Toadfrogs & Elephants

My company had it’s annual Legal Conference this past week. I haven’t been with the company for previous retreats, but this one was awesome. We spent three days at Chateau Elan in Braselton, GA. I was a little apprehensive about going. I know lots of the lawyers, but wouldn’t be comfortable with them in a social setting. This year was a joint legal and finance conference so I was hoping there would be some other young people. I wasn’t thinking that this was mostly high level people. I was the youngest person by about 15 years.

Regardless, I had a great time. There were about five speakers – a major investor, a board member, the CEO, and two panels of engineers. I learned a lot about the company and found some people in my department that are a lot of fun! We listened to the speakers for about four hours every day and the rest of the time was free. There is a spa at the hotel so I got a hot stone massage for my leisure activity- now that was relaxing!

The retreat ended at noon on Friday and we were done for the day. I decided to stay at the hotel and use their pool. I miss having a pool – that is the only bad thing about renting a house versus being in an apartment. I did get rid of those pesky strap marks though. Now I am ready for Melissa’s wedding.

Wade’s family (his mom, dad, and sister) came to visit for the long weekend. Wade and I both got off work early, and his parents arrived on Friday evening. We went out to dinner and then played dominoes – I won! His sister, Emily, joined us the next afternoon and we all got in the car to drive to Auburn. Wade’s dad and sister graduated from Auburn and Wade and I graduated from Tech. His mom tried to be impartial and root for both teams. We arrived in the early afternoon and revisited some old favorites of his dad. I am not a huge football fan, but I learned a lot about the game (Wade answered all my questions) and Tech won!!

I graduated three years ago, we were at an away game, and I still saw people I knew – how cool is that? We didn’t get back to Atlanta till 3:30 AM so most of Sunday was spent recovering and shoe shopping for Emily. Everyone left early on Monday and Wade and I spent the day relaxing. Wade’s parents took Madison with them. His dad is a vet and the plan is to spay her this upcoming week. It worked out great since I have a work retreat Wednesday through Friday and would have had to board her. Now I just can’t wait till she comes back.

I suddenly realized that my sister’s wedding was only a few weeks away. In most aspects, this is great, except that I have to wear a strapless bridesmaid dress. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but the whole summer I have been getting a tan wearing my bathing suits, which have straps. Now I suddenly need the strap marks gone and to do that – I need a new bathing suit. I hate bathing suit shopping. It always takes forever, and then the suits are overly expensive. I decided I only needed this bathing suit for a few weeks so it didn’t have to be cute. I wanted a cheap one so I decided to do my shopping at Wal-Mart. The only thing I forgot in my master plan was the fact that it was late August and most stores are trying to get rid of their swim suits. There were two racks of suits, and each piece was only $5. I ended up with a neon orange top and neon yellow bottoms. Talk about eye catching! Amazingly, the suit actually fits really well – if only the colors didn’t scream 1980’s.

Wade, Madison, and I have been in our latest house since April – so of course I am only getting pictures posted in September. The pictures are in my gallery. Take special note of the bookshelves and the dresser in the spare bedroom. That was my project last weekend. We tried to match the colors to the bedspread, but that probably doesn’t come through in the pictures. I’m just glad to have one more project done!

You know those old photos of the 70’s when there were long lines of people waiting for gas? I saw that yesterday in Atlanta. I was on my way home from work with only an 1/8 of a tank of gas. I had heard stories about the gas prices, but I figured I’d just have to suck it up. Nobody had mentioned the “rush” on gas. I passed 6 gas stations on the way home. Three were out of gas and three had lines of cars that stretched at least a mile. I decided that was ridiculous. I went home and ventured back out at 10 – thinking nobody would be waiting in line then – wrong! I had to wait 20 minutes to fill up and then paid $3.15 a gallon. Geez!

If you read Wade’s blog, then you might have seen the planter he designed. After four months of being in our house, we finally got it hung in our bedroom. I decided it needed some color so I started looking for red flower pots. (Wade kept insisting it was designed for Terracotta pots.) I have decided, after much searching, that they don’t make red flower pots in the three sizes I need. Then I got the brilliant idea of painting the pots I already had red (yeah, yeah, I know I should have thought of this immediately). Conveniently for me, I always check out the Oops paint at Home Depot and buy the colors I like. Therefore, I had this great red color on hand.

When I moved from Georgia to Washington D.C., I discovered that Virginia did things a little different. They wanted you to pay property tax on your car and to get a county sticker. I knew I wouldn’t be staying in D.C. long so I decided to ignore the whole thing. I was warned that Virginia cops actually look for out of state tags, but I didn’t listen. I moved away in 2004 and thought I had nothing more to worry about.

A month ago, my dad (who lives in KY) got a call from the Arlington County Tax Commissioner looking for me. I debated, but finally decided to call them back. They wanted $174 in backtax for my Pathfinder. I spoke to probably seven people to find out that my apartment complex turned in my car and the fact that it was registered out of state. The woman told me I could argue the fee, but I had to specify the exact dates the car was housed in Virginia, the car registration, and the residence registered with my insurance company. I might could have fudged all but that last one. Darn it.

Then I told her I had sold the car in February of 2005 and didn’t have the car registration anymore. The lady informed me I could contact the TN DMV, but she would stop the account as of February. (She needed no proof for this so why didn’t I just tell her I sold it in January of 2004?) She informed me I would also be getting a bill for January of 2005.

I still hadn’t decided whether I would pay it. They couldn’t come hunt me down in Georgia and they didn’t have my new last name. I did submit the paperwork to show I left Virginia in July of 2004 and asked for an adjusted amount.

Three weeks later I got two statements in the mail. The one for 2005 showed that no money was due and the account was closed. The statement for 2004 showed the original amount, the amount adjusted to 7 months, and then showed that I had overpaid by $30.10. (No where on this statement was the $174 they originally told me I owed.)

My dad suggested I try to get the $30 out of them, but I think I will just count myself lucky and hope they don’t look at it twice. I love the government!

I had a dentist appointment bright and early today at 8:20 am. (With a new dentist of course.) I was very proud of myself for remembering it on a Monday morning. I showed up and was a little concerned because I had forgotten my dental insurance card. That turned out not to be a big deal since my dentist wasn’t there yet. The manager informed me that it was her last week with the office and her schedule was a little “erratic.” Evidently, I never should have been taken on as a new patient. Oh well, he offered me half price on my bill when they rescheduled me with the new dentist. The drama continues…..