Angry

Ya know, I've had a few posts about good things, or just general musings that I've been meaning to post in the last few weeks, but I just haven't.
My weekend with three of my college friends was awesome and much needed. (Jenn posted a great piece about it here.)
Boo and I managed to get Gak something he actually wanted for his birthday this year.
I had an awesome hiking trip to Hawk Mountain with my Girl Scout troop.
Boo continues to love Kindergarten and back to school night was interesting
I have a few thoughts on words, language and names, but they're still not fully formed enough for me to write about.

But, no.  I didn't write about any of that at the time.  So, now, because I can't sleep, you get an angry post.

You see, I'm very angry right now.  And about 95% of that anger has to do with the fact that because I refuse to give up certain things/people in my life, I'm quite cornered.

Let me see if I can explain.
I still have no job.  It has been just over 6 months now.  I was so sure in the spring that I'd have a job by the end of summer, by now at the latest.  Instead, all I've had are a bunch of dead ends and false trails.
Back in the spring/early summer I had a few leads, but they all fell through, mostly due to scheduling, as in they were for a 11 am to 8 pm odd-ball shift times and also 45 minutes to an hour away. (I thought I blogged specifically about it, but I only made some vague references...)  And then I went through a dry spell where I didn't hear back about any single application I put in, or there were a few "you're not who we're looking for" email responses without a phone interview.
Then, back around the time of my weekend with the girls, I actually had followup on an application (even though it wasn't something I really wanted to do, or was quite in my normal line of support) that I then had to refuse because of what they were going to pay and the fact that I'd end up spending most of it in gas and daycare.
I don't think I mentioned it at the time, but I'd also applied for my old job back.  (You see, another person left the department on their own and my friend C is out on bedrest before her second daughter is born in November.... so they were able to post for 2 positions.)  Other than the automatic email response of "thank you, you're resume is being forwarded to the hiring manager" I heard nothing from corporate.  Until I followed up directly with the overall service manager, because I still had his email.  They'd filled the one position and the other one we both knew I wasn't a good fit for because it was more network support/computer builds.  And they didn't even call me about an interview or let me know anything at all.  So, yeah, that really ticked me off.  But, I kept telling myself that something better was around the corner, just keep looking.

The manager did give me a lead to follow, but, alas, they'd hired three people over the summer and didn't need me either.

Then I got a call from a recruiter about another position that sounded like a pretty good fit.  Unfortunately, despite my following up, this guy seems to have disappeared into the woodwork again as well.

Then, last Thursday or so another recruiter contacted me, both through email and Linkdin.  And this job sounds perfect.  There are only two drawbacks, and admittedly ones I'm willing to work with/around.  The first drawback is that it's a 12 month contract.  The second is that it's 65 miles each way.  But, other than that, it's perfect.  So, I asked about a more flexible schedule, such as 7 - 4 because then I'd still be able to be home by 6 (unless there was a major traffic snarl or bad weather, which are both huge possibilities, but that would still give me 2 hours...).  Because, you never know, sometimes contract positions become permanent hires.  And if it looked like it was going to become permanent, we could wait until the end of the school year and move closer, which would have the added advantage of putting us closer to Mom and Dad, but we'd still be fairly close to all our friends up here.
But, no.  The people that the position is ultimately for, want someone on-site 8 - 5, with only a little flexibility.  So, I'm pretty sure that this is going to go up in smoke.  There would be no way I'd make it home by 6.  I'd have to find someone willing to pick a boy up 5 days a week, since Mom can't stay past 6 herself on Mondays.  I'd have to give up, or at the very least vastly reduce my involvement with, my Girl Scout troop.  And I refuse to do that.  I refuse to give up any and all awake time with my boy-o 5 days a week.  I refuse to move him just over a month (and by the time all the shouting would be done, it would be 2 or 3 months) into Kindergarten; as much as he loves it right now, it's still a tenuous thing.  I refuse to give up my girls.  Oh, and there was no promise I'd get the position, the recruiter was calling to get me to submit my resume for it.

And then there are two other things adding to the anger and frustration.
The first is the fact that I've exhausted my 26 weeks of unemployment.  OK, well, there's supposed to be another tier that I'll get moved to and I'll get a letter about it.  But, oh, wait, that's a Federal program.  And, guess what?  The Federal Government is all but shut down.  So, what does this mean for me?  I have no blasted clue other than the fact that I'll only get one week's UI this week and have no idea if or when I'll be able to get any more support before March.  And no, the savings won't make it to March.  They'll barely make it to the end of the year if we stop doing anything and everything other than paying rent/mandatory bills and eating.

