Coincidence

Right before Christmas, I backed into shopping cart in the parking lot outside Best Buy. I heard that awful "crunch" that sends your heart into your stomach, and was relieved to see it was just a shopping cart, even tho it was embarrasing to have not seen it. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I noticed a lot of smoke behind me.

At the first stoplight, I noticed the smoke again, and looked around to see if anyone else's car was doing that. But no, just mine. Then the smoke got lighter, and as I drove around I didn't notice it anymore. I considered taking it immediately to The Shop, as it was nearby. But the smoke seemed to stop after awhile.

When I got home I noticed an electrical smell and pointed it out to K, but then that went away too. We drove it to The Boy's basketball game, and parked in front of the school. When we came out after the game, it wouldn't start! The starter wouldn't kick in. We called Auto Club and K waited and the rest of us hitched a ride home.

The Auto Club guy tried to jump the car, but decided that it was definitely the starter, and would have to be towed to the shop. So we had to wait until the next day, to make sure our mechanic would be there (sometimes he isn't). He was, so K had it towed to The Shop so it could be fixed.

After a few days it was done, and K went to pick it up. When he started it up to bring it home, he noticed the smoke was still coming out of the tailpipe! In fact, it got worse really quickly. So K had to leave it there again.

A few days later we got really bad news. It was the head gasket, which is expensive because the whole engine has to be taken out to get at it! So I think I mentioned this before - it's around $1500!!!

We finally got it back after the holidays, and now the tailpipe is making noise! Like it has a hole in it and is saying "putt, putt, putt" really fast.

Now this seems strange to me, because these are all unrelated parts of the vehicle, in different places, but they all went out one after another so quickly! And it all started when I backed into the shopping cart, yet it just doesn't make sense that backing into a cart would cause all of this. I wish it HAD, because then maybe I could claim it on my insurance. But our mechanic says it was unrelated, so what can I say?

It's like backing into the shopping cart broke the rubberband/wire hanger/gum combo underneath the car that was holding everything together!

Huh.

The day after Christmas, our friend D sprained ankle and fell off a ladder. On Wed, my Dad twisted his leg on the ice/snow and sprained the ACL in his knee. On Thurs, The Boy came down on his foot wrong in a basketball game and... sprained his ankle!
Is it in the air or something? Why the coincidence?

On New Year's Day my Mom called to say they'd seem a float from the town we live in in the Rose Parade. When I went to work the next day, a co-worker told me she'd been busy over the holidays working on a Rose Parade float. She told me there were left-over mums in the breakroom, and I should take some. I guess I didn't make the connection, because I was thinking, "Mums? Aren't they flowers?"

I went back to the room and found jars full of mums, and then made the connection. Oh, MUMS leftover from the Rose Parade float!

Who can say no to free flowers?

Christmas wrap up

It seemed a little low-key this year, even tho the Girl still gets excited. I've told her about Santa, but she continues to keep the dream alive. She's really fun. She helps me decorate (i.e. does it all!), encourages me to make cookies, makes eggnog french toast (Yum!), and hangs the stockings.

I kept telling the Boy that he may not get everything he wanted for Christmas, so he'd better do extra jobs, save money, etc. He kept saying, "But I only want 2 things!" Well, those 2 things just happened to add up to $###!!! But that's ok, I figured when he came up short, he'd work to make the extra money. It would be a learning experience.

I should point out that his Birthday is 2 days before Christmas, so he expects a lot from those few days.

Well, the Boy ended up netting even MORE than $###!!! I couldn't believe it until I sat down and added it all up again with him. It's amazing! So how am I to teach this boy the value of money?

I tried doing what my father did with me - he made me save half of what I made. It worked great for me because I wasn't used to having $100, so saving $50 and still having $50 to spend was fine with me. I still use this method today. But when I tried this with the Boy, he was offended and vowed never to work again! And he hasn't!

Why should he, when life bails him out like this? When you think about it, it's 2 sides of the family, each with 2-3 aunts, and 2 celebrations. Still, not only was I frustrated at my attempts to teach him about money, it seemed incredible to me that we are scrounging to locate the money to fix our van, and the Boy just got nearly half that amount for birthday/christmas!

