How Many Vehicles???

Today's required reading can be found here. Go ahead and read it, you'll be astounded. I know I was. Here are a few of my favorite highlights:

• "At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, fuel consumption and inventory are down, yet overall costs have increased significantly. Officials there can't figure out why." WTF? Don't they keep records? This is our money they're spending!
• "The Interior Department was told by its own watchdog that it should cut its inventory, but it's added hundreds of vehicles." Why bother having a watchdog if you summarily dismiss it??
• "The VA has some cars that are barely driven. One just disappeared." WTF happened to it? Did it get lost, stolen, lost it's way on the way to the fuel pump?

More than 642,000 vehicles, and operating them cost you and me more than 3.2 billion, yes that's billion with a 'B' folks! What the hell is going on? I also find it disgusting that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters needs two drivers whose salaries totaled more than $128,000 last year! WTF? For those of you that don't know, Mary Peters rides a motorcycle. That being said, she is NOT a biker's friend. Mary wants to cut spending on motorcycle safety training and awareness programs, and divert that spending to push for mandatd helmet-use. That's right, Mary Peters is the big brother that we need to look out for! She wants to take part of our freedom away. Here's a blog about it.

And the rumor is she's planning to run for governor of Arizona in 2010. We do not need a helmet-nazi that needs two drivers! Get on your bike and ride, Mary!

Sorry, I get passionate about Mary. Can't stand the bitch.

Back to the issue at hand, gross government misconduct and spending OUR money willy-nilly. I am absolutely bewildered, and maybe I shouldn't be. I know that government spending has been handled badly since day 1, but don't people get angry? Are we that passive now, that we just sit at home, shaking our heads at the news anchor? We should be screaming and shaking our fists and doing something about it, shouldn't we?

Understand that I am not a political analyst, I really don't know too much about politics, but I do know that I'm angry and disgusted with our government. I don't have the answers...this is just food for thought.

And please note: the spending figures in the required reading article were for last year, BEFORE gas was $4-something/gallon. What the hell is our cost this year?

Weekend Update

So what do you do when you're not working, you're home all week, and you're going out of your freaking mind?? You head out to your local biker bar and have some fun! That's exactly what we did on Friday night. We headed over to HardTailz at around 9:30, just in time for the band, Angry Jon. This band was really good.

Big D needs to take photography 101...he keeps cutting off the top of my head:

I don't usually drink from a pitcher, but they ran out of glasses...Hey, it's the truth!!

This was taken pretty late, but I always remember the double eagles for Joker!

For some reason, Big D was fascinated with me drinking from the pitcher. :)

This is me and Tim's girlfriend...I can't quite recall her name. More double eagles for Joker.

See what I mean? Big D really needs to take a class...

For those of you who've had the pleasure of going out with me & Big D, this picture will look familiar to you: I have fallen down, yet again, but do not be alarmed, no beer was lost! It was a victory!

On Saturday night, we rode over to a friend's house through all the traffic cones that make up the city of El Mirage. I swear they change the location of the cones in the middle of the night just to make things interesting in the morning!

Had some friends over for a BBQ yesterday, brats and pork chops on the grill. It was a nice day to be in the pool.

I hope you all enjoyed the weekend update as much as I enjoyed the weekend!

You Can't Fix Stupid

I'm stealing Jay Leno's thunder today with my headlines. Thanks to Veronnica for contributing!

How did he do that?

Go figure!
After age 25, huh?

I wish I had the whole article on this one!

"I wouldn't do it again. She's been a pain this week." says the hero.

"We didn't know anyone was buried there." Hmmm....honest mistake I guess. Who would think people were buried in a mausoleum??

Searching for Civil War planes...yeah, good luck with that! Hello???

Who'd a thunk it? Weapons in a gun shop!

Something We Could All Use!!!

Finally, science has come up with something useful!

Thanks to my friend Vickie for sending this!

Actual Job Posting

I really hope they fix this! Talk about not being appreciated! Actual posting. I know admins are generally overworked and under appreciated, but this posting is taking it a bit too far! I hope it's a typo and not indicative of how they feel about their administrative help!

The Weekend In Review

After a very stressful week of looking for a job, I really needed to get out of the house. It's a sad state of affairs when you're excited to go see the chiropractor because it means you're getting out of the house! I am not meant to be a SAHM, and I give a lot of credit to those who do it! I called my Mom this week and asked her how she did it...she was a SAHM for 17 years, she stayed at home for me and my sisters. I still don't know how she did it!

On Friday night, we went to see "Wanted" at the movies with friends Aaron & Vikky. Here's my review: not great. It didn't suck, either. I guess it's been a while since we've gone to the theater to see a movie. They charged $3.50 for a bottle of water. It's a good thing we had free passes to the movie, or we couldn't have bought a damned drink! So here's a picture of $10.50:

I love how I'm looking at something random and Big D is looking right at the camera! This is what happens when you attempt a self-portrait!

On Saturday, we went to Hurricane Bay with Shannon & Mike to celebrate their 7th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary you two! I'm so glad I took pictures, otherwise I would have to rely on Big D to tell me what happened! :) Here are some pics:


I was so shocked to see a Bud Light Lime with a lime in it! Why do they put a lime in it if it's Bud Light Lime??? I guess this picture could also be titled: She's got the Bud Light.





We were also celebrating Aleshia and her husband John's birthdays. John is getting some special treatment from Nunzee, one of the guys who works at the Bay. Aleshia was getting into it!

John needed a smoke after that! :)

These next few pics were especially taken for Joker:

I think I actually had everyone saying "Hi Joker" in this one, but I can't be sure.

This was close to the end of the night, and I'm not sure if we were singing or saying something, but we look pretty happy, don't we?