That is, other than the fact that I have to pay almost $1000 to get the Durango fixed.  You see, I didn't mention earlier that last Tuesday (which was an adventure of a day to begin with, with a possessed phone, a trip to King of Prussia and back to school night) the AC compressor seized, which tied up the belt, which means that the truck won't start.  Monday was the earliest they could get it in at the garage I trust around the corner.  It had to be towed.  The rebuild kit is close to $600.  Then there's all the labor for pulling the fool thing apart, flushing the system and putting it all back together.  And I won't get it back until late Tuesday or sometime Wednesday.  And did I mention it was going to be close to $1000 to fix?  I still keep telling myself that between that and the almost $600 for the repairs needed at inspection (that I'd been putting off as long as I could) I'm still getting off lighter than car payments. Oh, and I don't have a job so who in their right mind would give me a loan to get a vehicle?  And if I used up the savings to buy something about as old as the Durango outright, I wouldn't have money for bills thanks to having no job and no UI.  And I need a car to get a job...

Bright side, I got the Little Red Honda from mom this afternoon.  Downside?  Depending on how nuts Dad drives her, I may have to give it back soon.

So, yes, there is a lot of anger and frustration right now.  And so much of it is both out of my control (I can't make companies call me back or hire me or let me have any schedule I want and God knows I can't get the Federal government to start working again...) and in my control at the same time (giving up Girl Scouts, giving up time with my boy, moving...).  So, it just feels like a perfect storm brewing and not in a good way and has me in a very bad and angry place.

I'm going to try and go to bed again.  I've got lots to get done tomorrow while a boy-o is at school, and it's a Girl Scout night.  (Thankfully my friend Ali is doing the meet of the meeting, so I don't have to do too much...)

Peace to all and may things go in your favor now and again.

P.S. And... now the post isn't saving or publishing..... I really think I will cry now.

On The Floor

On the floor and other stuff.  Today's photo challenge was "on the floor".
"Great!" I thought, "my son's always got something interesting on the floor...."  Well, I just wasn't finding inspiration in the mess that is Boo's room and he wasn't in the mood to break out the trains or the cars and actually pose for me.  So, while he watched "Blue's Clues" I plopped down on the floor and took a few pictures of my hand weights.  Yes, I keep them under the front edge of the TV table.  I do that on purpose.  I figure if I see them every single morning, I may just actually remember to find one of the workout videos I kinda like and use them.  Maybe.  Some days.  I seem to do better with that over the winter, but I guess that's because it's too cold to actually go outside as much and I get antsy or something.  Working out in general (swimming or otherwise) just hasn't been happening as regularly as it has been in the past...)

Anyhow, in other news... the Durango passed inspection.  The only thing that really needed to be done was to fix the evap line and replace a few bulbs.  So, yeah.  I just bought myself another year to figure out what we're going to do about a vehicle.  We'll see.  We probably should look into replacing her, but next September everything changes.  Hopefully we'll be able to avoid any unpleasant surprises in the meantime.

That's all I really have to say today.

Peace to all and may you actually get down on the floor and play with the kids and may you be pleasantly surprised now and again.

Durango Update

Well, here's a little update after yesterday's rant.  (That really wasn't very pretty was it?  I'm not taking it down as I needed to get that out of my system, but WOW!)

Anyhow, I got the car-truck (as Zoe used to call it) back at about 4:00 yesterday afternoon.  I started her up and drove her home.  Let me tell you, she ran a lot more quietly than she had in about two weeks.  I picked up Boo, tried to give him the bad news without sending him into hysterics (anything even remotely bad seems to send him into a panic attack for some reason... I have no idea where this comes from or when exactly it started...) and then headed over to Kat's so that she and I could go look at cars.
After showing the paperwork to Andy when Boo and I got to Kat's, I'm beginning to wonder.  I mean, the car ran better than it had in weeks.  It was quiet.  (I didn't push it hard coming home, which was a challenge for my led right foot... but...)  Andy didn't like what he did and didn't see on the paperwork.  I thought it strange that she was so quiet.

Anyhow, after much thinking overnight, I had Gak call the garage around the corner where we took the truck back in March when we had problems with the gear interlock.  I trust them. They really could have taken me for a ride back in March, but they didn't.  We couldn't get an appointment until next Thursday, but that's OK.  It's not quite as much of an emergency as it could be.  Thankfully my mom has the little red Honda that she's not driving at the moment and can lend it to us for a while.  That took a lot of the pressure of having to find a replacement car right now off. If I can get it to pass inspection, that'll buy us up to a year to figure out what we want to do.

