What do I want to say?

Not much, as it turns out.

I finally booked my and Munchkin's flight to Canada to visit Dani. Yay! We leave on September 20, and return on October 2. I truly cannot wait. We ordered our passports a few weeks ago. They should be here by the middle of August.

I just wish that I could go NOW. Now that it's set, I am eager to go. I've never been out of the country, and even though it's only Canada (lol), I'm so excited!

Everything seems to have calmed down here (at least in MY life). Hubby loves his new HHR. I paid over $600 to have my little Neon fixed, but it's running . . . as well as it was running before. Don't get me wrong - I love my little car. It's just - when things go wonky, they only go wonky for me. I tell a mechanic, and since they can't reproduce the problem, they can't fix it. I'll be driving, then my car seems to surge, then almost die, then recover, and be completely normal again. It only does it every few days, so no one can get it to do what it does for me. However, since it actually keeps on going . . . I'm just going to let it go for now. Until it does it all the time, then I don't feel like spending hundreds of dollars to have a mechanic investigate it.

Work is busy - kinda crazy - but I'm having fun. Actually, I put in an application for another agency. I feel awful about doing it, too. I only did it because the lady who asked if I was interested was my former boss, and I have a great deal of respect for her. She's so smart when it comes to contracts. I'm dreading having to do the interview. I mean - I loved working with her. It's just . . . they think I'm so good where I work. I'm terrified of going to a new place, and having them realize that I'm really only faking it. I have absolutely NO idea what I'm doing.

Added to that, my oldest and dearest friend in the world is getting divorced. Not that it's a huge surprise. I mean - this is her fourth marriage. And there were HUGE signs. But I feel awful for her. She really thought this was THE ONE. He's certainly the one she's been with the longest. But - he's been unfaithful to her. So, she's trying desperately to find a place that's close to her work. She found one, I'm assuming. She called yesterday to ask if I would co-sign for her lease.

I couldn't do it.

I feel absolutely awful about it.

But I just can't.

Does that make me an awful friend?

She's as close to me as any sibling would or could be. I love her. But - I just can't risk co-signing on anything. Not that I think she'll flake. It's just that, with the impending divorce, and the very real possiblility that her asshole soon-to-be-ex may be asking for alimony, or child support (if he gets the kids, which I doubt, but you never know), I just can't take the chance that she'll be able to make her commitments.

But saying no felt like digging my own grave. It hurt my heart to do that.

In happier news, if any of my two or three readers haven't been to Joefish's or Latte Dah's blogs, head on over there, and wish them well. They got married over the weekend, and there are pictures on both blogs. They both look absolutely GORGEOUS!!!. Congrats to Joe and Barb!!!!!

I had my final parent teacher conference yesterday for Munchkin. I am very proud to say that the teacher reported not only has she exceeded the Preschool fundamentals, she's pretty much already at Kindergarten-ready-for-first-grade level. She excels in all facets - learning, inter-personal, empathetic, social - everything. My baby's a frickin GENIUS!

Until she gets home, natch. Then she's just a brat. But, I hear that's normal. :-D

Kidlet is uber-excited that school is almost out. As much as Munchkin loves school, Kidlet hates it. Kidlet is much more artistic than I ever was, or ever could be. She's doing wonderfully in band, and to see her drawings, it's hard to believe they were drawn by an 11 year old. She's so gifted. I have sworn to myself that this summer, I am going to find her a real art class, and just let her go. She loves it so much. I have never seen a more sensitive, caring child than that kid.

Unless it's regarding her sister. But, that's another matter entirely.

I think this post has gone on long enough.

Until next time!!!!!!!

It fucking pours . . .

Okay - so we got over Hubby's drama.

We got over Munchkin's drama (after another visit to the doc's office, a few immunization shots, then a fever of 101.5, natch).

The weekend was lovely. I did pracitally nothing. Kidlet had her school band concert on Friday (they have progressed over the school year). Saturday and Sunday, I vegged. Hubby took the kids out shopping both days. I had some alone time in the house (which I treasure). Kidlet made a cake on Sunday. We watched some good movies. Just relaxed.

Then came today.

Got to work - no problem. Went to the doctor. Not too much of a problem, except the nurse couldn't seem to find my blood pressure. (Doc took it later - 122/80 - good as gold) Got two prescriptions. Coolness. Came back to work to pick up a co-worker so we could go to Costco to pick up a bouquet of flowers for a wonderful lady I work with who's grandmother died.

