute game.

I've been pretty bored at work lately. Just sitting around waiting for bugs to fix. We had our source servers go down for two days at the beginning of the week, so I stayed home and got some chores done.

We've been watching my parents' birds while my parents visited my brother. The cats had fun watching more birds, and Maya was pissed off and moody.

Meh... I'm bored. Someone send me some bugs or something to do. :(

I can't remember if I wrote about this, but I'll recap:

After our wedding, I picked up leftover decorations and favors from my parents. I noticed that on a couple who were unable to attend due to a family emergency, someone had crossed out their table number and wrote in a new one. These people would not have been out of place with guests at the other table, but it kind of pissed me off, because there's only X amount of room at the table. I figured my mother-in-law pulled this stunt.

Last night, Gretchen revealed that it was in fact, their grandma, who did. Bubi (Czech/Russian for grandma) wanted their cousin and her husband to sit with them so bad that she decided to take matters into her own hands and change the seating assignments. Kay saw this, and told her to stop. Reminding her that I had worked very hard in figuring out where to seat people for the wedding.

Apparently, this smack down upset her so much she was in tears. Good lord woman, you can go over and talk to her! It's not like she's being segregated from you.

Between that and her and Rick trying to get Jenny and Dave to take Gabe out of the reception to no avail, she's working her way out of the negative faction she has with me because of the other grief she put me through due to the wedding and whatever else.

In other news, I love living in Sammamish. I have not seen so much wildlife on a regular basis when we were living in Seattle. Hawks sitting on the lines on the side of the road, eagles in the trees down by the water, deer running along the road, and various other creatures.

Richard and I have been on the South Beach Diet since shortly before Valentine's Day. To this date, I've lost 11 lbs. It's slowed, but people have definitely noticed, and I've seen improvements myself. I've got another 5 to 10 to go, and I'll be good.

Anyhow, last Saturday I went to a CAbi show, and tried on a bunch of clothes. How thrilling was it when I realized a pair of size 8 pants were still a little loose on me?! I've dropped from a 10 to an 8, and maybe soon... to a 6?! I'm excited :) It's really happening this time :)

Found this little gem in the WoW forums:

"Life Crits You For 2 Kids...."

The painters FINALLY painted my RESERVED sign on my parking spot. It's pretty obvious. Small, but obvious. I figured people wouldn't be parking in my spot anymore because of that sign. Of course, I was wrong. Some people just think they're more important and need to park in my spot so that they can get their kid into their minivan in front of their house (why they can't do that in their garage is beyond me).

Came home yesterday from work, and my neighbor's neighbor (who's house my spot is in front of) was parked there and putting her kid in her minivan. I just pulled up behind her and waited. She saw me, of course. Maybe she can't read? Maybe she thought I wouldn't be home. Well I don't give a flying fuck. That spot is not RESERVED for her, her minivan, or her kid. Took her sweet time getting done too.

Next person who parks there is getting a nice little note on their car, now that there is a RESERVED sign there.

Don't be parking in my spot! Go buy your own reserved spot!

And on a lighter note... It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

http://www.buybritneyshair.com/

Srsly.

Richard and I have come down with this cold that is reminiscent of the crap I had in October.

Anyhow! We've actually gotten away from out computers for a while to see a couple movies.

Pan's Labyrinth

I was a little surprised to see subtitles, but it doesn't bother me (I'm used to reading subtitles while watching anime). It was dark and a little gory at times (then again, I think Red Cross First Aid vids are gory), but it was a really good story. Tracey remarked about how she liked the psychological aspect of it, where as Ofelia learned more about her new world, the world she was attempting to escape to was darker.

Epic Movie

I'm glad we didn't pay full price for this movie. I love satire movies, and the only thing this movie had going for it was the number of movies that it attempted to spoof. The characters, on the other hand, were pointless. The writers just threw in as much crude stuff as possible to make it "funny", and it turned out just pointless instead. Not Another Teen Movie will always be my favorite satire movie. I have yet to see another modern multi-movie spoof movie that will beat that one.

Washington state initiative would require married couples to have children.

http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/washington/stories/NW_020507WABinitiative957SW.546c6a4d.html

Uh, no.

You know, I'm all for gay marriage, but this is just forcing the issue too far and attacking het couples who are NOT preventing homosexuals from marrying.

Ding, 70!