In a year from now a lot changes.  In a year from now, Boo starts Kindergarten.  And, with the budget the way it is, I have to resign myself to the fact that he will not be able to go to United Friends no matter how much I want him to.  Not unless he got something like half or 3/4 scholarship.  Not going to happen, it looks like I make too much on paper.  That's what I get for making bad decisions over the past 7 or 8 years.  In a year from now we'll go from paying $600 to $800 a month for daycare to hopefully only $200 or $300 for after school care.  (Last year we spent over $7600 in daycare... it'll probably be a bit more this year...)  In a year I should be able to sock away a little more cash and actually have something of a down payment.  (And I know I shouldn't think this way, but if we can make it to March, I should not only have a tax refund but if all goes well with the business a small bonus at work...)  If I can manage to have an inspected, fully working vehicle in the spring along with a bit of a down payment, we should be able to afford a much newer, and nicer vehicle than what we can afford if we have to replace the Durango right now.

As far as what we're looking at, my main requirements are, automatic transmission, enough leg/head room for Gak and under $10,000.  Yeah, not asking for much am I?
Vehicles that I've seen around that I like include the PT Cruiser, Subaru Outback or Forester, another Durango, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Chevy Trailblazer or maybe even a minivan of some stripe.  I'm actually leaning more towards a wagon as opposed to an SUV (which most of those in PA are classified as station wagons, but they're really trucks).  I figure, if I've got to have a car payment again, I should at least be getting better mileage than what I'm getting now to make it a little less painful.  What I don't want is something from a brand that's out of business now.  The parent companies shut them down for a reason... because they weren't selling.  They probably weren't selling because the quality wasn't there.  Therefore, I'm not going to push my luck.

If you can't tell, I'm in a better place today than I was yesterday.  I'm still not happy and lighthearted or anything like that, but the outlook isn't quite so bleak and I can at least be optimistic again for a few more days.  The world may come to a screeching halt next Thursday when the place on Juniper looks at the Durango, but until then, I've got a sliver of hope that I may just be able to put off buying a vehicle for 6-12 months.  (Oh, if somehow I miraculously end up with $5000 or so and think I can get a loan at a decent rate, I'm seriously thinking that a new Subaru might be the next vehicle we get... if Gak fits.  Looking at the current specs online, it looks like they tend to have some of the most leg and head room in the class though... which is an awesome thing in our house.)

So, I'm going to wrap this up and try and get a little more work done before heading out to pick up a boy, figure out dinner, pick up my wonderful hubby, have the boys drop me off at Kat's before they go home and then have someone from Kat's take me down to Mom's to get the little red Honda.  Wow!  Talk about a run-on sentence!

Peace to all and may there be lights in the tunnel that aren't trains.  (Unless you're waiting for the train at the station... that's a different story all together....)

Rant

I have to vent right now.  Really, well and truly vent.
(As soon as I take care of this quickie for work...)

I just can't win.  We just can't seem to get ahead.  Every time I think we as a family are beginning to get somewhere, to have a little breathing room, to get ahead of the game even slightly financially, someone decides to pull the rug right out from underneath us.

Today is no exception.
Let me get the real whining out of the way...
I was so totally hoping that the next time I went shopping for a new vehicle, it would be a new vehicle, not just new to me.  And definitely not one that's already as old as the Durango is.

OK.  Hopefully the whining part is out of the way and the rest will just be outright anger and pissyness at the universe.  Yes, there is a difference.

Anyhow, as you may guess, today's rant has to do with cars.  Not just any car, but my beloved Durango.  My truck that I paid off just over 18 months ago.  The truck that has seen much abuse in it's life time, including getting rear-ended twice due to no fault of her own.  I've never been the most stellar about changing the oil on time or regular maintenance and all kinds of other things, but she's been tough and dependable.

Until a week or two ago when she started making a racket when I started it.  And was kinda loud when driving.  I just thought the oil was low and since I was getting it inspected today, not a big deal.

Well, it is a big deal.  A HUGE deal actually.  A mind-numbing, spirit-crushing, honking big deal.  You see, she was self destructing.  Through no fault of my own that anyone can think of, she's tearing her engine to bits.  There's metal shards all through the oil system.  It tore up the oil pump completely.  It's tearing up the engine bad enough that it will fail and must be replaced in order to have a hope of passing inspection.

