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