Apple Twist

Chancho handed in his application for the DVO position today. He said that when he went to grab the application he saw 2 others doing the same. Hopefully, his will be the chosen one. He also has to tell his lieutenant that he applied for the job tonight. I'm wishing him luck with that. Then we play the waiting game to hear if he get's accepted for the job. In the mean time, I've been keeping busy with some more baking. I made some apple twists today. They came out so very good. I only made two because that was the only dough I had left over from my pie. But they were tastey. Here's the recipe for those that are interested. I would recommend using the orange juice over the water.

• ¼ c. orange juice or water

• 1 can crescent rolls

• 2 apples, sliced, peeled and cored

• 2 tbsp. margarine

• ½ tsp. cinnamon

• ⅓ cup sugar

1.) Put water in a 9x9 pan.

2.) Cut rolls lengthwise to make 16 triangles.

3.) Put apple at wide end and roll up, arrange in pan.

4.) Drizzle margarine on top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

5.) Bake at 400°for 30-35 minutes.

It was so quick and easy. I could make these every day if I had the energy to.

Quote of the Day: "That love lasts through time and place and lets nothing get in its way." -Interpretation of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

DVO

A couple of spots are opening up soon for a Domestic Violence Officer. Chancho seems to be jumping at the chance to leave his current team. A DVO is responsible for following up on domestic violence complaints and making arrests related to that. Apparently all of the people who have been working this unit have been working for more than 5 years. One of the men is getting promoted to Sargent soon and the other has 19 years under his belt and is retiring soon. One of them asked Chancho if he was interested in taking their place.

Here is what will come with him switching over: He will only need 2 arrests a month, compared to 4. There aren't any summonses needed, compared to 20 a month. Two days off, Sunday and Monday (no change there). The best part for me, he gets to decide his tour. He can pick either a daytour or a nighttour depending on the situation at hand. Only problem is now it's more intense line of work, instead of making marijuana arrests, they're domestic assaults, harassment and violations of order of protections.

Chancho believes that he has a good chance of getting it because a lot of them like him and recommended him for the position. The Sargent who runs it is a female who likes him as well. He wants it because it'll keep his complaints down, keep him a little safer because he'll be inside doing more paperwork. He believes there will be more time for me and time to go back to school as well as studying for the Sargent's test.

Right now there is a new commanding officer coming in this Wednesday to take over and it doesn't look good. There are rumors going around that there are going to be big changes and that everyone needs to start over to prove themselves. Their prior record is essentially erased because this new co doesn't know them. He isn't going to appreciate their work and Chancho said that his best piece of advice from attending the Sensitivity Training was that the department doesn't appreciate what you do or how much activity you do. You're just a number to them and if you do anything wrong enough to cost them money they will fire you no matter what, even if you were doing what they asked. Sounds like the right time to be moving on to something new and better in my opinion. He's already being screwed over by having to work later this Friday and Saturday because of Halloween.

Hopefully, he gets this new position and is happy with it.

Pie Update: His family loved it! A big hit, his mother called to ask him where it went to because she needed to eat it! Success! Now I just need to make another one, an American Apple Pie.

Quote of the Day: "A name makes no matter to me, as long as I can call you my own." - A Knight's Tale

Apple Pie Outcome

Wellll the outcome of the pie is that it didn't taste the way I wanted it to. The house didn't even smell as it was supposed to while I was cooking it. It turns out that I was reading the wrong recipe. I was making a French Apple Pie. It called for some interesting ingredients, which I followed, but was a little confused about. It wanted eggs to be used in the filler and apricots as well. There wasn't any cinnamon either. It is definitely an edible pie though. My father ate half a slice, which is saying a lot because he never, ever, eats sweets, at least not before midnight. I am going to follow the real apple pie recipe for Chancho's family. If it doesn't come out well, then so be it. It is the thought that counts right? I'm aiming to make the next pie tomorrow during my day off and while Chancho sleeps, this way when he wakes up he'll have something to try out. I'm also hoping that this next pie won't take me a gazillion hours to make.

On the topic of food, last night I ordered Chinese food. I was in the daring mood to broaden my horizons with their food so I got the Hawaiian Five-O. It comes with a mixture of seafood, like jumbo shrimp, lobster and crab. Then mixed in with that there is chicken and pork, along with broccoli, water chestnuts, mushrooms and other things I'm not sure of. It tasted really good. I would order it again. However, the appetizer I got, boneless spareribs, I would not. I'm not sure if it was just this place, but the sauce they used was too bitter. I also got my usual egg roll, I love egg rolls, especially dipped in sweet and sour sauce. I was a bit upset that the dinner didn't come with a fortune cookie. The economy to blame? or is it just a forgetful employee? I was looking forward to it because we are collecting the fortunes to put in a picture frame. The goal is to hang up a few picture frames in the bathroom that have the fortunes in them. We have one frame full already.

Lastly, it seems that we have to wait another night before we know if the Yankees will head to the world series! The suspense is killing me!! Chancho is going crazy. He can't sleep well at night because that's all he's thinking about. Hopefully we can win this! I want to go to Philly to see them. A dream of mine is to visit all of the Baseball stadiums. This would help me out if they got to the world series. In fact, Chancho and I were planning the trip out west to go to Disneyland and if that didn't work out then we would aim for a stadium out west instead. Is it sad that we are planning our vacations around the Yankees? I would like to call it dedicated fans!