The labor alone would be at least $1200.

That doesn't include the cost of any and all parts required, including a "new" engine.

This means it would cost around $5000 or $6000 to fix a truck that is only worth $4225 in great condition.  That's just stupid.

Thank God for Kat though.  She's got dealer friends, including one of those bargain basement places that sells the cars that people like me trade in after many years and many miles have passed since they first left the factory.  That's still going to cost us $6000 to $8000.

I don't have $1200 cash to cover labor, where the hell am I going to find $6000 for a "new" car?  Even if this had happened back in March before I managed to piss through my yearly bonus by buying two new computers (to replace one failing one and one fairly ancient one) on top of other things, I wouldn't have had the cash to fix this.  I might have been able to put more down on a newer car than we're looking at, but damn.
For once in my life I wanted a new car.
Or at least one that was less than 4 years old when I got it.
I wanted something shiny and nice and that would (with regularly scheduled smacks to the head by Kat) be able to be maintained and run for many, many, many years.  Or at the very least I wanted to get another 5 years out of the Durango.

I wanted to pay off all the credit card debt (or at least all but maybe a couple hundred bucks) before even thinking about a new car.
I wanted Boo to be in first grade and only having to worry about after school care before thinking about a new car.
I wanted to be able to get a second, more fuel efficient, car, not just replace one beat-up car for another beat-up car.

Right now, I just want to curl up under my desk and cry.
Right now, I just want to figure out where the hell I went so wrong that the money universe seems to hate me.
Right now, I'm trying to figure out how my brother, my awesome brother, can seem to have it all together and has an awesome job, an awesome wife and just bought an awesome house while all I seem to do is struggle.  I have an awesome husband and an awesome son, but my job isn't awesome any more, and our apartment may be pretty great, it's not an awesome house with a great yard for our awesome son to play in.
Right now, I'm trying very hard not to feel jealous of all the people around me that, at least appear, to "have their shit together", but I'm not being very successful.

So, if anyone has any brilliant ideas, I'm open.

Peace to all and may you not have any nasty surprises.

Are We There Yet?

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!  I really want to start the week over again.  Really.  Well and truly.
The weekend was pretty good, even if it was long and tiring.
Then Monday struck.
I over slept.  Not by a lot mind you, but by enough that I could really get anything done that I wanted to.
I got out the door a few minutes late because I just couldn't get out of my own way getting dressed or getting breakfast and lunch together.
The weather was cold but nice.  It wasn't even really all that cold.  I started the car and then tried to put it into gear.
It wouldn't go.
Nope, the gear shift wouldn't budge.
This happened a few times last winter, but hadn't happened in about a year so I'd forgotten about it.  I figured it was cold enough that she was being cranky, so I left her running another 5 or 6 minutes and tried again.  Nope, no dice. *mutter grumble*

So, I call Bill.  He only lives a handful of blocks from me and usually heads into work at about that time.  Thankfully I caught him and Sandy when they weren't too far out and they turned around and got me.  (Of course, unbeknownst to me at that point, Sandy was not having a happy morning either.  Normally she's quite friendly and happy, but she was not in a good mood yesterday.)  Anyhow, we get to the end of the block and the light onto 309 went through 3 cycles before letting our side go.  WTH?  We make it to work with little else going wrong.

I get out and head to the front door to give Bill and Sandy a moment.  No ID badge.  Thankfully we're not the first ones at the office and Melissa lets me in.

I go upstairs  to my cube and I can't get one of my two monitors to turn on, the button is stuck.  Silly me decided Friday to go ahead and actually turn off the monitors instead of letting them go into sleep mode by themselves.

I then head back downstairs to make myself a chai latte (using Adagio's Masala Chai tea and half milk, half water).  I promptly boil the tea over in the microwave while my waffle is toasting.

By now I'm really, really, really wanting to just go home and crawl in bed and try again tomorrow.  I attempt to get some work done, but I really wasn't very successful at it until Larry comes over with, hopefully, a fix for something I've been fighting with for 2 months now.  It fixes one thing, but resolving that reveals a bunch more errors.  (Of course, all of this takes lots of time, lots of file transferring and lots of head banging against the keyboard and desk.  And I feel like I'm working half blind because I don't have my "spare" screen to drop files onto with information I'm referring back to in them.)

