At times like these I really just want to swear....

So we dropped our car off to be repaired on Dec. 18. The people were very nice and they seemed to know what was going on. They told us it would be finished on the 26th. When we called on the 26th, it wasn't finished, but instead was going to be until the 30th. Ok, I get things come up, they might be busy, might be understaffed, might have all these problems that they have to deal with; I get it. (it finally got to the point where we had to tell them, "We will be there at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday to pick up our car. Have it ready.") So we get there and we start looking at the car. They didn't fix the scratches on the mirror. (really!) There are 2 new scratches that I don't remember being there on the front fender (Really!) and there are big knicks on the moulding on the door (REALLY!!!!) At this point we wanted to talk with the manager of the body shop. I was so mad, but still trying to keep it under control. (In the great words of Mommy Dearest, "Don't f- with me boys!") So the guy, Jay (or something) says he can get it right in because it doesn't look like it will be that much to fix it. We inform him that we NEED it back by Friday because we both have work on Monday. Oh yeah no problem, it will be done, no worries. After we leave, he proceeds to call and tell us that we can come back and pick it up because he can't work on it til Tueday of next week! (that would be Jan 6th!) (REALLY???!!!) We explained that we aren't going to take the liability if something else happens so they can keep the car just get it done. By this point, I am so annoyed that they would just put us on the back burner. (oh and did I mention that they also found more damage on the front door that they didn't fix the first time! Yeah, they are real winners in my books by this time) Anyways, I think they realized that we aren't coming to get our car, they will fix it or we will totally be bugging them so it is best to just get us done quickly. Finally, to make the situation better, they decided to keep the car, offer us a rental car on Friday (they weren't going to at first because they weren't open on the weekend and it wouldn't make business sense to them to have to pay for a rental. I am glad they realized that it wouldn't be very smart at this point to treat us like crap, anymore) and get the car done as quick as possible. I am still hoping that this ends great and I will have nothing to say but great things, but I think they have a long way to go. I am seriously disappointed in our body shop and our insurance for referring us to them. (I won't drop names until I get my car finished and everything is all said and done. Hopefully all wrongs will be righted) Sorry to ramble on! :) I feel better now!

Gram's Christmas Dinner

Dinner Table before we ate

Grams and Shawnee

On Saturday, Grams had her annual Christmas dinner.  (Due to the snow storm on Christmas, it was moved to Saturday.) Grams specialty is Roast. It was so tender and delicious. Great job, Char.  It was perfect! 

Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was a little less hectic.  Christmas Eve starts off with dinner at Yia Yia's and Papou.  As always, it was delicious and fun.  Great to see everyone. For Christmas morning, we opened presents at Jim and Angie's.  Travis got from Santa a portable drawing desk. I got a lovely new set of knives.  After presents, we went back to Yia Yias and had breakfast.  She makes the best sticky buns for breakfast.  They are my all time favorites.  After breakfast, Trav, Kimi and I loaded into the car again and headed up to my parents house.  My mother had made a delicious ham and turkey for our Christmas dinner.  My Aunt Mari and David came over along with my sister Megan and her family.  It was nice to just relax the rest of the afternoon.  After it is all said and done, it feels like you need a vacation from your holiday.  Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful gifts.  :) It was a really fun time to see and visit with everyone.  

Bird Feeder

Travis has started to feed the birds on our little patio. He will sit and crumble up crackers or whatever for them to eat.  So cute. Maybe we should just invest in some bird food. 

The Riddler

I attend school 4 days a week for at least 2-3 hours a day.  May not be a lot, but it is harder than you think because it is a work at your own pace classroom.  This means that you use your own means to get your class module finished.  I like to be the most anti-social being in the classroom and sit in my own little world and work on my computer. I don't have friends in class, I don't make small talk, I am there to learn Web Design and that is all. In other words I am a total beast. (It is a stretch for me, I know!)

There is one old lady, "The Riddler" in my class that attends on Monday- Wednesday.  She is clearly learning about computers and photoshop.  I would be fine with her in my class except for the fact that she like to ask the most ridiculous questions.  She yells at the computer, and asks it to work for her.  She pesters the teacher, (he is a very patient person, but you can tell there are some days he doesn' t want to deal with her.)  Today she started on one of her rants that included: which colors she should use for her project,  which program opens a certain file type, and if it was "Happy New Years" or "Happy New Year"!  It was when she started talking about what the history of figgy pudding " (From the Christmas Carol, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas") that I realized that I was so over this and was going to take an extra day for my winter break.   I think my best Christmas present this year will be an extra 3 hours away from the Riddler! 