Quote of the Day: "The most important thing in life is your family. There are days you love them, and others you don't. But, in the end, they're the people you always come home to. Sometimes it's the family you're born into and sometimes it's the one you make for yourself." -Sex & the City

Apple Pie

I finally had time today to bake my apple pie. Only 3 weeks after apple picking. I am too nervous to give it a try so it is still sitting on the top of the oven waiting for someone to dig in and give me the report on how it tastes. If it goes well then I'll make the second pie for Chancho's family. I can't believe that Chancho has never had an apple pie before and second that they haven't had an apple pie since moving to the US. Hopefully I can provide them with a tasty one to remind them of how good they are. Sadly it took me around 2 and a half hours to make the pie. I was distracted by text messages and downloading music, but still I feel like it took me a really long time to make it. I also think that the next pie I make, I will not be making homemade crust. It takes too much time, especially when I can just buy it and roll it out.

Chancho returned back to his regular work schedule today. He was attending the sensitivity training for the past 3 days. His last class involved an interactive movie. Those that were in the class were given remotes and got to decide what the officers did in the movie and that then in turn created a new situation for them to figure out. For example, a police officer does a car stop. When he walks up to the car he notices that there is an African American sitting in the driver seat. The class then had to decide from 3 choices what the officer did next. A.) Ask for license and registration. B.) Ask the driver to step out of the car or C.) Call for back up. Once the class voted, whichever choice had the most percentage of votes, the officer did what they picked and then the next situation would arrive. Chancho said that they all just goofed off and picked the wrong or morally wrong answer just to mess around with the instructor. He said he had a good time, but he's glad to be back working his shift again.

Quote of the Day: "You say 'Looks like somebody has too much time on their hands.', but all I hear is 'I'm sad because I don't know what creativity feels like.'."

Thank You All

Only a few days have passed since the "big" conversation happened, but there has been a lot progress that has taken place. Thank you all who commented and were able to give some advice and to settle my negative thoughts. It is great to know that there are people out there to support others in similar situations. It is greatly appreciated, especially when I feel that no one else understands.

We have had a few conversations here and there to discuss what we can do to help our relationship move in a positive direction and I thought I'd list a few of our solutions for others to read about in case they themselves stumble upon this situation.

• Movie Nights: We subscribed to Netflix. It is cost effective and is delivered to the mailbox to erase the time consuming drive to a local movie store. We will be taking turns picking our movies.
• Combining Family and Girlfriend time. We've realized that these two worlds do not need to be seperate. It also pleases both sides and Chancho doesn't have to be torn between the both of us.
• Less Sleeping. This is still a work in progress, but Chancho did agree to give it a try with only sleeping 8-9 hours, instead of 12. This should open up a big chunk of time that can be spent with loved ones.
• Quality Time. The time we spend together is more about us and less about extra activities or useless doings. When we are together it should be about us interacting and really connecting.

It is still a work in progress and I have realized that this is something we need to work at together and leave open a line of free communication. Once that communication stops, all will go haywire. Hopefully these few acts will benefit us and others that need some options.

Thanks once more to everyone!

Quote of the Day: "You are everything I never knew I always wanted. I'm not even sure what that means exactly, but I think that it has something to do with the rest of my life." -Fools Rush In

Asking for Some Help

Today was a very interesting day to say the least. For the past couple of days I have been fighting back this feeling that things were a bit disconnected between Chancho and myself. Unfortunately the emotions won that battle. I broke down and first I got mad and then I started bawling my eyes out. We had a very serious conversation about where our relationship was going and it doesn't look good. Chancho doesn't know where to begin when it comes to fixing our situation. As you all know time is a valuable thing in a relationship and when you're a cop there is very little of it to be passed around. Chancho doesn't believe that there can be enough time for me to be in his life with me being happy and treated the way that I need to be treated. The thought of this crushes my heart. I have been trying my best to be patient, even though that is not my strong point. But the one thing that I am good at is being flexible and I am more than willing to flex in anyway possible to make this work out so we are both happy.

The problems that have developed are that he doesn't have time for his family #1. They are the most important people in his life and he has been letting them be put aside to spend time with me and I feel very guilty about this. I am willing to sacrifice time for him to spend with them. #2 the time that we spend together hasn't been quality time, it's just time spent in each others presence. (I'll blame the Yankees on that one for right now.) #3 Chancho feels we are so far into trouble that he doesn't know where to start and if it is even fixable.

The solution. I realize that there is no quick fix. The change will not come over night and I am not expecting that. What I am asking of, from the both of us, is that we take baby steps, whatever those may be, so that we can get back to a mutual happy ground for us to rebuild a stronger relationship. I feel that if we focus on the time that we spend together as quality time then things can get better. Priorities need to be set for him so he can manage his time better. ( My thoughts are that he sleeps less!)

My fears. I am terrified that he isn't willing to put up a fight for us. That he is ready to just walk away and let our relationship go, that I am not worth it.

