It's the Principle of the Matter!

Well, the day has finally come. The Purple People Eater is no long mine (THANK GOODNESS).

It wasn't a great car, but it certainly served it's purpose. It got me from A to B with minimal resistance. Except this summer. But that's a whole other can of worms. We took her over to Vehicles for Change this morning, and hopefully she will be accepted into the program. Then she can go to some poor fool who's obsessed with the Ravens, and make their day.

Of course, this transition was not without one, final problem. Since Jordan bought his pimp new car last week (an '08 TL, not an '09), and since we kept his Contour and Joey is living with us (STILL) that means 4 cars at the house. So we parked the PPE in the street in front of our house, left the new car and the contour in the garage, and Joey's car in the driveway as usual. No big deal. Saturday Jordan got up early and washed the PPE and we cleaned out the last of the crap, and then used the gas station vacuum to make her SOMEWHAT presentable (there's only so much you can do to a '97 PURPLE Neon, ya know?). Took her over to Carmax for shits and giggles ($250, no thanks). Brought her home and put her in the street again. Jordan washed his car on sunday or monday, so he was out there and didn't notice anything unusual.

So imagine my surprise when today, as we're driving to VFC he calls me (he was in his car since obviously we needed 2 cars to make the donation and get back to work) and says "Who hit your car??" Um, I have no idea what you're talking about. "There's a huge dent in the side of your car!" Um, I still don't have a clue.

Normally, I'm a pretty dang observant person. Except it seems, with the cars I drive. I NEVER notice a new ding, but Jordan can spot one 500 yards away. This morning I was all sleepy, so I can explain missing it that time. And I think when I was walking to the car in the work parking lot I was fumbling with my keys. But really, there's no excuse. The dent is HUGE! Like, replace the whole damn door, HUGE. (I'll add photos tonight, work has blocked uploads to photobucket.) I have no excuse for missing it.


It HAS to have been the neighbors across the street from us (who, are the weirdest people ever, btw). Jordan has apparently seen the wife backing out of the driveway, and she's the worst driver ever. Apparently she backs straight out of the driveway until she hits the curb on our side of the road, and then she turns. Totally. Unnecessary. And the dent isn't a sideswipe kinda dent. It's a "backing up, backing up, backing up, BAM" kinda dent. Now all things considered, we wouldn't care about the dent. It's an 11 year old POS car, and accidents happen.

BUT THEY DIDN'T TELL US!! How on earth do you back into your neighbors car and leave a huge ass dent, and NOT SAY SOMETHING?!?! I mean leave a note for cripes sake!

So, Jordan is printing out pictures and going to talk to them tonight. I mean we donated it and it's gone (as long as it gets accepted into the program, which it should), but still. It's the principle of the matter dangit! If we really wanted to we could've turned around and not donated it yet, confronted them, and possibly gotten money from their insurance, not to mention the old "hit and run" aspect of it all.

I mean seriously. What is wrong with people??

Jordan's parents decided to come visit this weekend. His dad wanted to help with some house stuff, but Jordan pointed out that the stuff he needs help with is a long weekend kinda thing, not a 1 day fix kinda thing. But, they're gonna come down anyway. So tonight and tomorrow will be spent tidying up the house, which I just LOVE to do. I don't have to cuz I cleaned last weekend, but I still feel like I should. His mom has even said to me "Please don't EVER clean just because we're coming to visit." Her mom and MIL are the kind of women who subconsciously bust out the old white glove to test the cleanliness of the house. His mom spent the whole WEEK cleaning their house the last time they visited, and she still didn't think it was clean enough, she was just tired of cleaning, lol. I think it's just a woman thing, to want a clean house to present to people.

I think that's all for today. :)
Have a good one!

~Col

A not so misc. monday

Time for another edition of Miscellaneous Monday. Any excuse to ramble is a good one to me :P

I'm 100% not ready for fall. It appeared all of a sudden, and I'm not all about it. I don't like being cold all the time. NOT cool. The bedroom is always freezing now in the morning, which makes it that much harder to get out of our super comfy warm and toasty bed. No good.

ETA: This started out as a Misc. Monday post. And then I got way side tracked with an issue a friend is facing. So, I apologize in advance for the rant.

