Theft Follow Up

Some of the discussion from Cindy's Facebook Wall:

Cindy is wondering what kind of 'hood she lives in when her potted begonias have been stolen off her front porch. Grr. Sunday 5:10pm

J.D. at 5:18pm March 22

So is that a drive-by deflowering?

M.C. at 5:26pm March 22

wonder what the street value of begonias is?

Cindy: Thanks to me and the Travis County Sheriff's Deputy, Pflugerville and her begonias are just a little safer. The plant thief is in jail tonight. Sunday 8:46pm

J.Z. at 10:01pm March 22

This probably shouldn't be funny, but I'm laughing. Seriously, who does that?

K.H. at 10:43pm March 22

can't beat the crime in the burbs...did she seriously steal your begonias and put them on her own porch??? you can't make this stuff up! you must really have a green thumb! :)

Cindy at 10:55pm March 22

I definitely can't make this stuff up - it's too ridiculous! Ha! She told the sheriff that she thought that nobody lived here, so that's why she took the plant (SERIOUSLY?). Ahh, the look on her face in the backseat of the cop car as he swung by my house to drop off the plant as her hauled her to jail. Who says Pflugerville isn't fun?

J.D. at 11:20pm March 22

You're all CSI: Pflugerville! She had priors? That's some hardcore plant stealing.

T.W. at 12:41pm March 23

Busted for Plant Theft... That's a nice one for the records...

Cindy at 12:46pm March 23

Too funny - and I didn't even press charges! I got the sense from the cop that her priors were likely not related to plant theft.

T.W. at 12:54pm March 23

Depends what kind of plant you are talking about...

C.N. at 5:06pm March 23

I wonder what her sentence will be??

T.W. at 5:22pm March 23

If life is fair, community service at a garden center...

The Begonia Burglary

This is a little long, but entertaining.

My friend Cindy has her suburban house on the market so this past weekend she dedicated an entire day to yard work to make sure that everything was perfect. She began by edging around the driveway and working her way up to her front porch. Once at the porch, though, she noticed that her pot of begonias were missing. Not moved. Not broken. Missing. Someone stole them!

Not knowing what to do (I mean, really, what can you do about that?) Cindy finished the edging and prepared to mow the lawn. But the lawnmower was out of gas. Clearly this wasn't her day. Cindy got in her car and started the drive to the nearest gas station. As she turned the corner, Cindy glanced at the houses and then slammed on the brakes. Her begonias were in front of someone else's house!

Cindy knew that there was no subtle way to steal them back, small children were playing in the yard, so she continued on to the gas station. When she got home she called her friend for advice.
Friend: Well, they're probably only worth about $20. Is it really worth it to go after them?" he asked her. "And is it safe? Who knows who lives there and how they might respond to you demanding your flowers back.

But there is principle involved, these people stole her flowers. So she called the county sheriff's office (the non-emergency number, of course)
Cindy: I know this is not the most important thing that you have to deal with today, but here's my situation...

A sheriff's deputy arrived shortly after and took her report. Cindy pulled out her laptop and showed him the pictures of her house that were taken for the real estate web sites that clearly showed the pot of flowers in question on her porch. The officer told her that he would check it out and be back shortly.

Cindy waited. And waited. Finally, 45 minutes later, the officer pulled up in front of her house again. There was a woman in the back seat. The officer got out and brought out Cindy's plant.
Officer: This woman took your plant because she didn't think anyone was living here. She says that she watered them and took care of them. Do you want to press charges?

Tough question. Especially since the woman could see her and obviously knew where she was. Officer: I will be taking her into the station. There were several outstanding warrants for her arrest.

Don't Mess With Texas

When she found out that I had gotten a job in Texas and would be moving to Austin, Jenn, who is one of my best friends, jokingly informed me that she "hated Texans".

After I got here, got a new license, etc. I made a comment to a coworker that I was on my way to becoming a Texan. I said it lightly, but was informed stiffly that "it takes a lot more to become a Texan." When I relayed the conversation to Jenn, she said, "it's all right. I hate Texans anyway."

This weekend, Jenn will be my first visitor! We've been anticipating the trip for weeks and leading up to the event, it seemed like everything would be perfect. Then on Tuesday, a cold front came through and changed our sunny, 85 degree weather to rainy, 45 degree weather. It will stick around for the weekend and clear out next week, getting back up into the 80s.

Jenn called on earlier this week and was clearly disappointed with the change in the weather. "It's the same weather that we're having in Ohio. And it's only going to be cold in Austin for the time that I am there. It's like Texas is rejecting me before I even get there!"

What can I say? I guess Texas hates you too, Jenn.



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Scams

What I Actually Do With My Weekends...

My friends Nick and Lindsay gave me their old dining room set, because they had a nicer set they planned to use when they moved into their new place. The light wood isn't really my style so I had a weekend project. I thought it would be a weekend. It turned into four weekends.

Here's how it started out.

Sanded it down. Twice by hand and once with the electric sander.

It probably would have been a good idea to try staining something flat and simple like a baseboard before I went after a dining set. So there are a few mistakes, but I did it. And considering the amount of time it took just to do this... I'm happy with how it is.

New fabric for the seat cushions.

And I'm done!

Parking Problems

I've determined that the lack of parking at the University of Texas at Austin is the cause of all of my social problems. Try to follow along...

There is extremely limited parking at UT Austin. I put my name on the waiting list for the garages near my office two days after I started. The waiting list is approximately 2.5 years. That is not an exaggeration. I have 2 years to go. In the mean time, if I choose to drive to work I can park in a public garage for a "reduced rate". It is only $6 per day. I can't afford that because I work in student affairs. So most days I take the bus. It's free, but if I leave my office at 5pm I don't get home until 6:30pm. By the time I make and eat dinner and make an attempt to exercise and then shower it's about 9:30pm. I get up at 6am and need 8 hours of sleep so I have to go to bed at 10pm. So that is 30 minutes of free time.

I have been told that I need to be more social and outgoing and to some degree I agree. I would like to actively participate in the ADPi Alumni Association in Austin. I would like to join the OSU Young Alumni Association kickball team. I would like to join a fun young professionals group in Austin that goes to happy hours and mountain biking. Not only do all of these activities have their own fees and costs, but they also take place on week day evenings. That would require me to drive to work several days in a week. And that would require me to pay for parking that I can't afford.

So if UT Austin would just be a little more accommodating to staff members then maybe I could actually have a social life.