I've got nothing to hide...

So, I know I haven't posted in a while, but a friend sent me this whitepaper which was extremely enlightening. If you are concerned about privacy (or not) in the US and all the laws which have come to pass since 9/11, please take the time to read this. It highlights the "i've got nothing to hide" attitude when it comes to privacy.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=998565

Since i'm here, I'll fill you all in on whats been going on...
The kids got home, this is fabulous and I am totally excited that they are back.

{Listening to The Chokin' Kind by Joss Stone}

I had a totally mixed bag of weekend. The honey was gone and came home the same night as the kids. Lets start at Friday night.. The roommate and I decided to hit a new On The Border by the house for dinner. We got there at around 5:30, waited until about 6:00 to be seated, waited until about 6:20 to get our drink order, by 6:35 we had drinks and chips and salsa. By 6:45 we had our order taken...Thus far, service had been, we'll just call it inexperienced. So we waited for our food, asked for more chips and salsa (about 7:10 we got those).. around 7:30 they brought our food out. Mine was cold. I mean, barely warm. The Roommate? well his was wrong... and not like they messed up a side, they got the wrong dish.. totally....So we sent his back and I mulled over my cold dinner. Now, for anyone that has ever had a cheese enchilada, you know that the cheese inside should be molten, mouth blistering...not a solid chunk. I am talking about about solidified to the point of a refrigerated piece of pizza. Not remotely melted. The steak that I had with it, was tasty, but again, not even on the warm side. So I picked at the beans and rice, mostly cause they are palatable when they are cold and waited for Roommates order to come back.. around 8:00 (yes, 30 mins, Roommate still doesn't have food) the server comes over to say that his food should be up soon, asks how mine was. I had originally decided to just grin and bear it with my cold food, but then she had to ask, so I told her. This poor inexperienced girl didn't know what to do with a complaint. I almost felt bad for her. She asked if I wanted another meal. Since we were pushing 45 mins now and the roommate didn't have his food back, I said that I would just keep it, I didn't need a new meal. Little did I know that this would confuse the poor girl. So she says she is going to get the manager because of our meal. At about 8:30 or so, the manager finally comes out to our table, says they are gonna comp our meal and they'll get a box for my meal. I ask about Roommates meal, and he says that we cancelled the order(see where the confusion on the part of the server comes in?)?!?!! We were both in shock, explained that No, we actually hadn't, and would like that to go as well. He says it should be up in "a few minutes". We left the restaurant hungry, worn out, full of tasty chips and salsa and our food ina to go box. It was after 9:00pm... a 3 hr dinner at which we didn't get to eat. We were laughing about the situation, there was no reason to be pissed, just a comedy of errors, but holy shit...

So we get home, eat, finish up moving the Boys things back into his room which was painted and tiled while he was gone. Start cleaning the house and getting rid of shit before everyone comes home.

On Saturday, I get up to get finished cleaning. I have to go to the airport (1.5 hrs away) to pick up the Honey and the Kids in the evening. I get the bathrooms done, get the floors done, the kitchen, the entry, I just need to vacuum. I get started..and it doesn't suck.. now, this is my $800 Dyson, the fucking thing better suck.. it better vacuum my god damned floors. I spend 2 hrs taking it apart, cleaning it, checking for any blockages, etc. I dig up my warranty info from best buy and lug it down there. I get the pleasure of having the Geek Squad take a look at it. Man, they are dumbasses (in general, the ones I deal with at my store I wouldn't trust to look at a magazine without fucking it up)..So i show the dude how its not working right.. how i have full replacement warranty.. he tells me he'll send it in for repair (ok).. and that I should have it back by the end of the month.. WHAT!!!?!?!?!?!?! A month to fix a fucking vacuum? Holy shit.. so now, I leave my poor baby to the Geek to do what needs to be done.. I call some friends to see if I can borrow their vacuum and head over there to pick up..

