http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas recent pleonast.com entries by user mjintexas en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas?l=5&entryID=615973 There are few cuter things than a bunnybunny that hops up next to you and licks your leg for attention while you're on your computer. She gets the Softest Thing on the Planet award. If you don't believe me, come pet her. There are few coworkers nicer than the one that buys Starbucks beans, grinds them, makes a pot, and then stops by your office to tell you there is fresh coffee waiting. There are few nicer winter days than those that allow you to bundle up in a long pink peacoat, new sweater, tall boots, and chenille gloves. I feel like a happy marshmallow. It is oh-so-satisfying to finally buy a tube of lipstick that IS the right color actually on, and that cost me less than $5. Thank you, Bath and Body Works clearance. There aren't many things in the world better than a well-timed sermon that speaks to exactly what you needed to hear. Thanks going out to Terry Summerlin. 2009-01-05 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas?l=5&entryID=615212 Listings, that is. Yesssss. I'm not telling you how much I weigh. So far 2009 is off with a bang. I spent yesterday reorganizing and cleaning out closets while Doug cleaned out the garage. This is healing to me, and yes, how I prefer to spend days off. Today I paid all our "welcome to your first full year of homeownership" taxes. Gag. All I can say is that I'm very grateful I'd been saving for them dutifully. And of course I'm thankful to have a house. I'm wearing one of my favorite, most comfortable outfits today. The amusing part of this is that I can wear the exact same but different outfit 18 different ways. This is because there's this thing I do with clothes where I find something I like and buy several in slight variations (usually color). For example, I'm wearing my favorite jeans, which I have in 3 colors. I'm wearing one of my favorite featherweight sweaters, which I have a total of 6 of. (three scoopneck, two turtleneck, one henley, all different colors, though.... 2009-01-02 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas?l=5&entryID=614214 Literally. Did you know that gravy makes a floor very slippery? It's true! Anyway (ten napkins later)... I've decided to write a short, helpful buying-on-Ebay etiquette guide (also titled, "the things that nice people do that help sellers not lose sleep"). Here goes: - When you buy an item, the seller has no idea when (or if!) you intend to pay. If you're not planning on paying immediately, it would be a great courtesy to the seller if you sent them a note telling them when you do plan to pay. They have the option of filing unpaid item reminders, but only after 7 days, and some sellers are very hesitant to do this because of the backlash they get from some unreasonable buyers. - Most sellers prefer to wait for you to leave feedback before they leave feedback for you. Why? Because the sellers have no idea whether you're going to be an unreasonable buyer. Buyers can no longer receive negative feedback from sellers, so once you've paid, there's absolutely no retaliation ... 2008-12-30 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas?l=5&entryID=613821 I apologize- I did not take pictures of the mini-car before I wheeled it back to Enterprise. :( However, there's a story to that. I was *supposed* to get my car back on Tuesday. I got a call though that said, "sorry, we have to keep it till Friday." AAAAUGH! So I looked up Enterprise's rates online, and you know what? The class of cars above my Power Wheels and even the class above *that* were still the same price!! I printed that out and marched into the rental place and asked why in the world they'd given me the crappiest car when I could've gotten a much nicer one at the same price. I left with an Intermediate car. Chevy Cobalt. Not terrible, but still WAY better than the inky-dinky-pee-mobile. I picked up my Vue on Friday. I hugged it. No, I am not kidding. Then I drove it. It was hot, so I turned on the A/C, which was no longer cold. So I called Saturn back, and they said, "oh, we're sorry, bring it back Monday. We'll give you a different rental. AAAAUGH! Fortu... 2008-12-29 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas?l=5&entryID=612361 Ok. Still have the itteh bitteh car. Since I spent my entire 45 min ride to work this morning scared to death of wet roads and non-anti-lock brakes, I tried to come up with a few positive points about the car to distract me. A) I'm paying only tax on this rental. This means my extended warranty is doing something useful. And I will get my other car back sooooon. Soon. Soon. B) I can lock 3 doors comfortably from my seat. Only my own door is hard to lock since my arm really doesn't bend that way. But if I reach around behind my head... C) The wheels on the car are so tiny that should I ever have to change the tire, I could probably pick the tire up with one hand while working the erector-set wrench with the other. D) Parking a car the size of a Power Wheels takes way less space and thought than parking an SUV. E) Since the car and I have approximately the same bodyweight, it actually has pretty good pickup! F) Having only aluminum foil between you and the rest of the world means t... 2008-12-23 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas?l=5&entryID=611857 My poor Vue is having some work done today. Last week while Sarah and I were out for her birthday, the heater started making this awful glue smell and pushing some sort of vapor out the vents. Not pleased! The earliest appointment the Saturn repair people could give me was this morning. It's covered under extended warranty so I get a loaner car. Haaaaaa. Haaahahahaha. Haha. Ha. They call this thing a car! Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to only be paying the tax on a rental. But I am driving the smallest, most stripped down and pee-smelling version of a Chevy Aveo you've ever seen. It doesn't actually have a trunk... it just ends at the backseat, best I can tell. Doesn't even have power locks. This is such an amusing adventure! I keep just cracking up every time I think about it. Sad, sad little car. Apologies to those of you who might drive a Chevy Aveo. I am confident that yours is either bigger, nicer, or smells less like pee than the one I'm driving. In good news, I hear coff... 2008-12-22 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas?l=5&entryID=610726 Hi Everyone- I am closing down my Ebay store and am liquidating my merchandise. My store carried Victoria's Secret clothing items (plus a few others) that I am listing here for WELL below retail just to get rid of them. I also have some gently used men's shirts. I will be updating these listings with more items, but you can place an order and then add to it later. All clothing items are NEW without tags unless otherwise specified. On women's clothing, tags have almost always been marked through by the manufacturer to prevent returns. I'll be happy to take additional measurements of the items on request. Shipping will be based on weight from my zipcode (78261) to yours. I prefer Priority Mail so that you can get free delivery confirmation and I don't have to charge you for packing materials. BONUS for holidays: Take $1 off each additional item you purchase after the 1st one. If you have questions or want to place an order, please email miriam dot juckett at gmail dot com. Since ... 2008-12-18 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas?l=5&entryID=608791 But at least I still have internet, and I'm busy being thankful for that. :) Apparently Firefox has "security issues" according to our clients. I'm not an IT person or anything, but I have a frowny face in response to that. As usual, I am on the hunt for boots again. See, I keep wearing them out because I can only find one pair at a time that really works for me, so I wear them pretty much every day that it is cold. This irks me, but hey... my feet are warm and dressed nicely. I got an email this morning from Piperlime (online shoe store) with this beautiful pair of brown boots (which I need) that I got all wide-eyed over and immediately clicked to the site to see about getting them. Uh, 20% off $325 still isn't going to work for me. Saaaad. I'm down to about 250 listings left on Ebay. Woohoo! I'm busy creating some posts for marketplace (yes, it takes forever when you have 250 items) so keep your eyes peeled for that. (Ow! My eyes!) Unfortunately I also found a few more th... 2008-12-12 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas?l=5&entryID=607564 I missed out on posting my usual "things I'm thankful for" post over Thanksgiving. I've been pretty busy as of late, and we spent the Thanksgiving holiday up in Alabama, which is unusual for us. It was nice to see all the family of course, and I especially enjoyed visiting with my grandparents and uncle and aunt and my cousins. Aunt Kim was a very gracious Thanksgiving dinner hostess, and we got some good shopping and tea time in as well! I have to say that I was most thankful to see my grandparents in relatively good health, considering all they've been through in the past year. It was so wonderful to see my granddad smiling and laughing and feeling more himself, and consequently my grandmother feeling better as well. Since I've been back, I've continued in the madness of closing my Ebay store, (I'll be posting a link under "links," for those of you who have asked) and I'll shortly be posting all the stuff I've got left in the marketplace group. Maybe. Assuming I ... 2008-12-09 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mjintexas?l=5&entryID=600677 Last night, with some help I finished the LAST of my Ebay listings. Woohooooo! Course, there's still a bunch-load of Magic cards to be listed, but as far as the stuff I was primarily dealing with, it's all listed. No more inventory left. I have 343 active listings. Maybe I should make a ticker for that. HA. Argh, except that I just remembered that "one more thing..." of course... but at least it's just one thing. :) I got a new office chair. It is way more comfy than my previous office chair. Between that and the regular exercising, my back is doing a lot better these days! Not perfect, but definite improvement. Woohoo! Oh, I forgot to rag on Mike about the Spurs game L and I went to on Friday night. The Rockets were ahead by about 3 points the whole game, it seemed, up until the VERY last when we pulled ahead. It was great fun. I was especially pleased because 2 of the big guys were out on injury. There were some Rockets fans next to us that took off when the tide turned.... 2008-11-18