Stocking story

The greatest part about Christmas at the Tsukamoto's house was the stockings.  I always loved what Santa would bring me, like lip gloss, lotions, jewelry, and candy.  It was definetly the greatest moment on Christmas morning  and the part I still look forward to the most.  When I was young, and was the "mistake" of the family, I was always teasing my mom because she made "Wonder Woman" and "the Hulk" these beautiful stockings with all sorts sequins and bead work.  They were always so pretty to pull out of the ZCMI box they were stored in. Then mine would be pulled out. It was a wooly stocking with the letters of my name glued on it.  In the way of the Tsukamoto's we always gave my mom a hard time about it. The story was always the same about how my mom worked so hard and long on those stupid stockings that when I was born she couldn't do it again.  Finally, when I was about 20 or so, I recieved a wonderful present.... 

I loved it. It was great, all that I ever dreamed of. One thing, I love, I mean, LOVE my little wooly one.   I still put up both of them because they both have a special place in my heart! Thanks Mom! :) 

     

So to keep with the tradition of having great stockings for our family, I made Travis one a few years back.  It has on it a happy little penguin, a Spiderman charm, and of course his beloved Nintendo controller.  Happy Christmas! 

Diva Kimi!

That lump next to me under the covers is Kimi.

She likes to lay both on the ottoman and the couch. 

That is Kimi laying on the throw pillow. What dog actually uses pillows?!?

Here are some great pictures of our little Diva!  What a ham! 

Annual Christmas Cookie Day!

Cookie Day!!!

Travis making his meltaways

He even does the frosting. :) 

This is about Half of the  sugar cookies I made. 

Every year, I make a butt load of cookies for all my local friends and family. I make the sugar cookies and I am teaching Travis to make meltaways. I went through 3 pounds of butter, 2 and a half bags of  powdered sugar,  and 5 pounds of flour to make 2 batches of sugar cookies, 4 batches of meltaways and 4 batches of frosting for them all. I totally love to do it, but it gets harder to do every year because it seems like it is a bigger deal.   It makes me feel like Christmas is really here!  

Grossest thing of the day.

A client came out of the bathroom, and proceeded to make a cell phone call at the end of the hallway in front of my desk. As he started to talk, he put his hand down the back of his pants. Not like he was fixing his belt, but like he was fixing his underwear or the back of his jeans. I just kinda was taken back and laughing (again) in my head at such an odd event. What person does that in public? I made sure when he asked for validation, that I let him put his own stickers on and I didn't touch anything of his! There isn't enough sanitizer in the world!

Go speed racer, go go speed racer....

Poor Back Door :(

That is the sound wall out the window

This morning as we were driving to my parents house for Sunday dinner, we got into a little bit of a wreck.  It was a snowy morning and the roads were slushy. I changed lanes from the far right lane to the middle lane, when I started fish-taling to my left, across 2 lanes. I got us out of that fishtale only to over correct and ended up doing a full 360 to our right.  We ended up off the road and within like an inch of the sound wall.  Thankfully, (and I mean that our guardian angel was working overtime this morning) we were all ok.  As we were spinning, we missed every car and were lucky to only see the oncoming traffic coming toward us instead of hitting into any of them. (Oh and also for the first time ever, I didn't get a ticket when the police came!) Also the only damage was on the back door and the back bumper. Seriously, I am just so happy that everyone I love was alright. Kimi was the most scared. While we were waiting for the Highway Patrol to stop, some snow plows went by and Kimi started to shake and her ears were pinned to her head. (she started shaking again when we were getting towed out of the mud and snow and back onto the road also.)  So to recap, Travis is fine, Kimi is fine, my car is hurt, but drivable, and I am going to become a stunt driver! Call me Speed!  

Ring Christmas Bells

Last night, my parents and us went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. It was the first time we have ever gone to this event. It was amazing. The concert included Brian Stokes Mitchell, who is a broadway singer. He has a beautiful voice. There was also another guy Edward K. Herrmann (who does a lot of voice over) who told stories toward the end of the program. It was a great experience.

The one thing that got me was before the show. Church President Thomas S. Monson was in attendance and came in with his family. When he walked in the entire 21,000 people in attendance when dead silent. I am not talking about polite quietness, like at a golf game, but like not a word, not a movement, not a cough in the entire house. It seemed surreal almost. That kind of respect is not shown very often. It was very impressive.

It was fun night. I love to go to events that none of us have ever been to. Inside the conference center was gorgeous. Very impressive!

