It’s been a bad week for cars in the Ferndizzy…

Last week Christa spent several hundred dollars to have the dealership tell her she has a transmission problem, and it’ll be $3400 to replace. Then she went for a 2nd opinion and a specialty transmission shop where it stayed for the better part of 4 days for them to diagnose the problem as “probably” some value or something or other deep inside, so $3400 to replace.

Thursday we went bowling at the Majestic Theater’s Garden Bowl, and after a night of myself kicking ass and taking names, we went back out to my car, I lifted the door handle, and felt something break. After getting in and out of my car all DUKES OF HAZZARD style for a few days, I spent 2 1/2 hours taking my door apart - sure enough the plastic handle broke. There were no used ones available at any junkyards I called on Saturday, so it’s $62 to replace it with a new one - catch is that won’t be in for another 3-5 days.

I’m ready to just screw it all and take public transit.

Pulled some ground turkey out of the freezer & combined $5 worth of stuff I didn’t have on hand to make this awesome 1-pan dinner!^*

1 pound ground turkey
1/2 chopped onion
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sliced zucchini
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 cup frozen corn
1 1/2 cups uncooked instant rice
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

In a skillet, cook turkey and onion until meat is no longer pink; drain if necessary.
Stir in taco seasoning, water, zucchini, tomatoes and corn; bring to a boil.
Add rice. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with cheese, cover, and let stand until the cheese is melted.

^*Brought to you by allrecipes.com & their nifty ingredients search engine

14 days and $70 later, the nightmare officially begins; we got our building permit…

I could have taken the easy way out on my porch project, but I didn’t. I could have put ugly green Astroturf to hide the crumbling steps, jammed a bunch of concrete into the part on the side crumbling and painted it, or just fucking stuck a huge flower pot in front of it to hide it. Nope, we chose to take it out and rebuild it to improve the aesthetic of the front approach to our house. Seemed like a good idea at the time…

© Caricatures Ireland

So I went down today for the second time to apply for a building permit to rebuild my porch. The first time I went I got a brief overview of what I needed to submit, so I went back this morning to submit it hoping I could get started working this weekend. Apparently that won’t be happening. After speaking with the building inspector, he apparently has taken an interest in my project because now he is requiring:

• A site visit to verify construction materials & the dimensions of the old porch
• Verification that my new porch will not encroach farther than the average porch of every house within 650 feet of either direction of my house on my side of the street
• Pictures of the old porch
• A property survey
• 12-14 days for plan verification before approval

That’s all super fantastic except that:

1. I don’t have a fucking property survey, so lets add another fee to my list of costs I wasn’t planning
2. I have a huge fucking hole right outside my front door which I can’t do anything with for 12-14 days while he verifies my plans, construction materials, and old dimensions

I would like to give the city the benefit of the doubt and think that they (Ferndale) appreciate my youthful enthusiasm and willingness to learn about home-owner processes, but if there is one thing I can’t stand is all this bureaucratic bullshit.

I was thinking to myself last night that it’s been nearly 3 months since I switched jobs and there are absolutely no regrets. It’s AWFULLY REFRESHING to not dread waking up and going to work with every particle of your being. When I come home at night, my very soul and ambition to live is not crushed or destroyed. HOW DID I LIVE WITH MYSELF FOR NEARLY 3 YEARS?! More importantly, how did C?

So now I’m my own boss, a part of management, integral in the day to day operations of a major entertainment complex, and I couldn’t be happier where I am.

I wasn’t all that busy yesterday so I spent some much needed time upgrading software & fixing up the blog layout, and I’ve got to say I’m pretty happy with the results.

I’m hoping this provides the spark to get back into blogging regularly as I’ve FALLEN OFF THE HORSE (pun intended) a bit too much lately. The new layout gives me more room to use & I think it’s a lot easier on the eyes, so sound off in the comments what you think.

Some of you have wondered what’s been going on in Detroit with the lack of posts lately.
Well, we went to see a Tigers game and a Red Wings play off game last week, we’ve both been busier than crap with work, and we started a LITTLE home improvement project.

We opened pandora’s box with that last one…
Also news of note: both C and I got new phones. I got a blackberry so I am constantly connected to everything and everyone.
Information overload - just the way I like it…

While I may not be the most mechanically inclined person on the face of the earth, I spent an hour tonight fixing the kitchen faucet which had been pooling water underneath the cupboard for an unknown amount of time. Of course the job only needed some patience and plumbers tape, but I’ll leave it up to you to guess which I had readily on hand (clue: I had the tape). Good to know I can at least put my tools and obscene vocabulary to good use…

Ahhh springtime, I had almost forgotten how good you feel. The time of year where the sun warms & the permafrost rolls back to reveal FOUR MONTHS WORTH OF DOG SHIT IN THE BACK YARD.

Par for the course as a dog owner. I guess you can count this my official 1st day of spring. Welcome back to the new weekly yard work routine…

Yes, I’m the supreme slack. I haven’t made a new post in weeks, so sorry. I could have filled up the entire time with snide remarks about my old boss, or how awesome my new job is, or about all the ridiculously fun things we’ve done over the past 3 weeks, but I didn’t. I’ll be putting in some double time to get back in the habit of posting things as they happen…