I'm so angry at the court system in MD right now. Tell me how, with this history, this woman has ANY right to this boy. (Preface to say, during times she did not have custody of 1st child, he was with friends of mine, which is how I know all this, so I'm mildly biased.)
Drug addict and prostitute.
Gets knocked up.
Continues drugs and alcohol.
Goes to jail.
Gives birth. Baby is born addicted. (Little boy that I know.)
Serves her sentence. Gets out. Gets custody of child back.
Sells childs diapers for drug money. Leaves child in crack house surrounded by other prostitutes, drugs, used needles, etc while she goes out to turn tricks or cop more drugs.
Gets knocked up.
Continues drugs and alcohol.
Goes to jail.
After months in court, custody of first child awarded to my friends. She has zero visitation rights, as she's in jail, and that's a BIT traumatic for a 3 year old to visit mom in jail.
Gives birth to child, child born addicted.
Serves sentence. Gets out. Gets custody of 2nd child back. Custody battle for first child ensues.
Gets first child back.
Starts using again. Starts turning tricks again.
Gets knocked up (are we SEEING A PATTERN HERE PEOPLE?!?!)
Goes to jail.
1st child goes back to my friends.
Gives birth to 3rd child, not born addicted, but used through 7months when she was locked up JUST so the baby wouldn't be born addicted.
Gets out. Battles for custody of 1st child again.
Gets visitation rights for every other weekend. No stipulations on supervision, where she can take him, anything. No short visits for a trial period. Nothing. Right off the bat, visits every 2 weeks.
Then gets full custody.
Knocked up, but tells 1st child she "got rid of it". Awesome.
1st child with her for 2 months. Goes on drug bindge, leaves him with longtime boyfriend and new hubby. After 2 weeks, hubby drops him off at her mothers, saying he can't take it anymore. At some point during those 2 weeks 1st child is beaten with a stick until it breaks. Mother is physically unable to care for him. Calls my friends. Emergency custody is granted to them.
During time before she dropped 1st child off with new hubby, was taking him into awful parts of the city to get drugs. Tied a string around his chest, and tied other end to her wrist so she wouldn't lose him during her drug highs. Back to turning tricks for money. Would leave 1st child sitting on front porch tied to a railing while she turned tricks. Unless she was totally high, and then would BRING HIM IN THE ROOM WITH HER. Yea, totally healthy for a 5 year old boy to see those sorts of things.
Last week, was granted visitations again, every other weekend.
Had 1st child this weekend.

WTF is wrong with the system?! There's ONE family court judge in our county apparently. ONE. AND, said judge has a druggie daughter who's given birth to 2 children born addicted, 1 of whom he adopted himself (I believe). SO WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING JUDGE?!?!?

I'm all for second chances. But not 3rd, 4th, 5th chances. Every single time 1st child goes with druggie mom, he comes back to my friends with more emotional issues than Heinz has ketchup. Apparently at the hearing last week, when the judge made his ruling the childs social worker was in complete and total shock. Could not believe the judge and felt awful. She KNOWS this child is getting more and more screwed up every time he goes with her. He doesn't WANT to go with her. He was in tears when my friends told him his mother got visitation rights and he'd be spending this weekend with her. Which btw, how the fuck is THAT legal? They didn't even have time to file an appeal or do ANYHTING before her first scheduled visitation. AND the judge asked how long she'd been clean, and she reponded 2 weeks, and he said ok. Like that's totally normal, to award visitation to a woman with a HISTORY of drug use and prostituion, a smal child.

It makes me sick. I know this was supposed to be a miscellaneous monday post, but this is at the front of my mind right now. He's the sweet little boy, and it sickens me to think about what could happen to him. She's supposed to have him for Halloween too. So pretty much, think of your closest city, and then think of the absolute WORST part of that city. Then magnify it by about 5, because Baltimore is the dirtiest, grossest, worst, most dangerous city in the entire country, and that's the kind of area he'll be in. On Halloween. With a probably drugged out mom. Yea, totally safe. Way to go MD Court System!

::Sigh:: I can't think about it anymore, it makes me want to cry.
Sorry for such a depressing monday post.

~Col

There's always something to be thankful for.....

There really is. Always. If you're alive and reading this, you have something to be thankful for. Sometimes it really is that simple! It's been a WEEK, but I'm still alive and kickin, so it's all good. :o)

So the freebie today is a card template. Something different. It started last week because both Kristine and Bunny had some VERY rude people contact them about their blogs. How many times does it need to be said that you (meaning people in general, not YOU specifically dear sweet reader :oP) get freebies because people are kind and generous. You aren't owed them. And you for damn sure have no right to dictate to someone what they put on their own blog. Let's get real here. There was a thread over in DST recently, that Australian was going to ban Santa's from saying "Ho, Ho, Ho". Seriously? PC terms are running rampant. Just because you take offense to something, doesn't give you the right to spout off on it, or demand that Santa no longer say Ho ho ho, get a life! If you don't like what someone says on a blog, LEAVE! Or go buy a sense of humor. Sheesh!

Ok, that was a hell of a ramble. But the audacity that people have sometimes really amazes me.

