Apparently there is another snake in the my yard. My mom spotted an all black snake this time. I am wondering if the parakeets are attracting the snakes. It is strange that in 4 years we did not see a single snake in the yard and now there are two that have been spotted. No idea if this snake is poisonous or not. I read it is best to just leave the snakes alone as they feed on rodents, but we don’t have any rodent issues here so I am not sure why they are here. Either the budgies are attracting them or the budgies are attracting rodents that I have not yet seen. If the budgies are the reason, they will need to go. Seems like ants, lizards, frogs and snakes are the pest problems in South Florida or maybe all of Florida. Probably ants are a problem everywhere.
The hole just ripped open again. My money fell all out. The van needed brake pads, they started squeaking, it was just that time. I had replaced them almost 3 years ago. So go to tire kingdom whom I pretty much always have a fight with them and probably sworn to never go back there again. As I expected, they list a whole grocery list of problems to fix in addition to what I need done, which was to replace front brake pads and do an oil change. I drop the car off and get the call. The list is as follows: front brake pads, front rotors, and rear brake cylinders. Front pads were $89 cause I had a coupon, oil change was $19.99 with coupon plus $3 disposal fee, rotors were $94 each!!!, cylinders were $39 each plus $69.99 labor to install rear cylinders. Crooks as usual.
Tire Kingdom Sucks
I tell the guy, let me think about it and I will call you back. I get in my car and drive over so I can see the car while they have it lifted. I agree to replace rear cylinders with their horrible price for the parts and labor and I refuse to have the rotors replaced. They said they were paper thin. The rotors were still fine. They just wanted to steal money from me because I used a coupon, and the manager moron wasn’t happy that I got the brake pads for $89.99. HELLO. YOU mailed me this coupon. He was trying to make it seem like they installed those free, no labor charges. Bite me. A pair of rotors and brake pads together cost $89 online. Their grand total with rotors was over $500, I paid $293 for the front brake pads, rear cylinders plus labor and the oil change. Still totally ripped off. I hate you tire kingdom. Need to patch up this hole in my pocket again!!!
Tire kingdom always steals so much for parts and then adds horrible labor charges for the work they do and that is one of the main reasons I fight with them, in addition to them doing horrible service that I have to go back to fight with them to correct and they try to charge me again for. I already went thru corporate with them once before and the manager that is no longer there had called me and apologized only after corporate got on his ass to do so. Tire kingdom sucks. Economy sucks.
Two days ago we spotted a red, black and yellow snake slithering slowly just below the screen door to the patio. I have heard of people finding snakes in their yards and homes in the community but this is the first time in four years living here that I have seen one in my yard. I wanted to kill it but my dad was worried it would jump back and bite me when I hit it and took away my weapon! The snake then slithered away fast and got away hiding below the air conditioner. We tried to get it out but could not find it. Two days later the snake is still on the loose! Turns out the day before we spotted it, my neighbor’s mother had spotted something moving in his yard as well that looked like a snake’s tail but lost sight of it.
Well after doing a little research online, there are two snakes in Florida that match those colors and not knowing ahead of time the way to identify them, I am not sure which one had visited me. These two snakes are the coral snake and the scarlet king snake. And worse one of these is poisonous and the other is not, and they are easily mistaken.
Scarlet King Snake
Coral Snake
Coral Snake - Black Nose
Very similar snakes but looking at them side by side you can see the difference. From reading online one way to identify them is “red on yellow will kill a fellow”. That is the coral snake has red and yellow stripes that touch, whereas the scarlet king snake has red/orange touching black. But this isn’t a sure fire way to be safe, the coral snake also has a black nose whereas the other snake has a red nose. And seeing these pictures again now, I am 99% sure it was the coral snake which atleast one other neighbor found one in his garage. Only way to know for sure now is to spot it again and kill it!
A few pictures at a park in South Florida that I took this weekend. Nice park, has a workout routine that goes through out the park, with each stop that you walk or jug to depending on your “level” and do a specified exercise. Park has a nice lake with these large pine trees. The park didn’t have many visitors that day so it was nice having it all to ourselves. This is Caloosa Park.