I am sorry for putting this all out there, but I am desperate for some advice on how you all manage to keep things in order. As I see it, it really is about the time issue. If it's something else, I am unaware of it. If anyone has any ideas as to how to start going about getting back on track it would be greatly appreciated.

Sensitivity Training

5 o'clock seems a little different when I have to be at that time and it's not for work. I made it home early from work at midnight after a quick overnight at work and had trouble falling asleep from being so mad at the Yankees, but I did eventually fall asleep. Chancho on the other hand, I learned pulled an all nighter from being so mad. They lost their game last night by a single pitch. It wasn't the greatest sight to be seen, but anyways, Chancho needed to be in Manhattan this morning for his first of three days of Sensitivity Training. Here enters me to give him that ride to the train station so he could make the 5:19am train. Which leaves me wide awake and able to have time to blog.

He has received 3 civilian complaints this year. Therefore, the big guys upstairs believe that he doesn't know how to talk to people properly. (Which in my eyes is completely wrong.) Apparently every cop who receives these 3 complaints within less than a year must attend these classes, plus you are put on a level one monitoring. In Chancho's situation all three were looked into and classified as unsubstantiated, meaning they don't have enough to go forward with so his actions were deemed proper, but NYPD still puts their cops on monitoring regardless if found not guilty. In two of the cases it was actually Chancho's partner who got the complaint, but because he was there and involved the complaint got tacked onto his file as well. (Not fair in my eyes.)

The class is 3 days long. It is held in the academy building and involves guest speakers that talk about community policing and how to be more sensitive when talking to people. Very simple I suppose, but I bet a real bore. All ranks are placed together in this class too. Luckily his monitoring is almost up. He only has until January to go. Hopefully nothing else comes up until then. I'm worried that he's going to wind up falling fast asleep during this class. He can sleep anywhere, at anytime and by the sounds of this, he will be asleep before the first couple of words are spoken. I hope that he gets out early too. That will give us a little more time before I need to be back at work.

I start work tonight at 8pm and get out at 5am. I hope it goes by quickly and smoothly. There should be a big team coming to help, around 20 of us. From the sounds of it though these aren't the normal people who do trucks and maintenance in the store so it may not go so smoothly. There will be a lot of teaching and patience will be needed on my part and that is the one thing I do not have a lot of. At least we'll be fed by the company. Last night they ordered 3 pies and we finished all three, pepperoni, cheese and chicken finger. My supervisor said she's making brownies, I hope she remembers!

I am going to try and get back to sleep, at least until the sun comes up.

Quote of the Day: "Do what makes you happy. Be with who makes you smile. Laugh as much as you breathe && Love as long as you live."

Change of Pace

Chancho worked a new shift today. He started today at 3pm and will get out at 11:35pm, but he is doing 3 hours of overtime to add onto it. The reason behind the shift change was that they needed someone to do patrol. He volunteered with one of his partners and they began their day with a transport of 2 males and his detail for the night involves all of Van Cortland park. Now the good news is that he'll have a daytour Tuesday and Wednesday and on Thursday he's taking a class at the police academy for community sensitivity which gets him home around 4pm. This would be a great upcoming week, but I have the overnight shifts at my job. So we will have about 3-4 hours in between our shifts to see one another. I feel that there is a mini vacation in order for us to catch up with one another. He received his vacation voucher for donating his car, so maybe that can be used up. I'd love to visit California or Florida to get some warm weather and I heard that if you volunteer with some organization you can get a free pass to Disney Land or Disney World. It would work out great if we could combine the two to make a great vacation.

On a side note, I need to work in time to bake some apple pies. I have all of these apples still sitting there staring at me. I'm going to have to suck it up and just do it one of these days. I don't want the apples to go bad.

The Yankee game was amazing as usual. We sat up in the grandstands along the 1st base line next to the foul pole. It was freezing, absolutely freezing out. I had on 7 layers and still managed to be cold. If we wind up going to the world series, I am going to bring a comforter with me to stay warm. Towards the end of the game there was a rowdy fan that was getting a little out of control in the annoying sense and got kicked out for a brief moment. Well his friends didn't like that too much and came back and started causing some ruckus. A few things were thrown, a beer bottle landed in the row behind us as guys were holding the rambunctious guys back from hitting one another. I just wanted to watch the game, but I was a bit afraid of something hitting me from behind. The Yankees won 4-1! Hopefully tonight's game goes as smoothly! I'll be out with coworkers going to another gay bar, hopefully the game will be on there so I can keep track.

Quote of the Day: "I don't make you feel special. I just remind you that you are special." - David F. Sims

Weather

It's raining. It's been raining all day. It probably will rain all day tomorrow and the day after. I had to be carrying customers purchased items out to their cars all day in the rain. I was not thrilled. The store was jam packed with customers all day. When it rains, it's when they go shopping. It's crappy and they have nothing else to do, but go spend their money. It's just what people do.

