I haven't gotten a traffic ticket since 1985. That run of luck ended this morning. I was driving out to Wolf Trap to pick up tickets for two more concerts the boyfriend and I decided to go to. On the way home, I decided to take the toll road and pay the 50 cents instead of winding through the neighborhood streets at 25 miles per hour. Everything was going fine until I paid my toll. Just as I was pulling away from the booth I heard a knock on my window. I was a bit surprised. I rolled down the window and saw a state trooper at my window.

Unfortunately I had the earphones to my iPod in my ears. The first thing he asked was if I had earphones in my ears. I said yes. Mistake number one. He asked me to pull over to the left side of the road. I did. He then came to the window and informed me that it was illegal to have earphones in your ears while driving. He then told me that my state inspection had expired. I was shocked by this but sure enough, I looked over and saw it was two months past due. Damn!

He then told me he was going to write me TWO citations. One for the earphones and one for the expired inspection. I was so mad at myself at this point. How could I have not noticed my inspection was due two months ago? What was I thinking? I'm usually really on top of things like that. So he came back to the car with the two tickets. I signed them and he informed me that one could be paid through the mail but for the other one I have to go to court. He said I might be able to pay for it through the mail but that he rarely gives out a ticket for driving with earphones that he's not sure. He then told me to drive safely and I left.

I drove right to the nearest gas station and got my state inspection. When I got home I checked online about paying by mail because I did not want to go to court for wearing earphones while driving. As it turns out I CAN pay that one through the mail as well.

So what I thought was going to be a simple 50 cents to save some time ended up costing me $128 and more than an hour of my time.

Is this Friday the 13th?

I finally finished all the painting I’m going to do for the time being. I finished painting the living room yesterday but only go to put all the things back in the room today. I’ve hung pictures, moved furniture, and hung the curtains. Everything is done! I think painting the living room, hallway, and dining room took me twice as long this time as it did when I first painted them 9 years ago. I know the bathrooms need to be renovated and I need to paint and replace the carpeting in the bedrooms, but I don’t want to do another thing on this place. I am so tired. I’ll wait until next summer to take on anymore jobs like this. Plus, I have no money left to do anything. I’m broke. Maybe I’ll win the lottery and then I can have someone else do the painting and renovating for me. Cross your fingers!

Here’s the finished living room. It’s actually hard to tell the difference except for the pictures on the wall in a different configuration. Maybe the walls are a little brighter. Oh well.

After the painting.

Before the painting.

I finished painting the dining room on Friday, put it back together on Saturday and took this picture this morning.

Today I have taken my living room apart. I have taken down all the pictures and at this point I've filled all the holes in the walls. Now I'm waiting for it to dry so I can sand them. I've also taped off the baseboard so I can start painting that white. Tomorrow I'll begin painting the walls. I'm dead tired.

I haven't painted my place for about 8 years. I decided since I got the kitchen renovated in November, and the floors done in June, it was time to paint the living room, dining room, and hallway. So this week I went to Home Depot and got several samples to pick from. I've decided on Grape Vine for the dining room, and Rafia Cream for the hallway and living room. I would show you samples but the Behr website was acting up and I couldn't get them.

The boyfriend is leaving on Thursday for his vacation so I'll be painting while he's gone. He'll be gone for 12 days so that should be plenty of time to get it all done. I probably won't paint again for another 8 to 10 years.

I had my six month check up this morning and guess what? No cavities! I get to keep me teeth for another six months. Yah! I hate going to the dentist so when I get a good check up I get excited. Well, not that kind of excited but I my dentist is cute.