Now, back to being thankful :o) What are you thankful for? I'm going to whip up a LO today about some of the things that I'm thankful for, hopefully anyway. Might get pushed off til next week. So what am I thankful for? Here's a quick list (in no particular order):
To the troops over seas who give up so much to do their duty and protect all of us here at home in the good ole US of A :o) (you know I had to send to love to all my west point buddies!)
Amazing friends who stand by me through thick and thin
A wonderful loving family
My amazing and sweet fiancee
My ridiculously comical dog, who is also a top notch cuddler
KimB! For giving such an amazing opportunity
All the people I've met online,through blogs/digi-scrap forums who inspire me constantly

I could go on, I'd be here all day and don't want to bore you. So here is the card I whipped up for people out there like Kim and Bunny and Kristine, who take a lickin and keep on tickin :o)


And here's the template. Use it today to thank a designer who's freebies you just LOVE. :o)


Have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving everyone!

~Col

A big long rant about Vick and pit bulls

I've got to rant. Hopefully I won't scare anyone away from here. Just know that I take this very seriously, and I don't mean to offend anyone during this rant. But I will defend my dog and her kind til the death.

Michael Vick has been indicted by a grand jury on illegal dogfighting charges. While this makes me insanely happy that he might actually pay for his actions, I can't help but get riled up knowing what he's done to those dogs. The bodies of 7 dogs were dug up in the yard of the property he owns.

Tiger is an American Pit Bull Terrier/American Staffordshire Terrier mix. AmStaff's are essentially the "show dog" version of the APBT. The AKC doesn't recognize the ABPT, but does recognize the AmStaff. She's a pit bull. She looks like a pit bull, I can't pass her off as anything else. And if it wasn't for the extreme ignorance of most of this country, I wouldn't want to pass her off as something else. But too many ppl think "OMG How could you own a pit bull?? They're evil and will turn on your without wanring and eat children!" Insurance companies sometimes won't give you homeowners insurance if you have a pit bull.

Guess what people. It's a bunch of shit. Historically, any pit bull that attacked a human was culled (killed) immediately. In England, the AmStaff is known as the Nanny dog. Know why? Because these breeds are so incredibly loyal to their owners they will do anything to please them. They often slept in bed with children to protect them from harm. Sounds real vicious.

It wasn't until the past hundred years or so, that people started screwing things up. People who buy a dog, but don't want them to live in the house. So they chain them to a tree in the backyard and throw food at it every so often. Ever seen those Animal Cops shows on Animal Planet? Where dogs are so skinny they can barely stand? Where they have no food or shelter or clean water? THAT is the reason the pit bull has gotten a bad name. If you're never exposed to good people, and are only around people who mistreat you for youe entire life, would you be very friendly? Especially if you add in that you'd be starving and emaciated. You know what breaks my heart even more? Sometimes on those shows, the dogs are so wonderful, just stuck in a bad situation, that their whole body wiggles back and forth and they smile at the cops who are there to rescue them. Even though they've been mistreated their whole lives, and should be bitter and tough to handle, they just want some love and attention. I mean, does this face look like a killer?? :o)
Pit bulls are inherently dog aggressive. It's in their genes. I can not deny that. But they are NOT, I repeat NOT, inherently people aggressive. Are there documented cases of pit bull attacks? Yes. Are there documented cases of other breeds of dogs attacking? ABSOLUTELY! Remember a year or two ago when a woman was attacked by her pet dog and had to have the first ever face transplant surgery? Guess what breed that was? LABRADOR. Yup, you heard me. Labrador. The dog that every family wants.

Half of the problem is breed identification. People see a thick dog with a blocky head and automatically say "pit bull". If that's true, then try this game. If you can pick out the pit bull within 5 tries I appluad you.
Find the Pit Bull

Not all pit bulls are dog aggressive. Just like not all labs attack people. It's all in how the dog was raised by it's owners. If given a loving home, lots of attention (AND DISCIPLINE), it can do wonderfully. Just look at Tiger! She's the biggest mush you've ever met in your life. She's never met a stranger she didn't like, and she's fantastic with little babies. Just lays beneath them as if she knows she's there to protect them and love them.

Ok, this rant got a little long and off track. But I can only hope that I got through to someone somewhere reading this. That maybe the next time they see a pretty "pit bull" walking proudly down the street with their owner, that they'll ask if they can pet them. I can almost guarantee that they'll be rewarded with big sloppy kisses. :o)

If you're interested in learning more about pit bulls and the wonderful pets they can be, check out these sites.

Understand-a-bull
PBRC.net
The Unexpected Pit Bull

These are just cute videos of just how gentle pit bulls can be.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=m2OC5Z1Fii8
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7_PvlZVKLyE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FDk3FPZLzA4
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3naWRGz5OQU

And this one I just like cuz it's a photomontage of pits doing fun things.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FDk3FPZLzA4

If you have no idea what I'm talking about with Michael Vick and the dog fighting, here are some links to new articles. Read some of them and the details within, and tell me if you wouldn't get riled up by his actions too.

NFL.com

SI.com story

Yahoo News Story

Ugly Details of Vick's Indictment