Crazy Postal Worker

This holiday season, I have been going to a little post office in North Salt Lake for all my stamps and such. There is a little old man that tells the craziest stories every time I have been in there. The first time I went in there I was buying some postcard stamps that have fruit on them (like mangos, and starfruit). The little old man started talking about some fruit that is Japanese and is like an apple/plum hybrid thing. I don't know but it was funny. He was totally trying to sell me on how delicious it was (which i don't doubt the fruit would be, but it was pretty funny on how he was talking about it. ) Anyways, today I went in to mail a package. There was a line of about 5 people and this guy isn't the fastest worker. (he seems to have all the time in the world) I was about 3rd in line. He starts telling the lady at the front about how women are very perceptive about the situation and loading the dishwasher at his house. Once he started talking about loading his dishwasher, the old lady behind me in line let out an audible groan. I found the whole situation funny. I bet she has heard a few "Asian fruit stories"! :)

Poor Roxy

So as I walked into my house to say hello to my wonderful dog, I heard a howling coming from outside. We live in an apartment complex and they allow dogs. Now I understand that most people don't care for their animals as much as I care for my Kimi. I get that people are busy and some dogs don't get extra TLC. The incredibly sad noise that I heard was from the sweet pitbull 2 floors up. Maybe it was because she was lonely, maybe it was because she was hungry or thirsty, MAYBE IT WAS THE FACT THAT IT WAS SNOWING AND THE POOR DOG HAD NO WHERE TO GO OUT OF THE WEATHER!!! (and this pitbull doesn't have a thick coat of fur) (Travis actually called and reported them to the apartment complex) I hate it when animals get mistreated. I feel very strongly about this probably because I can't even imagining treating Kimi this way even though mistreatment is the start to her story. Her litter of 9 and her mom were left in a house after the owners just moved out and left them locked in there. The neighbors were feeding the mom through one of the screens in the house when they called Wasatch Humane. What kind of person leaves newborn puppies and their mom locked in a house? There is a special spot in hell for those people. Anyways, I saw the management from the Apartment complex go to their house before I left for work, but I don't know if anything is going to be done. If nothing gets done, I am definetly going to report them to the humane society. Poor Puppy!

O Christmas Tree....

Breakfast Weekend!

This weekend, we ended up going to breakfast with our parents.  On Saturday, Jim and Angie came and we went to The Original Pancake House in SLC.  It was really good.  They had awesome homefries.  (Sorry, I didn't bring my camera for that one.)  After breakfast, we went to the Gateway, which was nice because we ended up getting one of those dvds with a fake fire on it.  It is the most ghetto fabulous thing ever, but hey, we do what we can until we can get a real fireplace. :)  Then on Sunday, my parents came down and we went to this quaint little restaurant, Blue Plate Diner. It was pretty delicious. It was a lot like the restaurant that I worked in in Ogden, Snappy Service. If I would have taken the opportunity and run that diner, it would have been a lot like this place.  My dad kept commenting on the fact that everyone was pierced and had tattoos, but were a very happy crew.  He was doing some serious people watching while we were eating.  We ended up again at the Gateway.  I love Christmas shopping and it was fun. There weren't a lot of people there at all, which was a little odd. 

Thanks guys it was a great weekend! :) 

The reason I am going to hell....

So a guy named Hu (pronounced Who) just came into the firm. I was trying to locate the attorney and all I could play in my head was the Abbott and Costello bit, "Who's on first?" The client was Asian and that makes it even more funny to me. I am sitting her just laughing to myself because I keep playing in my head how the conversation would have gone. "Hello this is Molly at the front desk and there is a Hu waiting for you?" The secretary would say, "Who?"
Molly: "Yeah that is right." And this would continue on for a while until I would just completely lose it. I am so amused right now, and I think the fact that it is Friday has something to do with it, too. :)

Our Christmas Decor....

So like many people we have a Nativity scene as part of our Christmas decor.  I have married a man that loves everything comicbook-geeky stuff.  After visiting Smiths Marketplace last weekend, Travis wanted to add to our Christmas decor.  :) 

Really?!?!?

So one of the legal secretaries just walked past my desk from the break room, said nothing to me and then called me to ask me a question when she got back to her desk 1 minute later. REALLY???!!!! She is a little bit of a raunch so I won't press it but I just thought to myself, why couldn't you just ask me that when you go by... whatever.
I have also realized that I think with all the brains that are around here there are a lot of little weird tendencies. A lot, I mean A LOT of the attorneys talk to themselves. Not like one or two words, but like sentences and conversations. It is a riot. They also tend to notice the little things (which is why they are all good attorney's) One of the younger attorneys just stopped in the foyer because the grout in the granite tiles is a different color. And he said he has always noticed it. Hillarious!