"The Prep Work" and "I hate the DMV"

I went shopping on Friday and came in about $40 dollars under budget! That even includes some non-food items. So, all told, a month's worth of delicious dinners cost us about $190. Sweeeeet.

Today I filled out my handy-dandy Advanced Preparations List. It was a bit of a pain, but I think it will save me a lot of insanity on C-Day. I took my shopping list and crossed off every item that did not need any advanced preparation. (Pretty much everything that is either in a can or just needs measurement.) Then for the items left, I looked through the recipes and figured out what needed to be done. With a little luck, I will have all of the thawing, chopping, dicing, browning, and shredding done Thursday night (C-Day Eve...bohm, bohm, baaaahhhhh...)

In other news, today on my way to work I got pulled over. What a wonderful way to start the work week. Since Mondays are so exceedingly joyous to begin with, you can imagine my excitement at seeing the flashing lights in my rearview mirror. For once, I wasn't speeding- my plates had expired. 3 months ago. I calmly explained to the friendly civil servant shining the flashlight in my face that I honestly had had no idea that my plates had expired and that I had never received the customary notice from the DMV. He was kind enough to let me off with a ticket and an admonishment to "Git-r-done." I proceeded to work bubbling with anticipation for the week ahead.

At 11:45 I got on the DMV website to find the location nearest to my office. Lo and behold, there is a branch just down the street! At noon I jumped into my car and drove very carefully down to the Tax Commission building where everything is all puppies and rainbows. After waiting in line for 15 minutes, the cheery-eyed, rosy-cheeked receptionist informs me with astounding empathy that this branch only handles fleet vehicles now and the website from which I got my information has yet to be made aware of the fact. She kindly directed me to the next-closest branch, a mere 30 blocks away. I skipped my way through lunch-hour-rush traffic humming a merry tune, parked, and walked through the door into a sea of people who had, down to a person, had a wonderful day and showered in the recent past. After waiting for another 15 minutes, another bright-eyed receptionist informs me that there is a 2 hour wait and, no, since my plates have expired I cannot complete the renewal process online. So I left DMV#2 feeling like a million bucks and headed to the nearest McDonalds where the speaker-boy got my order wrong three times. Yes, three. And it was a combo. I drove back to work like a bat out of hell and arrived just in time to tell my boss that I would be late yet again tomorrow because the DMV is a ________ piece of ________ _________ with a _______ ___________-_____ ___. (Insert whichever explitives you deem appropriate.)

All in all, it was the kind of day that makes you want to stand up and sing.

I hate the DMV.