I made a new “house” for my parakeets. They had chewed through the original perch that came with the cage until it broke. I got a branch from some type of pine tree in my yard that I used and they chewed through the bark of that and it got too thin and became loose. So now I got a thick branch and have set that as their new perch, one of the original perches that came with the cage is on the bottom behind the feeders, which is known as the first floor. The second floor is the new thick branch and I added a third floor on top of that with a thin branch which is curved that I placed from the front left side and it curves to the back right side. They usually hide up there when I put my hand in the cage now. There is also a branch that is set diagonally from second floor down to the first. They like to sit on this one as the green one is doing so in this picture, the blue one was there as well, but got scared of the camera and ran up. I also ran some very thin plant stem with green leaves on top of the cage to provide them with shade if needed. I like this new “house” much better.
They both stand on my finger now when outside of the cage in the screened patio. I place my finger to their side as they hang on the screen and they step on. The blue one does so instantly, he knows to get back to the cage he needs to do so. He doesn’t know how to fly, he is younger than the green one, and his tail was short to begin with and then he broke his tail feather a few weeks back when he jumped on it. He also will go on my shoulder, the green one does not do so yet.
Well it happened again. Power flashed, internet stopped working. This time it was too frustrating. I hooked up the macbook directly and got it to work, put the linksys router back and could not get it to work. Was too stressful and I think maybe the router being a little old may have something wrong with it. This was around 8:30 pm which meant I went to the 24 hour walmart to pick up a new router.
LinkSys WRT160N Router
I picked up the linksys Wireless-N Broadband Router (WRT160N). Besides looking cooler than the old square linksys router, it is smaller and has a larger light up display which is easier to read. It is black and shiny so dust is going to show on it a lot. But I like the black and silver look I have going on my desktop with my aluminum macbook, my black and silver 24″ gateway monitor, my 19″ black and silver monitor, my logitech black and silver usb speakers and now the all black linksys router with blue lights like the gateway monitor has. And I also have a black and gray logitech headset and a dynex black usb keyboard. Only thing that stands out is this blue usps mail meter. And so I did plug in the new linksys router and disconnected comcast’s cable modem line and let it cycle up and it did connect. So perhaps the router was a problem, a problem that cost me $76 to fix.
More money to waste, I need to spend less and things keep coming out of no where. I already spent $295 to get an AC unit running about two weeks ago. Working hard to make money and it is flying out faster and so easily. I really need to fix this hole in my pocket! Other than that, I think the woman on line in front of me was flirting with at walmart.
UPDATE: This linksys router has problems and drops connections constantly, after looking it up online, many have same complaints, it seems linksys released new firmware to fix a vulnerability which in turn broke it and they haven’t released a fix for the fix! I am returning it to walmart as I bought a certified refurbished linksys wireless-g broadband router (WRT54G2) from compusa aka tigerdirect for $30. Maybe I am patching up this hole in my pocket after all!
Lindsay Lohan is looking for love. She is looking for you. Can you handle the crazy red head? Lohan went from an adored voluptuous and attractive girl into a drugged out skinny sick looking and excessively “used” … girl? She has been recovering ever since with some success. This is her latest attempt at making a come back into the spotlight in a positive way.
She seems to be making her come back. Slowly and in a clever way. In this one video she makes fun of all her past that was bad, simply putting it out in the open so now you can’t make fun of her because she already did so. In a sense she has nothing to hide and therefore she is starting fresh. So here she is, Lohan just wants some love.
My youngest sister is now engaged. She had her party this weekend. Everything worked out well with all that. Obviously the talk of me getting married is now on everyone’s mind since she was the last in line to get engaged/married which leaves just me now. So everyone gives their hint here and there that it is time for me to get hitched. Congratulations to her.
So it has been pretty cool, not so bad. Seven kids six and under running around the house, opening doors that they never close after themselves, leaving trails of food, spilling drinks, poop time alarms going off, diapers changing, screaming and yelling, crying … the WHOLE kid package multiplied by seven. But really it has been cool, not as crazy as it should be I suppose.