Now for Chancho, he can't get anything. He's been driving around looking for action. He needs to get his fourth arrest for the month, but there is nothing out there. If anything I think that they should be looking inside buildings for trespassers. It's raining out, therefore people go inside to get out of it. Stairwells are always a huge hit. However, I am not too fond of the building sweeps. Last year around Christmas they had an incident that left his partner out of work for a bit with am injured back. I guess they do what they have to do though. The buildings that they usually look in are located in the "ghetto". Not a great place that I want Chancho to be in, but I realize that this is something he's got to do. If he can handle it, then so can I. Here's a little story about his first day on the job that involved these buildings. His first day on the job, fresh out of the academy. He's with an Asian guy who is also doing his first day. Instead of being a patrol officer, they were placed into an Impact Team. They go wherever the precinct needs them. For instance, say there was a shooting or a stabbing in a certain neighborhood, that's where his team would focus on for that day or week, just to let the public know they are doing something about it. So here he is in this particular neighborhood and he's outside of one of these "ghetto" buildings when he gets shot at from above. Everyone is okay, nothing bad happens, situation is taken care of. He goes back to the precinct and says "This is going to be a long 20 years." and heads home. The Asian guy who was with him goes back to the precinct and says "Here's my shield and gun. I'm out of here." and Chancho never saw him again. It definitely takes a special person to do what they do everyday, no doubt about it.

Yankee game tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed it doesn't get rained out!

Quote of the Day: "This is your life, right now. It doesn't wait for you to get back on your feet." -A Lot Like Love

Yankees Again

I just purchased game #1 of the ALCS for Friday!! I am pumped! Again, we're in the grandstand section, 8th row, but this time on the 1st base side. I don't want to talk about how this is affecting my bank account, but I am sticking to the fact that I am young and this is the time to be acting irrational. I don't have any other responsibilities so I can do this. It may not seem like a great idea to others, but I have convinced myself it will be worth it. Chancho is overly excited, he got his sergeant's permission to work an earlier tour and he can take loss time on top of that to get out in time for the game. And on the topic of Yankees, I received Chancho's Christmas present in the mail today. I pretty much peed in my pants when I saw it. I can't believe how beautiful it is. Never in a million years did I think I would have something like this in my own hands. It will have to be put into a display case for sure. But here it is in all it's glory, an actual, certified Mariano Rivera signed Yankee jersey!

I'm sure you all are getting tired of hearing about the Yankees, but it will soon be over by the end of November, just hang in there with me!

Quote of the Day: "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”

Todays Funnies

Here are some funny situations if you will that had me literally laughing out loud. Have a good laugh courtesy of my sister:

WOMAN'S PERFECT BREAKFAST
She's sitting at the table with her gourmet coffee. Her son is on the cover of the Wheaties box. Her daughter is on the cover of Business Week. Her boyfriend is on the cover of Playgirl. And her husband is on the back of the milk carton.
WOMEN'S REVENGE
'Cash, check or charge?' I asked, after folding items the woman wished to purchase. As she fumbled for her wallet, I noticed a remote control for a television set in her purse. 'So, do you always carry your TV remote?' I asked. 'No,' she replied, 'but my husband refused to come shopping with me, and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally.'
UNDERSTANDING WOMEN (A MAN'S PERSPECTIVE)
I know I'm not going to understand women. I'll never understand how you can take boiling hot wax, pour it onto your upper thigh, rip the hair out by the root, and still be afraid of a spider.
CIGARETTES AND TAMPONS
A man walks into a pharmacy and wanders up & down the aisles... The sales girl notices him and asks him if she can help him. He answers that he is looking for a box of tampons for his wife. She directs him down the correct aisle. A few minutes later, he deposits a huge bag of cotton balls and a ball of string on the counter. She says, confused, 'Sir, I thought you were looking for some tampons for your wife? He answers, 'You see, it's like this, yesterday, I sent my wife to the store to get me a carton of cigarettes, and she came back with a tin of tobacco and some rolling papers; cause it's sooo-ooo--oo-ooo much cheaper. So, I figure if I have to roll my own . so does she.. (I figure this guy is the one on the milk carton!)
WIFE VS. HUSBAND
A couple drove down a country road for several miles, not saying a word. An earlier discussion had led to an argument and neither of them wanted to concede their position... As they passed a barnyard of mules, goats, and pigs, the husband asked sarcastically, 'Relatives of yours?' 'Yep,' the wife replied, 'in-laws.'
WORDS
A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day. 30,000 to a man's 15,000. The wife replied, 'The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men... The husband then turned to his wife and asked, 'What?'
WHO DOES WHAT
A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, 'You should do it because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee. The husband said, 'You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee.' Wife replies, 'No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee.' Husband replies, 'I can't believe that, show me.' So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says . 'HEBREWS'
THE SILENT TREATMENT
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, 'Please wake me at 5:00 AM.' He left it where he knew she would find it. The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, 'It is 5:00 AM. Wake up..'
Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.

God may have created man before woman, but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece.

MNF

Monday night football. I am not a football fan. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I have never gotten into it. My family is purely a baseball family. Hence my deep dedication to the Yankees. This is not the case for Chancho. He is a Jets fan. So here I am stuck with the Jets game on. I was trying to be patient and watched the 1st and 2nd quarter of the game, but I can't handle it any longer. I don't know all of the terms that are used and am just confused half of the time. I thought for a moment that I would learn it, Chancho did say that he would be happy to teach me and answer any questions that I have, but I can't get into it. I'm convinced it will always be this way.