Now, this is where I think my luck is changing for the weekend (in the end, I was very wrong)... Our friend says he has to go to the airport to pick up his MIL around the time that the Honey is coming in. I ask if he would pick up the honey so he doesn't have to wait 4 hrs for the kids to get in.. Friend says sure, he wouldn't mind at all... Ok.. I am excited, the honey has a ride home from the airport, I have a borrowed vacuum. I can now contemplate a hotel for the night w/the kids so I don't have to make 3 trips to denver for warped tour...(side note: i purchased Warped Tour tickets for the daughter and her friend for her b-day present)...So i get home, get vacuumed, all my cleaning wind has been taken out of me by this stupid little pause and calamity with the vacuum. Call the honey, tell him about his ride. He is actually excited that he doesn't have to wait in the airport.

I get online and find a hotel in a decent price range (from Hotels.com) and make the reservation. The hotel is like 3 blocks from where we need to be in the morning to take princess and her friend to the Warped Tour. The boy and I are going to go to the water park and have a relaxing day together just hanging out...So, on the way to the airport, I think of calling the hotel to let them know it might be 11pm before we get there, but that we will be there... They have no record of my reservation.. WHAT?!?!?!? I paid for it already w/hotels.com. Its been removed from my bank. I get on the phone, talk to a supervisor. This is around 9:00pm, on the way to the airport to pick up the kiddos. She says she is going to find a hotel for me and call me back. Great... I can work with that.. so she does..and around 9:45pm she calls me back, says she got me a hotel, not where I wanted, its a nicer hotel though, and they are going to comp the higher rate difference. I am ok with all this, get what I believe is my new confirmation number, retrieve kids and luggage and go to the new hotel. We get there, its about 10:15 or so.. go to check in, and they have me arriving the next day, and because its done through hotels.com, they can't change it.. So I spend the next hour and a half on the phone, on hold, getting disconnected, noone at hotels.com having a fucking clue, and get told that I can indeed check in. Get back in line, and FINALLY at 11:50pm get checked into a hotel. I am soooo glad that I was dealing with 3 teenagers and not 3 toddlers. They were running around the parking lot, playing on the computer in the lobby, generally being teenagers in a hotel, but still, they were out of my hair and not annoying me, and i was fucking pissed. I can only remember one other time that I was so rude to a customer service person. Now, what did they give me for my pain and suffering? Coupons for my next use with Hotels.com.. OH FUCK THAT..

NEVER USE HOTELS.COM FOR ANYTHING.. THEY WILL FUCK YOU 6 WAYS FROM SUNDAY..

So we're in the hotel, no one is tired, everyone is wound up and hungry.. we order pizza from the hotel bar, the kids hit the pool and I just try to lounge in the hotel...watch some tv.

{Listening to Bag Lady by Erykah Badu}

We get up the next morning and take the girls to the Warped Tour, the boy and I get lost trying to find the water park, but we do and we are ready to get settled in for our day of fun. We have a blast, don't hear from the girls. Its about 12:30 before we get to the water park, and by 3:00, we were rained out.. yep, they closed the waterpark because of ... wait for it....WATER... ok, I know it probably had to do with the fact that it might have been lightning, but we left around 3:30 ish and headed back down town, thinking the girls would be getting rained out too. They were getting rained on, but wanted to stay. The boy and I went driving around, found a couple stores to browse, and went to a movie (Evan Almighty - funny, wait for DVD).. He and I had a great day together, the girls called just before the movie was over to say they were ready to be done. We go pick them up and head home... Honey had pizza ordered when we got home, and we ate and I went to sleep..

man, the day was over.. It wasn't that it was bad, it was that the previous night had worn me out, I had been on the go, on my feet (which turns out were swollen, along with my knee).. The kids had fabulous days, the girls loved the warped tour, the boy had a great time at the water park even though we didn't get to ride on all the rides, we rode on the ones that I could do with my neck issues...


The issues with the vacuum, the restraurant, the hotel, was all forgotten when I laid my head on my pillow and crashed, with a smile on my face that the kids actually still had a good time... because of their mom...Plus, the honey was home and I got to see him after a week, and he opted to be nice and cuddle with me for a bit before I sacked out..

Monday started with work.. its been busy, kids have been running here and there with their friends, happy to be back after a month.. Thats about it..

There have been a couple other songs that have played throughout this post, but these 3 were fairly apropos while I was writing and they are ones that I love.. so it was nice that they came on.. Love when the morning mix relaxes me.. gets me ready for my Potluck Hawaiian day..
{Listening to Life for Rent by Dido}