I finally can complain about the new mac book not having firewire. It really is odd that they left it out. I didn’t think it was a big deal cause I didn’t really need it, until I wanted to transfer the mini-dv recording of the engagement to the computer to do some editing. Yah that was problematic. Luckily what became my gaming machine after getting the mac book, has 4 gigs or ram and I was able to transfer the video file to the windows machine and then copy it over to the mac. I suppose it is like some have said, they needed to remove the firewire so that they can justify their hefty price tag on the mac book pro, or maybe firewire will be dying out slowly as floppy disk drives did. Who knows but it was annoying not having the port.
Other than that, I have been missing my work outs and eating a lot more then I should, including lots and lots of junk food. I need to get back on schedule. Family get together usually meaning gaining a few pounds. At least that is what Arab families do, eat and eat, and complain about the weight we gain afterward. Complaining is usually done while eating more. What can we do? We love to eat! And the best tasting food is always that unhealthy fattening food like the lamb we had on the weekend. Delicious!
Today I spoke with a cashier at the food stand at the muvico movie theater. It was mostly ordering, but I asked her name because her tag was flipped. And I tried to convince her to give me her name tag with the movie theater name on it and all. We went back and forth, she said she was sorry she really can’t. I told her you work there, you can get another. She tells me well I have two! And I tell her there you go and she continues she really can’t. I tell her she can’t say no to me, she says I know cause you are a customer, and I tell her no cause I am good looking. She laughs.
I don’t know what it was about her, but she was an interesting girl. After the movie, she smiled, still refused to give me the tag, and asked me how the movie was. I simply said it was good. I don’t know why it wasn’t taken further than that. Clearly there was flirting from both of us, but I didn’t take the next step. I don’t know, she could of made a good friend at least. And maybe got free movie tickets! I need to push things. Create an opportunity out of every situation. I can’t wait for things to happen, I must make things happen.
This reminds me of the time I tried convincing a hijabi girl that worked at finish line to give me a finish line shirt. I had gotten chinese food at the Boynton Beach mall and sat down to eat. Moments later a girl walks by my table, squeezes herself between my table and the next almost as if she was trying to get my attention. I think it worked. I soon noticed it was the hijabi girl from finish line I had seen before. She had a plate of the same food as me.
I finished up my food and decided to talk to her. She was just one table behind two girls sitting next to me. I said hey to her and asked how I can get the shirt she has on as she looked up at me. It was a nice navy blue shirt with the finish line logo on it. Pretty simple really but I liked it. She responds you have to work there. So I tell her she has to get me one. She says she can’t. So I just throw out a “Are you stalking me?” at her. She looks confused and/or maybe embarrassed. I tell her you got the same food as me and I went back to the shirt. I say just get me a large one. She laughs and says I should ask them at the store. I tell her I am asking YOU. She at some point tells me she can’t understand why I even want the shirt. I tell her I like it and she responds that she works there (at finish line) and doesn’t like wearing it. Go figure.
So far so good in the busy two weeks. But there is more to come, this is just the beginning. I currently still have time to watch LOST and play Left 4 Dead, go to the gym even though I missed one day this week but I went today, and I just shaved. Woo hoo, it feels nice after a shave.
So what is currently going on. I am looking for new work. I have a lot of family coming over and staying with me. We have an engagment party to tend to. That is really the reason for the busy two weeks. But it will fun, interesting, exciting, crazy and I am sure some drama.
Other than that my VW lease is coming to an end, this is my last month. I am returning the car, not getting another VW or buying it. I will be looking at what car to get next in the next few months. I have time on it since I have the van to use in the mean time plus I need money right now. I shouldn’t be spending it.
Oh right I am supposed to be working on a project during these 2 weeks as well, in addition to the other project I am doing. All while finding a new job and when I do find a new job I will probably keep the project as side work. In addition to my side business that isn’t doing so great either. Eh responsibilties … who needs them? Where is my free ticket?