Chancho has a daytour on Thursday this week. That will be nice to have a day to see him. However, it is not on Friday when the first game of the ALCS starts. He's a tad upset about that. I am hoping that he will get a daytour for Saturday because I am going out with coworkers to a gay bar in Connecticut and I want Chancho to come out with us. It probably won't happen if his older partner is driving. He's still figuring out how to get him to do work. He just doesn't seem to have the motivation to do anything except visit his girlfriend. I think they should take that time to come visit me, if they aren't going to do any work. Not that I'm condoning them not doing any work. Just want it to be fair all the way around.

For myself, this week, it should be rather light. We're gearing up for Gift Wrap Wonderland (GWW). This entails us transforming the center of the store so that it can fit all of the gift wrap and red and green colored items for Christmas. The following week is going to be very hectic for me. I have 3 overnights, going in at 8pm and getting out at 5am. It will be a full work week after that. I shouldn't worry about being bored. I'm excited for this to start. It should be a lot of fun and I love getting out of the habit of everyday routines in the store, this will mix it up a bit. Plus it is Christmas stuff, my favorite!

Quote of the Day: You can tell a lot about a person by the way he handles four things: a rainy day, the elderly, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

A Late Night

Saturday night became a long night for Chancho and I. It started out just a usual Saturday night, as most nights do when they turn into something bigger, I was home and bored attempting to keep myself occupied. I was texting Chancho here and there hoping that he would keep me entertained as he was riding in the backseat of the SUV and didn't have to drive. Then I didn't get a response back. An hour later, still nothing back. That's when the "I hope he's okay" "What happened?" "Is everyone alright?" starts to kick in. I can usually push those to the back of my mind for a couple more hours, but I was bored and didn't have anything else to focus on. Thankfully he responded before I got too crazy and let me know that they were the first responders to a 4 person burglary and one of them jumped out of the 4th floor. He filled me in on the details and then his night got busy. The guy decided to jump when they arrived there. He was still living when back up arrived and he got to the hospital okay, but he died on the table, but they were able to revive him and the last I heard he was in critical condition. I'd say he's lucky for having broken every bone in his body. However, Chancho was stuck with having to deal with the situation. He said that he was fine, just wouldn't be able to eat for a while after seeing the guy jump. He was told to held in the precinct until 4am waiting to be released. His phone was traced to make sure he didn't share any information and he thought he was going to be interviewed, but thankfully the the other perps told the truth about what happened. Crazy night.

Another Quote for Today: The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. - Joseph Addison

Yankees and Apple Picking

First I need to update on how my lovely Yankees are doing. Game #2 was absolutely amazing! 11 innings of intense, nail biting. I thought for sure they weren't going to make it through. However, Tex, sent a text message out to left field sending them into a walk off win!! Game #3, tonight, was just as exciting. It didn't go into any extra innings, but they were losing until Arod hit a home run, followed by Posada hitting another home run. The Twins messed up in some base running and we were able to win it! We swept the series!! Now here come the Angels. I am very, so very, nervous about this match up. The Angels are looking pretty good and we have yet to win against them. I am hoping that the post season magic starts brewing up some potions for us to get the wins that we need. It's been 9 long years since we made it to the world series, I'd like to add another to our list of wins. That's all for the Yankees...for now.

Apple picking finally managed to sneak into our plans today. We were up early after a long night and headed to Connecticut for our first apple picking trip. The fall leaves were just gorgeous and stupid me, I forgot my camera on my way out the door. I am so upset with myself, but I took some mental pictures. I had to drive because Chancho was busy reading Yankee articles on the way up. I told him he was addicted to reading them, it's official, it has hindered his living, by not being able to drive. We made it there without any wrong turns and plenty of time to walk around. Every tree we came upon we tested the apples and then started shoving our bags with them. There was hail earlier in the season and it ruined the apples so they were only a $1 a pound. The apples we got didn't seem to be ruined to us, in fact they looked perfect. We had some great times climbing inside of the branches searching for apples. At one point Chancho was lifting me up trying to get me to reach this one apple that he just needed to have. I was able to get it, but on the one side we couldn't see, it had a huge bug hole. There were fuzzy caterpillars crawling about and the first time Chancho saw one, he squealed like a little girl. We were able to finish rather quickly, only one bag each and our total was $18.60.

After apple picking we stopped by my grandmother's house. She lives 15 mins away. We surprised her and to our surprise two of my aunt's and my one cousin had just called to say they were on their way. It turned out to be a great afternoon visiting family. She's in the process of selling her house. It's up on the market, with no takers as of now. We're trying to empty her house little by little so that when it does sell there won't be much for her to move. We were able to take a dresser home with us for my father and a old family photo album. Way before I was born, but it was nice to see pictures of everyone, especially my grandfather who I barely remember. When we got in the car to head out for a early dinner, I noticed that Chancho had one of the fliers in his hand from the table that had everything about the house. I questioned him about it and he told me that he was interested in the house. I thought he was joking, but he corrected me and said that he wants it. He loves it. Now there are few things going through my mind when he's telling me that he's serious about buying my grandmother's house. 1. He can't afford it. 2. He can't live there full time, he needs to reside in NY to be on the force. 3. What is he suggesting by this? We then arrive at Chili's, which by the way I am in love with their 2 for $20 deal, so much better than Applebees. I bring the house up and really start to have a conversation about it and he says that he wants me to buy this house with him. I would absolutely buy it. I love that house, I was distraught when I found out that they were selling it. To be able to keep it and live in it, that would be amazing. It is on a beautiful lake, in a wonderful neighborhood and it's a 4 bedroom house with 2 full baths. It does need a lot of work done to it, but what house doesn't. The only problem is money. Neither of us can afford it right now and we would only be able to live in it on weekends. In reality, it would be a weekend house until Chancho retires. His idea is that we buy it now and pay it off by the time he retires so we have a place to live that is taken care of. Smart move, but that's a long ways away. It will just take a lot of thinking and managing before any moves are taken, but at least it has been put out there for us to think about. It seems to be the only thing on my mind lately.