After a night of feeling sorry for myself (ingrate that I am, for I am truely lucky in SO many ways), I talked it over w/K and we decided to let the Boy keep all that money. But he has to make it last until the end of the semester. He'll get allowance, but nothing extra for bowling, dinners out, etc. He has to learn to manage the money he has. Hopefully he will, although I know all too well how fast it can disappear.

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We had a big arguement over the holidays, when the Boy was home more and asking for more and more, yet giving less and less. Anyway, he told me to make my arguements more intelligent, and K lost his temper completely. Later, I tried to talk with the Boy and tell him that he just can't talk to us that way.

He'd also said something during a fight about my preferring his sister. I told him that I'm protective of her, but I was protective of him too. He just doesn't remember. He is my first born, and I will always love him in a special way just for that.

Besides, I pointed out that it's not my fault that we don't do anything together anymore. We used to watch movies together, but a few years ago he stopped doing that too. This is perfectly normal, I think, but it's not my fault and it definitely doesn't mean that I don't love him.

He's seemed a little nicer after that.

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The girl got enough money for Christmas to buy a certain toy that she really wanted. But guess what? Everyone is out of stock! We went to Target, we went to Best Buy - no toy!!

She's been checking online, which is really cute because she's only 9, and she's checking availability. She also bought an animal called a "Webkins", that comes complete with a code for a website that's been keeping her busy with games and activities that supposedly take care of the pet.

But she's dissapointed that she can't find the other toy she wanted. Tonight she said, "Don't they even care about MY needs?"

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Are you insane?

I've had a tough couple of weeks. Every day it seems I'm supposed to be in at least 2 places at the same time, and it's been challenging juggling it all. Plus the Boy's basketball team is having a tournament this week, so I never know until the night before what time their game is going to be. I've been flaking out all over the place, but I'm doing the best I can. That's all I can say.

Did I mention that the van went down with both a bad starter and head gasket? It's been hard juggling these things with only one vehicle, too. Did I mention that these repairs will be expensive?

I got upset with my Boss last week, when I found out something he'd withheld from me. I thought it over, and ultimately decided that I withold things from him too.

Our workplace had their company party last week at the Atheneaum, which was v. delicious. Steak over polenta and broccoli rabe with a little blue cheese. Sat by Moreanne, my favorite. Let my Boss off hook, told him he's still my second most favorite boss ever (sadly, this is true). Text messaging the Boy over forgotten jersey crisis. Left a little early to take it to him. Missed dessert, but was v. full from steak (& wine!)

The Girl's class had their party next day (Thurs) and played present game. Very cute kids. The Girl likes techy things, so she ended up with a voice changer thing, even tho she already has one.

Friday I played tennis finished present packing with K. We loaded the presents into boxes, and he was helping me get the boxes ready to go out. On one box, he covered the addresses already on the box with 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper, which looked a little tacky, but he didn't want to wait for me to find labels. Then he wrote the address, and he has terrible handwriting anyway. But the marker he was using ran out, so he went over it again with a darker marker, but you could still see where he'd written with the lighter marker. All together, it looked like an insane person had done it!

I didn't know what to do. He wanted to send it, of course, but it was to HIS parents, who have their doubts about us already! It was just going to make us look bad. I told him I didn't think the Post Office would even deliver it! They'd all say, "I'm not touching THAT package. It looks like an insane person did it!" Plus we've had packages he addressed never show up, I think due to confusion over his handwriting.

K got a little frustrated with me. He didn't want to hear about repacking the contents into another box, so I had few options. Eventually I put labels over his writing and wrote it again myself. But I made a mistake and put CA instead of CO, so I had to color in the O, which looked kind of funny. I told K, "I fixed it."

We laughed about it later. He kept saying, "Are you insane?"

Our tree is a small one - the same small one I've had for years. This year the Girl pressured me to get a tree topper, so I went and bought one. I got the lightest looking star I could find (didn't see any angels), but it still makes the tree lean in a way that suggests that it may fall over. The Girl said it reminded her of a Dr. Suess tree, she said, "It looks ready to take off!"

We went to a friend's party Friday night. We had some great conversations and the food was excellent. There was a good dip that was simply cream cheese spread all over a plate, then covered with raspberry chipotle sauce. She also made bacon-wrapped chicken appetizers that were very good.

