Jealousy & Some Bullshit

Spring Break has arrived for Herndon High School which means Dan is on his way to Myrtle Beach for a week with the baseball team. Yep, I'm jealous. It happens every year. He left this morning at 6:00 a.m. & even though he'll be going to practices & playing games while he's down there, its still going to be a nice week away for him. Man could I use a week away. So last night we went out to eat at Uncle Julio's in the Reston Town Center; guess what kind of food they serve? You guessed it, MEXICAN. Anyway, we went out to eat & sat outside, basically a little date time before he had to leave this morning. At 7:00 p.m. he had to meet the other coaches to pick up the minivans that they are driving down to Myrtle Beach. The van that Dan was assigned to ended up having a flat tire so they gave him a brand new Chrysler Town & Country minivan which is like the Cadillac of minivans; this thing is amazing. When Dan brought it home Lexi & I got in it so he could show off some of the cool things that it does. We both said that maybe driving a minivan wouldn't be that bad once we have kids, especially if we got one like the Chrysler. We've always sworn that we would never drive a minivan when we had kids & that we would stick to SUVs but after sitting in this one I think my mind has been changed. I even think Lexi liked it. :o)
So Dan gets home next Thursday evening & while he's gone I don't really have anything planned. I guess I'll think of something to do when the weekend comes but so far I think my time will be used for spring cleaning. Yes, I live an exciting life when my husband is away. Aren't you jealous? What I had really wanted to do was take Lexi over to the Reston Town Center on Saturday & walk around for a while & look at the shops but the weather is pretty crappy here today & I'm not sure if it will be a wet mess by tomorrow. I guess we'll just have to wait & see. When Dan & I were at dinner last night there were so many people walking their dogs around & actually taking them inside the shops; I could do that with Lexi as long as I carried her while I was in a store.
Now its time for some bullshit. The other night I brought the mail in from our box & saw that we got something from our HOA; I was busy doing other things so I didn't bother opening it right then but when Dan got home around 10:00 p.m. he opened it. At dinner last night he informed me that we received a letter from the HOA stating that we were in violation of one of their many rules & that we received a $50.00 fine. I, of course, was pissed when I heard this because it brought me back to the "nuisance" letter that we received from them a few years ago regarding Lexi's barking which was total BS. I even wrote them a letter disputing the complaint & stating that I would appear at a hearing in front of the board with my attorney & signed affidavits from our next door neighbors. I later got a letter stating "that would not be necessary". Man that still gets me fired up just typing about it. So anyway, back to the new issue. They are fining us $50.00 because we left our trash can on our front step for 2 days. The reason for us doing this was because it was absolutely pouring out for 3 days so when trash day rolled around Dan didn't want to drag the trash can through the mud & wet grass behind our house so he ended up putting it out in front. We didn't want to take the trash can back through the house when it was soaking wet so we waited for the rain to stop & then brought it in. Apparently someone took a photo of the front of our house on March 18 showing the trash can sitting there & I don't mean a 4 x 6 photo, this thing was an 8 x 10 photo. Dan seems to think the photo was taken by one of our neighbors who is on the board because the two of them had a little falling out when we got that huge snow storm & they haven't talked since. I'm not sure who took the photo & frankly I really don't care; what I want to know is who comes up with the amount that they are going to fine you with? Who thinks of a $50.00 fine for leaving a trash can out? $50.00! That's a little excessive if you ask me. Ridiculous. I haven't decided if I'm going to dispute this yet; the letter says they are giving us 10 days to file an appeal with the board & to request a hearing on the issue. A total waste of time but I just can't bring myself to write out a $50.00 check & make it payable to them. Dan told me to just pay them & get it over with because it was his fault. That's not the point Lover. I want some time to bitch about it!