Quote of the Day: When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.

ALDS Game #1

Welcome to the concrete jungle Twinkies! It was so unbelievably fun yesterday. I began the day with work from 5am to 9am and quickly headed over to Chancho's for a nap until 1pm. We were supposed to leave to go to the bars around 2pm, but he finished his mlb game early and was anxious to start pregaming. My sleep suffered the consequences. We made it to James Joyce by 1pm, he woke me at 12:30pm. We ordered lunch/dinner and a ton of drinks. Our waiter was the greatest. He payed us special attention the entire 3 hours that we were there for and gave us a few rounds on him. He happened to be the same waiter that was waiting on us the day we found out that Michael Jackson died. We must have had a bonding moment over that.

Once on the train, Chancho whipped out his police ID and showed the MTA employee so we didn't have to buy a ticket, but she responded with "That won't work once you get to the Yankee Stadium station, you'll need to buy a ticket." We have a traveled there before using his ID and hadn't run into a problem before and Chancho shared that with this employee who automatically struck up an attitude with him. She turns to me and says "Does he not understand me? I said that you can't use that at the Yankee Stadium station and you'll get us in trouble. I have a memo that I can show you two." I was shocked. Chancho was just stating that he hadn't had problems in the past. There wasn't a hint of authority or snottiness in his voice when he said it either. The lady returned with the memo and it did say that the ID wouldn't be allowed to get through the turn styles unless you had a MTA police card. (Which Chancho does have) The memo was issued in June. We went through two weeks ago without a problem. Chancho offered to pay for the tickets on the train and she refused his money. She said she didn't want it and that that wasn't her point. Not sure then exactly what her point was if she was saying that his ID wasn't going to work, which would mean we would need to buy tickets, but yet she wouldn't take his money. Anyways, we got through without a problem. I figure she's either 1. a rookie and is nervous or 2. has had a bad experience with cops before.

Once inside the stadium and in our seats we drank away and enjoyed the game! The Yankees won 7-2. It was the greatest experience. I loved every minute of it. Thank you so much Chancho for the birthday present! It was worth every penny spent. Even if it did lead to a rough morning at 7am for a mandatory meeting at work.

Speaking of presents, in my intoxicated state, I shared with Chancho what I got him for Christmas. I couldn't hold it in. So now I can share on here, I got him a signed Mariano Rivera jersey. It should arrive within the next week. I did however manage to hide the surprise that I ordered him a dozen baby roses for our anniversary which is today. Not a big anniversary, but I just wanted to show him that I too can do some romancing. He loved it.

Christmas Surprise

I ordered Chancho's present today. I hopefully will be receiving it in the mail within the usual 7-10 business days. I was right, he did snoop around to try and figure out what I got him. My only hint, it has to deal with the Yankees. The price actually crept up on me and I spent a little more than I wanted to, but it is definitely worth it. I am tempted to give it to him early. I am just very happy that it's ordered and on it's way to my house. I can check his name off of the list and move on to others in the family. I always find it hard to buy something for my brother in law and sister in law. It's not that I don't feel like I know them, because I do have a good sense of what they like, it's just in my family we are very open about our gifts. We put a list out and we each write our name down next to what we're getting one another. There isn't any surprise to it. It just makes it a lot simpler for us. There are 7 of us in the family, not that big, but big enough to make it confusing when it comes to who is buying what for who. It usually goes something like this: "What do you want?" "A red large duffel bag from LL Bean" "Okay you're getting that from me". Or you say what you're price range is and they'll tell you something from their list that fits that. Now for the brother and sister in laws they want they're presents to be a surprise, which means I have to figure it out myself. Yes, I know, that requires me to do some extra thinking. I'm getting a head start this year. At least for when it comes to me, I have my birthday in November so I make one list and hand it out to everyone and I'm done. And this year I have to come up with presents for Chancho's family as well. The list just keeps on growing. I'm glad I love Christmas and I'm not someone who finds it all to be a "Hallmark" holiday.