Gak calls around 10:30 I think.  No, the truck doesn't go into gear.  (The original plan was that if the truck warmed up and started cooperating, he and Boo would come get me, I'd drop everyone off and make an appointment with the garage for the very near future...)  Oh, and when Boo opened his door when he got up, Dragonfly fell off the door again and broke...
Snot in a bucket.

New plan; call Scott to see if he can come rescue me, Gak and Boo stop by Juniper Autoworks on the way to daycare and talk to them and see if they'll come get the car.  They're only about 3 blocks away.

So, the shop comes and gets the car around 11. Scott calls around noon to see when he should come get me.  He says he's got Randy with him and he'll look at the car.

*blink blink* Randy doesn't live in Jersey any more....
Randy doesn't currently have a job....
Randy is great with tools and machines....
*pound head on desk and try not to cry*
(We hadn't called Andy because we knew he had to work and is in the middle of moving Steph's mom to Florida which has its own drama associated with it.)

So, Scott and Randy pick me up.  Scott is having a Monday as well.  Couldn't get the bike inspected because the shop was closed.  I'm having car trouble.  His dad's bike broke down and needed a lift... Yeah... it was one of those days yesterday.

Anyhow, I go home, get set up to work and try and get some more done.  I'm marginally successful.  I never get a call from the garage.  Gak followed up around 4 and they'd started working on it.  We never got a call.  I saw them working on it when I walked past on my way to pick up Boo.  (One small plus yesterday, I got to get a nice walk in and spend some good time with Boo.)  We never got a call that evening and when Gak called it was after 5 and they'd already left.

So, this morning I overslept because I kept waking up last night.  Stupid stress.  It gets boring lecturing yourself that it is X:00 in the morning and there isn't a thing you can do about Q, R or S and to just go back to sleep.  Finally I did go back to sleep for good and then didn't wake up until 6:30.  It didn't really matter that I didn't get up at 5, since without the car I can't really make it to the gym to swim.  Oh, how I needed my swim this morning though.  Oh well, I got another walk to and from daycare in with Boo.  It was enjoyable and both of us seemed to have a good time.

So, now I am trying to work from home and not get too frustrated and cranky at the situation.  If I'd known I wouldn't have the car back this morning I probably would have bit the bullet and rented a car for today, except that Boo's car seat is in the truck.  And I need stuff out of the back for tonight.  And I'm trying really hard not to just go crawl back in bed and ignore this whole mess.

And then I feel guilty for getting so frustrated and upset because I'm not even the one who has it the worst off right now.  Randy is getting himself out of a "fun" situation and has been royally taken advantage of and is out more than I care to think about.  Steve is home from Afghanistan on emergency leave because his baby sister (16 years younger) passed away a few weeks ago.  Probably from an accidental muscle relaxant/pain med overdose.  (She'd been in a car accident a few years back and messed up her back.  She was in a lot of pain that Friday but wouldn't go to the hospital.  The couldn't wake her Saturday.)
So, yeah, a broken car is the least of my friend's problems...

I'd better try and get some real work done.
Peace to all and may your cars work and your troubles be few.

Truck

I'm so very thankful for my truck.  It gets me from here to there reliably and with little complaint, even with my not so good track record of keeping her maintained.  I'm extra thankful right now because she's finally paid off and I have the title from the state in my hot little hands.  So, not only can I get where I need to go including work, but I've now freed up some extra cash to pay down some of the other bills we've incurred over the years.
I really hope to keep this girl for many more years.  Yes, she's got over 120K on her, but still runs well.

Almost Random....

This is going to be one very random post. I'm tired, a bit cranky and have many things running through my head that just don't connect to each other very well.

First things first... the Durango turned 100,000 miles this morning on the way to work. This is the second time I've done that. The first time Dad was very mad at me. You see, it was his Honda that I was driving in high school. I had made it home with about 5 miles to spare, but, unfortunately, Jon stayed late at work and needed me to pick him up. I can point to exactly where we were when the car turned. I can't with the truck... I was too engrossed in the radio and paying attention to where I was going. The picture is from when I got to work. (If you're a total geek, you could say that there are only 35 miles on the truck... and yes... I am that geek.)

Anyhow, that's probably the most random bit of the post. Work's been a bear this week. Not only is it reporting month, and not only were all our contractually committed reports due by yesterday, but we were without phones from about 10:30 Tuesday morning until about 9:00 this morning. That's probably what has me both tired and cranky.

Oh, I just figured out how to get to the next thing I wanted to say...