I should also tell you that we got caught in the rain on the way home, and I was saying that it really didn't hurt that bad this time, and Big D said, "Of course it didn't hurt YOU, you were pretty drunk, and I was blocking most of it for you!" LOL! We did get soaked, though.

Last night, we took Vicki to Westgate City Center to get an ice cream and walk around, look at the fountains, etc. We waited in line at Cold Stone Creamery for a 1/2 hour before getting waited on! I couldn't believe how many people were there! Vicki took some pics of the dancing fountains. They time the fountains to music, and if I had been using my very hungover brain, I would have taken a video of it, because it was really cool. Next time!

Things That Happen When It Rains

Here in the Valley of the Sun, it doesn't rain much. So when it does, some really peculiar things happen. Here are some of those things that happened when it rained this weekend:

Friday morning, I looked out the back door and noticed these black blobs floating in the pool...

They were ants blown into the pool by the storm on Thursday night! How nasty is that!

Vicki loves to play in the rain...glad there was no lightning...she doesn't take well to the word 'no'. (Takes after her Dad, there!)

One of the freeways became flooded after that particular area received over 2.5" in less than an hour. Those poor people sat there for almost 4 hours waiting for the flooding to clear! Glad it wasn't us!

I tried to get a picture of our street on Thursday night, because it was really flooded! So much water was running down both sides of the street that you could only actually see about a 2" strip of asphalt down the center! However my camera was not working with me, so no pic!

Counting My Blessings

I've been kind of down since my last day at work yesterday, so instead of brooding about not having a job, I have decided to take a look back through some pictures. As I was looking, I realized, I've had a pretty amazing life with some great times with family and friends. I've had some amazing opportunities, like meeting H. Ross Perot, hanging out with friends in TX, vacationing in Mexico, etc. These memories are now serving their purpose: they are getting me through a tough time. Then I realized, I wanted to share some of these memories with all of you. Big D is always telling me to count my blessings, so I've decided, for once, to listen to him. Enjoy!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Just press play. Beware...there is music! :)

Changes on the Blog

Due to an Anonymous Asshole, I have enabled comment moderation on my blog. I'm all for free speech, but this shit is going a bit too far. To all my blogger friends: have a wonderful day! To Anonymous: My blog is not your fucking sounding board! F-off!

Special Delivery

It's funny how wires can get crossed between an employer and employee. It's funny, too, how one day can really screw you up, mentally.

As most of you know, on June 10th, I received notice that my position was being eliminated and my last day would be July 10th. That's the date in the letter I received, too.


The funny thing is, apparently the Fed-Ex man made a special delivery today, and it was my severance package with the following line: "Our records indicate your last date of employment with the company as July 9, 2008." You wouldn't think that one day would be a big deal, and it isn't, really. Just mentally. That, paired with the fact that my 'fearless leader' is on vacation until 7/15, makes me feel all warm and cozy. Not so much.

So, here's to my new-found freedom, here's to my severance package coming one day early, and here's to me finding a job real soon! Cheers!

Obsessed?

Last week, Mr. Motorcycle posted about the Harley paint job he did on their extra refrigerator. It was really sweet! As I was reading the comments, I noticed that Joker said his wife would not allow his obsession with motorcycles to 'intrude' into the 'common areas' of the house. Wow.

So, I said that I would post about the 'common areas' of our house that all you bikers might find interesting. :)


The Kitchen

Our son Eric sent these tins to Big D right after he arrived in England. (The obsession seems to be a family affair.)

Here are some close-ups:

He also sent this one:

Note: If anyone tries to park a Harley (or any motorcycle) in my kitchen, or anywhere else inside my house, I'll shoot first and ask questions later! Hey, a girl's gotta draw the line somewhere!

I bought this at one of Arizona's lovely casinos after I won a bit of cash on the one-armed bandits:

The Family Room

Big D got this RC Harley for Christmas last year from Vicki. Caution: does not work on the carpet!

The HD deck of cards was a gift from a fellow blogger, Paula. Thanks, Paula! We love playing Rummy 500 with these cards!

The HD piggy bank was a gift to Big D from another fellow blogger, Simply Curious Girl. She also sent us a couple of shirts from Santa Cruz HD. Thanks, S!

On the top shelf is D's '48 Indian, and I cannot remember who gave it to him!

On the lower shelf, left side, is a Sporty, just like D's Sporty...I bought that one. On the right is 'my first couch' given to me by our friend Mark for my birthday last year. Mark asked what I wanted for my birthday (right after I got a ride on his 'couch') and I said I wanted a couch! :) Thanks, Mark!

The Office

The next few pics show our home office. I think I should mention here that I mostly work from home now, so I use the office more than Big D. This is clearly a 'common area'. (And now that I'm jobless as of tomorrow, I'll really be spending a lot of time here!)

Those are Triumph jugs:

Please note: the original Sporty tank to Big D's bike is in here because it didn't hold enough fuel for those longer rides. We couldn't leave it in the garage and let it get dusty, now could we?!

On the shelf below the tank are some random pieces (pistons, pieces of the tranny) of my Sporty that is still a work in progress.

And last, but certainly not least, we go back to the kitchen. Last Thursday, Big D had a slow day at work, so he made this. He asked me where I wanted to hang it. It's hanging just under the tins that are in the first pictures.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our home. Guys, I know most of the wives will think I'm crazy...and I freely admit that I am. But it's not just Big D that loves being up on two wheels....I've got the obsession, too!

Monday Funny

Happy Birthday Rexxy!

Rex, we miss you when you're so far away over there and hope to see you soon!


Rex used to cut the Maxine cartoons out of the paper for me every day after school...remember Rexxy? ;)

Happy birthday to the best son, brother, husband, father a family could ask for. You have it all, honey! We love you!

Since I'm not there to sing to you personally, I figured the Beatles were the next best thing...LOL! ;)