Quote of the day: Shakespeare wrote: 'Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds.' When life gets hard, when things change, true love remains the same. -One Tree Hill

Monday Mumblings of Memorable People

In the fall spirit, I thought I'd write about a trip to Pumpkinville that Elisabeth and I once took. We were of course not doing school work, but sitting in our respective rooms listening to music and chatting online with friends instead. I get an instant message from Elisabeth from the room next to me telling me to visit this website called Pumpkinville. I was very confused to as what this could be, but I clicked on it anyways and low and behold there is a place in NY that is called Pumpkinville. (Only in WNY would there be a place) She said we had to go. There was no option, we were going. So we planned a date. It turns out that it was the day after a very eventful, drunk Halloween party. Elisabeth's friend from home was visiting for Halloween and she joined us on the adventure along with our two neighbors. The five of us crammed into the car with mapquest directions and horrible hangovers to find this place. After driving for about 35 minutes we realize that the gas tank is on E. The E light was screaming at us to get gas, but out in the middle of corn fields and cows there aren't any gas stations to be seen. We placed the car in neutral let the hills take us as far as we could go. We luckily made it to a gas station on fumes. A couple of wrong turns after that we found ourselves winding through bright yellow and orange turning leaves to Pumpkinville! It was great! They had a great selection of pumpkins that were picked for you right when you walked through the front fence and all along the fence were little sheds that they made into booths to sell, chocolate, homemade crafts, donuts, Halloween decorations, Thanksgiving decorations, corn, squash, apples, cider, and their own T-shirts. They had a petting zoo of goats and sheep. They also had a "haunted tunnel". It was literally a step in and step out of it shed that had spiderwebs and fake black spiders attached, clearly for those under the age of 6. We found ourselves taking pictures in the cut out figures, making ourselves into ghosts, scarecrows and they even had the characters from Peanuts! We were too old to ride on the cow train, but it was cute to watch all of the little kids having fun. Out in the back was a large field that allowed you to pick out your own pumpkin if that's what you chose to do and off to the side of that was the corn shotgun. You got 3 corns and placed it into the gun and it was a contest to see how far you could shoot it out. I think you got a pumpkin if you got it the furthest. They also had great food. The usual hot dogs, french fries, sausage, and chili. One of the main attractions besides the pumpkins was the old cider mill. You got to watch cider being made in front of you. It was pretty cool, but too boring for us to actually watch the entire thing. We enjoyed ourselves and it was great to get away from school for a while. We enjoyed ourselves so much that Elisabeth and I took our roommates to it the next year.

I wish that I was able to go again this year, but being 7 hours away, it doesn't seem worth it to me. I'll have to find something close by that could substitute it.

Quote of the Day: "The best memories come from the best of times, which can only come from the best of friends."

Tick Tock

I've spent the entire day waiting. First I was waiting to hear if Chancho got home safe from work. He finally arrived home way past his usual arrival at around 3:30am. He got stuck doing overtime, which was only supposed to be an hour long, doing bar raids. Then I was waiting for him to get out of work at 2pm from work at the deli. I did manage to sneak in a visit to get some breakfast for my mother and myself, but the grill closed so we had to settle for sandwiches. Chancho labeled the sandwiches to my surprise. Mine was labeled "sloth" for not making it in before the grill closed, my mother's was "momma dukes" and he even gave my father a "sandwich". I'm not sure what it is yet because he wasn't home to open it when I was there. As simple as that was, it put a smile on my face. Now finally I'm waiting for him to wake up. Because he got home at 3:30am and then only got 2 hours of sleep before he had to be at the deli, he's exhausted. So much for having a day together. I'm giving him a limit though. He needs to be awake by 7:30pm so we can have dinner together. Luckily there's a good movie on, Stepmom and I am able to keep myself busy at his place while he's passed out, snoring ridiculously. I'm actually surprised that he didn't wake up from me turning the volume up so loud over his snores.

On another note, Chancho got some interesting news today about his father. He's gotten into some trouble and may be needing to vacate his condo permanently. Therefore, Chancho is considering taking it off of his hands for him. It seems like it could be a beneficial thing, but I'm a little weary of the package that comes along with it. The extra bills. It would make things extra extra tight on his end. Although, if he can handle it, it would make his credit golden. I'm just concerned about the added stress that it would add to his plate. Thankfully, it doesn't need to be decided right now and there can be some time to think it completely over.

I am working on Chancho's Christmas gift. I am debating on whether or not to even write about this on here because I know that on occasion he does read this and once he finds out that I am looking or have thought about looking for a gift he'll go to any lengths to figure out what I got him. So I'll try and keep it light, it's just something I am so excited about and cannot wait to give to him, once I get it. I know he's going to love it, which makes me so happy. It will go over our spending cap, but he went over last year, so I'll make this my year to go over it. Once I receive more information on if I can actually receive it, I'll write more, if I can. I am awful at keeping surprises from people. Especially when they are good ones. When I got my sister's Christmas gift last year, I almost burst at the seams with excitement. She wanted a huge piggy bank and I had searched high and dry for one with no luck. I had also been away in bumbleweeds NY so I didn't have the greatest stores to find one either, so two days before Christmas I came home and went straight to our mall and found one, in of course the last store that I looked in. I was about to give up for the day too. I called everyone I knew to tell them that I found it and it was exactly what she wanted. The morning that we celebrated, I had her open her gift first just to see her expression. It was priceless. She loved it! This is one of the many reasons I love Christmas. It is absolutely my favorite holiday of the year.

Chancho just woke up to watch the end of the Jets game. Looks like we will be going out to dinner after all. Applebees it is. Loving their 2 for $20 deal!