Remember about a month or so ago I said we'd gotten below a certain number of open cases? Well, the business manager promised us a celebration for it. We finally went last night. Yes, I know, in the middle of reporting month when we've got some of the worst numbers in months. Don't you like the irony? I do.

Anyhow, we went to a place called the William Penn Inn. It's a very nice place that lots of groups use for banquets and the like as well as a very nice restaurant and it is even still an Inn. Well, it was a little odd for me to be there. You see, the last time I was there I was about 17 or 18 and was there for some Girl Scout function or another. I felt like I was wearing the totally wrong outfit and kept waiting for Eunice to come over tsk-ing at me and attempting to straighten my tie (I never could get that silly thing to behave...). Anyhow, it was a very good evening.

Oh... another built in segue!

Speaking of Girl Scouts, Kat and I are thinking of going to the GS of Eastern PA (GSEPA) alumnae weekend next month. For $50 we get to go spend two nights at Tweedale with a bunch of other women and sing songs, make s'mores and do all kinds of fun things. They don't have a schedule together yet, but hey, it's camp... it'll be fun. (Just no "Johnny Appleseed" grace... I don't need to get wet... other than in the pool. Anyhow, we're just in the "hey let's go" stage, we haven't actually done anything about it yet. I'll keep you posted.

I have no way to get to this next set of thoughts that keep bumping around in my head. You see, Gak and I got some sad news over the weekend. His best friend from college, a guy who I hung out with as well the semester I was there, isn't doing so well. He's been living with diabetes for years. He seemed to have it under control. Well, sometime back in January he lost his sight from it. And he's in kidney failure. I can't begin to tell you how much this bites. He's not even 40 yet (I don't think... like Gak, he was in the Navy before going to school...) He's got a young son (under 10 at any rate...) who is autistic. I don't know if his wife is working now or what, I never actually met her. He was working as a chemist, but I'm guessing without his sight he isn't able to. (There are tons of things you can do blind... but being an experimental chemist wouldn't be one of the easiest.... or most fulfilling to have someone else be your eyes for you if you've been doing it yourself for so long.) I keep thinking of the look he would give me whenever we were working on O-chem homework. (I was taking 2nd semester O-chem and he was in 1st semester.) That look where I knew what I'd just said probably sounded like the stupidest thing he'd ever heard. And about 99% of the time I deserved it. Just having him around to bounce stuff off of though really helped me finally nail that course. (That and the fact that it was a lot easier than the course I'd been taking at my school... ACS accredited vs. not ACS accredited...)

Anyhow, that's obviously been on my mind a lot. I've wished he lived closer for a long time now, and now wonder if we'll ever get to see him again. He usually made it down to Ada from Kansas the last several times we've been out west.

Bah, this is a depressing train of thought and I want off.

On to happier things... I'll just let that simmer in the back of my brain for now.

This weekend looks like it should be fun. I'm still very excited about Mel coming to visit for the weekend. It's not like she lives that far away, but it's far enough that it's hard to call up Joan and say "hey, do you and the kids want to go out for pizza tonight?" I have no idea what we're doing, but I'm sure we'll have fun.

I think I'm going to wrap this post up here.

Peace to all and may the news be good, the vehicles last, and the oppertunities fun.

Eight-hundred and What??

I meant to post this Friday, but I didn't.  Can I tell you how much I hate taking the truck in for repairs and inspection?? I knew we had a few big things coming down the pike as far as truck repairs go.  We'd been letting a few known issues that weren't causing any real problems fester for a while.

Thursday was the day we finally took the truck in for the repairs and the inspection.  We got the truck back and the bank account was about $830 lighter.  It's more than the $500 I was hoping to spend, but less than the grand I feared it would be.  Oh, and we have to take it back in the next week or so to get the emissions done again.  It didn't pass and some of the repairs were on the emissions systems... so... drive it at least 30 miles and come back.

Unfortunately, the inspection was supposed to have been done last month.  In all honesty I was waiting for the tax refund so that we could afford the repairs that were needed.  So, yesterday, driving over to the Q-mart, a cop decides to pull me over because my stickers are out of date.  I'm cringing, but inside I'm laughing because for a month the stickers had been out of date, we live right across the street from the police station and nothing happened.  Now, 2 days after attempting to get it all set to rights, I get stopped.  Luckily he was able to just give me essentially a warning.  We've got to get it inspected within the next 10 days and turn this card in to the police confirming that it was done.  No big deal, just very annoying.  Especially with all the hoops we have to jump through with logistics.  We'll figure it out.

I hope that was the big adventure for the weekend.