While at Costco, I realized that we would need a vase. Costco doesn't sell vases. Okay - so I dropped the coworker off with the flowers back at work, and headed over to the nearby Target for a vase.

That's when my problem started.

I stopped for a red light. Light turned green. I put my car into first when I heard and felt a very ugly crunching sound coming from my gearshift. I tried to put my car into another gear, and all the shifter did was wobble around in it's little boxy thing. At least my car was in gear, so I hobbled it over to the nearest parking lot, and called the insurance company for a tow.


I have absolutely no idea how much this is going to cost me. It's at the dealership now (read: $100 just to look at it), and I've rented possibly the ugliest car known to man - a Chevy Aveo. Who in their right mind designed this piece of crap car???





I get it going down the road, and realize I can't figure out how to put it in park. It has some sort of weird design on the automatic shift. I called the rental car agency, and they told me that once I get it into neutral, I have to push the stupid shifter down, then put it in park. Well, it would have been nice to know before I left the dealership..

So, I get to Target (finally) to get the vase and a card. I go to lock the door, and the damned thing won't lock! So, I call the rental agency AGAIN and tell them the door won't lock. They tell me it's manual, and to push it down. Well, DUH! I can figure that much out about a car. I told them I already tried that, and it don't work. They tell me to bring it on back. When I get back to the agency, the nice lady there tells me it's a safety feature so people won't lock their keys in the car, and I have to lock it from the outside with a key.

Again, it would have been nice to know BEFORE I left the damned rental car place.

By the time I got back to work, essentially, it was time to go home.

Happy fucking birthday to me.

When it rains . . .

I'm just having one of those sucky weeks.

First, we had Hubby's tire blow out, and I had to come to the rescue.

Then, Munchkin's pink eye. Poor baby.

That was Tuesday.

Wednesday, I'm on my way to my doctor appointment (that I had to reschedule from Tuesday to go rescue the family), when Hubby calls me. His truck is overheating.

Great. I asked him if he wanted me to cancel my appointment AGAIN to come get him. No, he says, just go to the appointment, and he'll figure something out.

He limped the truck home, and found that there was a heater hose that was leaking which probably caused the overheat. He replaced it. However, we were both worried that - if that wasn't the real problem - what then? He was aggrivated because this truck was nickle and diming him to death. Personally, I was about ready to take a can of gasoline and a book of matches to the damned thing. It was pissing me off.

He asked what to do. I told him to call into work and tell them he wasn't coming in today. As soon as I got off work, we got him a new car.

2007 Chevy HHR. Red.

He loves it.

Now, we have not only the new cell phone bill, but a new car payment.

Ugh.

We've been lucky the past few years - no car payment, no cell phone payment. Now, in two days, we've managed to get both. Wah.

But, his new car IS pretty, and he seems to love it. And I don't feel the pressing need to find an explosives expert to destroy the damned thing - so it's all good.

Biting the bullet

I hate this.

I am possibly the cheapest person alive. Seriously. I hate spending money. You'd never know to look at my bank account, though.

I did something today I really didn't want to, but felt I didn't have a choice.

I signed up for "regular" cell phone service.

Ugh.

For the past few years, Hubby and I have either had work issued cell phones, or we had Tracfone's 'pay as you go' service. When we got our new jobs, we lost the work cells, so we switched over completely to the pay as you go phones. And they worked. Sort of. The problem with pay as you go services is that their range isn't the greatest. There has been more than one occasion where we couldn't get hold of each other because we had no reception. Today was one of those times.

Munchkin came down yesterday with pink eye. Fun stuff. Since Hubby works second shift, he was in charge of taking her to her pediatrician this morning. Out on one of the back roads, he had a blowout. He was able to reach me (barely), and I heard enough of what he was saying to figure out what happened and where he was. So, I left to go rescue Munchkin. Hubby spent most of his remaining minutes trying to get hold of the insurance company to get his truck towed. No luck. It kept cutting out.

As soon as I got to him, his first words to me were, "I'm getting rid of this *bleeping* phone."

So, this evening, I signed up for the only company that I know that has good reception out here. I ended up getting a "family" plan with three phones - one for hubby, one for me, one for Kidlet.

$90.00 per month plus taxes and whatnot. I'm looking at another $100 plus bill per month.

I hate this. I hate this. I hate this.

So, that means, with my land lines and internet, plus the cell phones, I'm going to be paying over $200 per month in phone service. And we don't even use the phone that much.

This sucks.