At first the Boy was only hanging around his sister, which was an amazing and welcome outcome of making him go to the party. She asked him what he thought was in a big safe that was in the garage, and he told her a story that reminded me of the old days, when he used to make up stories all the time. This one began with Juan Ponce de Leon, and by the end also involved Col. Sanders, Ronald McDonald, and Uncle Sam. It was quite a story.

Later, he was hanging out with the few teenage girls that were there. I asked him later how he made that transition, he said it was easy. I asked him how again, and he said, "Does a magician reveal his techniques?"

He can be so funny.

Some interesting articles this week:

Independent America

Nuggests vs. Knicks

Colorado Christmas! Guess they're done shopping!

Brokeback bullshit

The other day I watched "Brokeback Mountain" because it was free on HBO or one of the MAX stations. When it was over, I felt like, huh? That was Brokeback bullshit!

It really (REALLY) bothered me that Heath Ledger's wife had that whole scene about "I wondered why you never brought back any fish!" when know perfectly well that she saw them kissing before they ever went anywhere! Don't you think she'd say, "Why were you kissing that guy?" instead of "why didn't you ever bring back any fish?" I thought that was very poor scene planning and story telling.

And then the end where Jake Gyllenhaal's wife (Anne Hathaway!) explains things one way and then we see a flash of an alternate ending... I just didn't like that. That was strange storytelling too, in my opinion. And why didn't the mom even ask why he was taking the shirt away?

But the scenery was beautiful and the cinematography awesome. The acting was very, very good. It's just that the story had problems, if you ask me. But you didn't, so please feel free to disregard above opinion of a critical moviegoer.

Authority Issues

My bad luck with authority continues, evidently. The other day I went to pick up the daughter at school, and stopped at a curb to see if I could see her before I proceeded into the pickup line. A policeman drove by, but I wasn't too worried because my car was still running. But he pulled up beside me! So I waved at him, like OK, OK, and I went ahead and pulled forward and into the pickup spot. Luckily the Girl WAS right there, which was good because he still stopped right beside me. So she got into the car he let me go home.

Whew!

Then yesterday I parked in a 20-minute spot in Shoppers Row, behind some shops at Lake and Del Mar in Pasadena. I was going to the Sansai Grill, which is so delicious. Then I noticed that Tower Records was having a going-out-of-business sale, so I went over to have a look. I never saw so many CDs and DVDs that I DIDN'T want. Or know anyone who wanted. I mean, even at $10, you want it to be something a person actually WANTS. (I did manage to find a Ben Harper CD, but I totally took a chance because I only think I might like it.)

Anyway, you know how this story must end. I went and got my food, went back to the car, and found a $36 ticket on it.

Boo hoo. My reign as a parking bandit has come to an end!

Or has it...?

I can't afford my life!

I've been thinking about getting another job, as I feel we're running out of money and it would be nice to have some extra for Christmas. Then came the expensive ND game, which was more expensive than we'd planned.

Then K took my car in to check a tire, and they said I need new tires. Of course, and 4 of them too. My car is a nice one, so I dread anything ever going wrong on that car, as everything is so damn expensive on it. And these are especially big tires, that look really nice, but are expensive. So he told me it would be $750, and I about had a heart attack! I finally convinced him to just replace the front tires for now.

Then, the microwave tried to catch on fire! So we have to buy a new one, but meanwhile, we have to boil water on the stove for coffee. How archaic! And it's hard to heat up leftovers. Plus, that was our only clock in the kitchen, so we keep looking at it, forgetting that it won't tell us the time anymore.

Then there's a looming dentist appointment, where they're trying to soak me for at least $300 I'm sure. And I need new printer cartridges.

Oh, I almost forgot about the text messaging! I upgraded my service and told the Boy he had unlimited text messaging. Then I got the bill and there were $98 in text messaging charges! So I called them and found out that it's not UNLIMITED, but up to 500 free a month. So thinking that should be enough, I asked what the problem was. The problem turned out to be 1112 text messages! I think that sounds excessive, but the woman at Verizon said she's seen as many as 6000 per month!

Sigh

Anyway, I'm off to Best Buy to shop for Christmas. And a new microwave.