Today we're heading down to my parent's house.  Abi is in town from Phoenix this week and wanted to get together.  Her parents live closer to mine, so instead of having her drive all the way up here, we're all converging on my parents' house.  It'll be good.  My mom really likes Abi and  we haven't seen each other since July.  Boo has changed soooo much since then.  The reason she's in town is a sad and anxious one.  Her mom is fighting breast cancer, a very aggressive form.  It had been responding well, but it doesn't seem to be and has spread.  This all came to light shortly before Thanksgiving... at least the fast moving cancer part, the not responding is new.  Anyhow, I just hope that everything turns out OK.  I'm also looking forward to this visit.  You should see some pictures, and maybe even a video or two, tomorrow.  They'll be either here or on the Flickr, depending on how adventurous I become.

Well, I'm off to shower.   We were originally going to head down when Boo went down for his nap this morning, but that was a half hour ago and none of us were ready.  (He's fighting off the snot monsters again...)  So, we'll wait until he wakes up and then probably leave about an hour after that.  In the meantime, I'd best get myself ready to get out the door.

Peace to all and may life not throw any nasty surprises your way.

Food!

Subtitle:  Boo Gets Messy

Well, today we did it.  We introduced Boo to cereal.  His doctor had given us the green light at his last appointment a few weeks ago.  I wasn't quite ready for it.  I was tempted to wait until the Thanksgiving weekend so we'd have 4 days at home to try this.  But, I decided that maybe it would be nice if he could have some sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving with the rest of us.  (They were my favorite as a baby after all....)

No, Aunt Flauta, we didn't wait until 6 months.  I figure 5 months and a week is close enough; besides, the AAP says any time between 4 and 6 months, and this is just about in the middle of that window .  He seems happy enough with just nursing, but might as well get him (and us) used to the idea that life is going to get a whole lot messier... and tastier.

For all of the pictorial goodness, head over to my Flickr.  There were a couple of priceless ones.  He willingly opened up his mouth and even took the slush off the spoon.  (I think I mixed a little too much milk with the rice cereal... it was definitely not much thicker than normal milk.)  He just wasn't very sure what to do with it once it was in his mouth.  He didn't turn away.  He didn't scream.  He looked quite confused, and even a little worried.  Overall, it wasn't a bad experience.  We'll see how the next couple of days go.  Before you know it, he'll be eating us out of house and home!

The rest of the weekend hasn't been all that exciting.

Well, I take that back.  We had a bit of an adventure with getting new tires for the back wheels of the truck, but I'm not sure I really want to go into the details.  Suffice to say, it was a more expensive endeavour that we were planning.  Oh well, so much in life is these days isn't it?

Today was a pretty mellow day over all.  Boo slept a lot today.  Gak got a nap in too.  (I didn't... I spent the quiet time working on some holiday presents.  Can you believe it's November already?!?!)  Boo was also quite cranky every time he nursed.  He would eat for a few minutes on a side, then howl and be almost inconsolable.  I'm wondering if that doesn't mean teeth.  I think I read somewhere that biting makes teeth feel better, but the sucking of nursing makes things hurt worse.  Although, he did take a bottle for Daddy this afternoon.  (I knew he hadn't had enough the rest of the day and wanted to make sure he got one "good" feeding in... even with the handful of extra calories from the cereal....)

Well, at any rate, I've got work tomorrow, but have Tuesday off for Veterans Day.  I appreciate the day off, but I'm confused as to why we couldn't "celebrate" a day earlier on Monday?  Anyhow, it's a worthwhile day.  We really do owe everything to the Vets.  I mean, if they didn't stand up for us, who would?  (And no, I don't just say that because my husband, father-in-law, and at least 4 of my friends willingly served our country...)  So, I get a short week and Boo gets a really short week at day care, only 3 days this week.  That'll be nice since next week he'll be there full days for four days as Gak's working open to close while the boss is on vacation.

Well, I'm off to read a few pages before I go to sleep.  Here's hoping I do sleep.  I've had a very rough several nights recently.  I think Friday night I woke up about a dozen or more times in the course of 8 hours.  So, yesterday I was working with a sleep deficit.  Luckily last night I slept better, but then again, I did spend most of it on the couch so my tossing and turning wouldn't keep Gak awake.  (He said Saturday morning that he'd almost throttled me at at least one point in time the night before.... I didn't want to push my luck a second night *grin*.)

Peace to all and may you sleep well and have some messy goodness in your life.