Quote of the Day: You know as well as I do it's not about what you look like, or your job, or how successful you are. It's about having people in your life that you love and who love you...that's all that matters. -- Grey's Anatomy

Just Another Day

Starting the day out I did not want to work. I was laying in bed all morning and enjoying the warmth from the comforter. I dragged myself out around 3:30pm after browsing the web and searching for a new comforter that would match my soon to be new room. I showered and still did not want to go to work. It was raining and just looked miserable out. Thankfully my mother showed mercy and drove me to work on her way out to do some errands. The parking lot was full and two people almost backed into us on the way to the front door and one person drove out of the parking lot onto a one way the wrong way. I thought "this better not be the way today is going to go". As I walked into the jam-packed store I was kindly greeted by one of my favorite coworkers and that instantly changed my mood. She put a smile on my face and I was able to walk to the break room without any other "signs" of a bad day. Inside of the break room my supervisor waved hello and immediately told me he was leaving for the day. That meant I was in charge. The first day that they had left me to run the visual sales for more than 2 hours. This is a big thing for them. They are finally putting trust in me and allowing me to take leadership. I was in charge of only 4 people, but one was a brand new hire. I quickly showed her where the list of "chores" were for the day and if she had any questions that she could come ask me. I stayed near her for the first hour and then knew she was good to go on her own. I knew she wasn't going to need much help, she is a lawyer during the day. The rest of the night went really well. A lot of good people showed up to work and made the evening go by so much faster. We were able to make our sales goal by 6pm and finally we made last years sale goal. The store manager went out and bought klondike bars for all of us to celebrate. I hope that we can keep this up because I could definitely use a raise, but we don't get one unless we beat last years goal. We're only .5% behind it. I'm hoping real hard for that raise. I also was able to look for people to cover my Thursday shift just in case the Yankee game gets postponed until Thursday. Hopefully one of the people I left a note for will be able to take the shift.

Chancho is off tomorrow, but working at the deli all morning. That means I get a fresh breakfast! He also is doing a paid detail on Monday, but gets home at 5pm. Only a few hours there for us, but I'm accepting it because it is better than none. We're really going to try for apple picking next weekend. I hope that it happens. I want to make some apple pie. Chancho has never had it. My goal is for him to eat some by the end of this year. If not from when we go, then from Thanksgiving.

I mentioned above about my new room. I think that by the end of this year it will be complete, if not, it will damn near close to being done finally. I have narrowed down the search for my comforter and sheets. It is going to be black/gray/red. Any style with those colors in it will do. The walls of my room are going to be white, with one wall a darker red. I think tomorrow I will be going to pick out the paint swatches to be positive on the red. Once the room is painted I can hang the pictures and posters. That will be a huge achievement seeing they have been just sitting collecting dust for about 4 months now. Then hopefully for my birthday or Christmas I can get the comforter/sheets. My last goal is shelving. I have a ton of pictures that I would like to put into frames and have displayed, but on shelves. I also have a few random things that I want displayed, but no room for it. It finally is coming together, slowly but surely. I can see the end of the tunnel.

Quote of the Day: But love, I’ve come to understand, is more than three words mumbled before bedtime. Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day. –The Wedding

Happy Early Birthday

It is official. I have gotten my early birthday present from Chancho. He bought game #1 tickets to the Yankees division series. We're only going to be in the grandstands, but I will be there. I will be at a division series game!! This is a milestone in my life. I have always dreamed of going, and to a world series, but that still may happen. So October 7th, I'll be in Yankee stadium watching the Yankees play. It still hasn't been decided who they're playing against, but it will most likely be the Tigers. We've already discussed how the day is going to happen. First we'll hit a bar across from the stadium well before the game starts and then head in to watch the game so we can be obnoxious intoxicated Yankee fans and not pay for pricey beers inside and then take the train home. I sadly have a mandatory meeting at work the next day at 7am so hopefully it doesn't get too out of control. Good news is that the game is on a Wednesday and Chancho has the day off without using his co's day. His sergeant said he'd give it to him. I'll take that any day!

Chancho has a new partner that he's been working with along side his regular partner and he's been causing a little bit of a problem for him. Since Chancho has been working he's been able to meet all of his quotas without a problem and has worked to the best of his ability, minus the nights they sit back and watch movies in the SUV, but of course that's after they've met their quotas. Now that this guy has been assigned to work with them, they haven't been doing so great. He has a lot more years on Chancho, therefore, he is in control of what they do and how they do it. He drives the SUV around and doesn't do much work. at all. He barely does two car stops a night. I'm not really sure how that is going to allow three guys to find their arrests and summonses by the end of the month. Chancho isn't worried about it, he says that he'll just tell them to partner him with someone else and they'll get their numbers. I guess if he's not worried about it, then I shouldn't be either. To me, I think they're going to look at it like he's slacking because he was just given two co's days and now he doesn't have to work so hard because they think he's doing great. Then again, I am not a cop and don't know how it really goes down in the precinct and I should let him deal with it when the issue arrives, if it even does.

Time to watch The Office!

Quote of the Day: I think to myself that when you’re in love, sometimes you have to swallow your pride, and sometimes you have to fight to keep your pride. It’s a balance. But when the relationship is right, you find that balance -Something Borrowed