Tiresome Trouble

Back in May, I suffered a blown tire due to stupid driving on another person's part, add to that a spike in the side of the road. Due to my financial status at that time, I only had enough cash on hand to replace that one tire. Jack wanted me to replace my tires while I was in Portland. Again, due to my financial status, I couldn't afford it. Too bad I did't. Because guess, what? I NEED NEW TIRES.

How did I discover this? Tonight, while taking Nina back home, the front right tire popped! My guess, they're old, and my car had more weight on it than usual. Nina was in hte front seat, in the back seat I had three of my cousins, and my brother (17, 14, 14, 13 are their ages), PLUS my mom bought like packs of water (3) and gaterade from Smart and Final today (it's like Coscto for those who don't know what a Smart and Final is).

So, I'm guessing with all that additional weight, the front tire couldn't handle it anymore. I was making the second to last turn at the bottom of the hill to Nina's when I noticed that something sounded and felt funny about the car. I pulled over, and discovered the tire was flat! Forty minutes later, spare tire on, we were on our way. Why did it take so long? Well, remember, we were parked at the bottom of a hill. On the first try, the car started to roll back, so I moved it further down the hill. On the second try, we had gotten the flat tire off the car. He tried the jack the car up higher, and the car just rolled off! Finally on the third try, we got the tire on and we were in business.

Get this... this all happened right at MIDNIGHT! So, here we in, at midnight, trying to change a tire. We were right underneath the 2 Freeway, too.

Now all I've got to do is find some money to get new tires!

Raccoon!

So, last night, while I was trying to sleep, I heard some rustling in my neighbors banana plants. If you don't know what those look like, I'll upload some pictures later. It being late and dark, I used my lamp to see what it was. A pair of eyes looked back at me in the dark. It was a raccon1 Guess the subject gave that away, huh? But can you guess what the raccoon was doing? It ran back and forth along my neighbors house. It took me a sec to realize what it was doing. It was when I saw something the size of a kiwi fruit scuttering back and forth. The raccoon was chasing a mouse. The chase didn't last long. A short scuffle in the banana plant, a few squeeks later, the raccoon scooted along, its prey dangling out of its mouth.

A long time ago, a raccoon was in our backyard. My mom put a bag of moldy hot dog buns in our backyard. Late at night, again, I heard a noise. I peer out my window, and lo and behold, it was a raccoon. It got into the bag of moldy hot dog buns and had a late night snack. The evidence of this was left all over the driveway. There was bread crumbs everywhere and the bag had a hole in it.

Key Ring Collection - stateside and international

After chatting with my cousin, I realized I needed to update my Key Ring Collection. It's on my Bebo profile, but it wouldn't let me update it. So I decided to put it in my blog entry. My cousin and I both collect state things. I buy shot glasses for her whenever I go to somewhere (which is very limited) and she buys me key rings. Juan and Shelley have also contributed to my collection. Now that Nina and Karla are going to Midwest Camp, I wonder if I could hit up Nina to get me one!

Here are the state keychains I have so far:
New York, Maryland (Washington DC), North Carolina, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon

State Keychains with My Name:
Nevada (Las Vegas), North Carolina, California, Oregon (? have to check)

International:
China, Iceland, Taiwan