My truck is BACK!!

OK. I just picked up my truck from the body shop. It looks GREAT! They were really nice, did great work and were fast. I didn't even have to pay my deductible, because my insurance company got the money already from the other girl's insurance. All I had to do was sign over a check for the full amount. Here is the before picture:

As you can see, there was quite a bit of damage to the corner of the bumper and underneath the bumper there was some damage to the quarter pannel itself, not much but some.

Now here is the after picture:

I took this picture after I got back to work, so it's not quite as clean as it was. As you can see, everything matches quite nicely and is so shiney and new! you can even almost make out my reflection in the bumper!

This was a really present for a Friday of a week that's been quite a bit off. I believe the chaos from last week has continued until now. I truly hope next week will be better.

Peace to all and may your worries be few.

Picture Time!

OK. Yesterday I promised you pictures of both the Project Linus blankies I've finished as well as the truck.

This first one is Scout trying her best to take over the two Linus blankies. The blue one is almost square. I meant to make it square, but I missed by about an inch or so. It's a waffle weave pattern I've done before. I used some yarn I picked up in North Dakota a few weeks back. I did most of it on my plane rides Monday and Friday. I finished it up yesterday. I'm impressed at how quickly it really went. The white and bright is a pattern I got out of a book I have. Of course I modified it a bit, since I can't seem to stick to any set of directions long. The bright is RedHeart Super Saver. I'm never using it again. It was very tough on my hands while I was working it. It washed up OK, but not great. I also whipped up for Gak, but I didn't get a picture of it.

Here are two pictures of the truck. This is the only damage that the tuck has. From the top one, you can almost see that the car that hit me was a dark red. There is amazingly little damage. It's mostly annoying. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get it into the shop and it'll be done quickly. I'm just glad I have the insurance I do. They're taking really good care of me and very quickly too.

Well, I'm going to end this post here. Peace to all and may you not have as much chaos in your life as I do.

Chaos Continued?

Oh my. I thought this week was chaotic. I thought it was over. I was wrong.
Yesterday was an adventure of sorts. Mostly good. I manage to get to the airport about an hour early. It takes me about 10 minutes to check in and I've got about 25 minutes before they start boarding. Then I see the line for security. I haven't seen a line like that other than in Philly for a while. Oh well. It moves fairly fast and no issues.
Then I get the pleasant surprise of the day. I'm in first class.
Huh?
How'd that happen?
I have no idea how it happened, but my first two flights from Sacramento all the way to Atlanta are in first class. Wow! I was spoiled fast. I had plenty of room and they fed me!
Then I get to Atlanta.
Atlanta being Atlanta, everything goes downhill quite rapidly after that. To make a long, painfully story a bit shorter, several gate changes (including one to the absolute other end of the terminal, from 2 to 34) I end up getting home an hour and a half late. Not bad all things considered.
I was a lazy butt today and sent Gak in to work by himself and spent the day doing almost nothing. Well, I did manage to finish another Project Linus blankie. I'll posts pictures tomorrow.
Life didn't get interesting until dinner.
Gak and I sit down to dinner.
We hear a large crash and crunch.
This can't be good.
Gak goes to check it out and sure enough, our truck had been hit and the other car vanished. Of course, as Gak gets downstairs and goes outside, our friend Stew is passing on his way to Scott's and stops. Perfect timing huh? First call, the Police. Did I ever mention that we live right across the street from the borough hall where the Police are? Well, they show up in about a minute flat. There doesn't seem to be much damage to the truck. We were lucky that there was a strip of ice under the driver side wheels and the truck got pushed forward just about one whole parking spot. I was impressed really. There was some debris from the other car, and it is a car not a truck, in the road. The officer makes a preliminary report and says he's not overly hopeful that they'll find the car that did it.
Well, I call the insurance company to start the paperwork. I am on the phone with my sister when the lady from the local office calls back. I miss the call and call her right back. As I'm on the phone, I look out the back window in the living room and wouldn't you know it, the cops have a car missing the driver's side headlight stopped across the street.
Well, it turns out that this is indeed the car that hit us. It also turns out that I have a very good policy and it will cost me at most $100 to get the car fixed. I just have to figure out where I'm taking it by tomorrow. I've got a few places listed and my sister knows some too. If they're with my insurance company, that's where I'll go.
Luckily no one was hurt and it doesn't look like the truck was all that damaged. I'll post pics tomorrow.
The chaos continues.
Maybe this week will be better?
Peace to all and may you have a chaos free week.