In Memory of Lukas

All, 

It is with deep sadness and heartache that I ask for your thoughts and prayers for Michael, Natascha, and Ian Ledford.  Their son, and brother, Lukas Henry has passed away suddenly at the age of 3 months.  

There are no words that I can say that can express how I feel for them at this moment. 

Although I never had a chance to meet Lukas, I know that his short time in this world was not without purpose.  

Please keep him and his family in your hearts.

 

If this is Superior Service...

....Then I am very concerned to see what their poor service is like. All I hear, all day long, are the commercials for "John Doe" Automotive and how they pride themselves on their award winning service. Ummm, what award might that be? Worst Service Ever? This is becoming almost comical now. Really. I can do nothing more but laugh at this silly silly situation.

I buy a new car and all they have to do is add the features that I asked for. When they were making the sale all I heard was. "No Problem, Absolutely, Piece of Cake, Be Done Before You Know it". Yeah Right!

I thought maybe third time would be the charm. However it is now 10:45 and they have still not come to pick up the car. Since the last time they picked it up at 10:00 (and left me no loaner car) and barely got it back by 3:30 I am concerned to say the least.

Looks like I will be dealing with these stupid running boards for yet another day. Oh, for those of you who don't know....dealing with the running boards for another day means not being able to open my back doors since they were installed too high and block the doors from opening.

Yeah. I know.

Updates...nothing more

Yay: I now have a new bathroom floor.

Nay: Never tile or lay vinyl on an angle in a small space...every piece has cuts...not good.

Yay: I have new pipes for my beautiful new laundry room.

Nay: I now have no running water to fill the pipes. Thank You BD for Starwood Points and SPG. (Although you have to call the Philippines (literally) in order to make a reservation in the next town over. Interesting. But I had all the free water in the world at my disposal as I spent the night at the club level at the Sheraton. Might be two nights. We shall see.

Yay: I finally got my new car! The good thing about our tanking economy...no one wants to buy giant SUVS. I do I do. Yay for me.

Nay: New Car came with giant dent in the door. New Car going back, getting a new new car.

Yay: Neighbors put up a nice new tall fence along the side of my house so I have a little more privacy.

Nay: Neighbors changed all but one panel of the fence, so I have my new fence connected to a piece of their old fence, connected to their new fence. None of which are the same fence. Interesting.

OH....TRULY GROSS..

I can't even believe I am posting this, but I have to...to get it out there and then I don't have to think about it anymore.

So, for those who have been in my house you know I have a bathroom in my basement. for those who have not been in my house, now you know I have a bathroom in my basement. I rarely use it because it is one of the few places in my house I did not "yet" remodel. It felt funky to me, and yucky. There has always been something about it that didn't sit right with me, but then again, I am a little crazy. (Phil...don't even say it.)

Anyway, I finally decided that it was time to build a laundry room in the basement now that the oil tank and beastly boiler are gone. Dad and I set out on this new building adventure and decided that now might be the best time to redo the bathroom so that it is home-owener friendly. Fresh coat of paint, new floor, blah blah blah. A quick fix to make it finally a place I would want to bath in. Ahhhhhhh, quick fix, not so much.

So, we start to take the floor moulding up and I notice that the drywall just crumbles. First issue, they did not use Green board in a basement bathroom. Not Good. Dad gets that look in his eye and realizes that there will be a moisture issue. We just had no idea how much of a moisture issue there would be. As we start to pull the floor up I immediately gag because I know that the concrete floor was never black. Oh yes, you guessed it...the entire floor was a layer of MOLD! I almost died. The world's biggest neat freak has mold. Aggggggggggggggggg. Kill me now. Evidently, the previous homeowners did not seal the concrete floor or waterproof it before laying the vinyl tile. Therein lies the problem.

After 6 hours of solving the wall issue and "bathing" my bathroom in bleach, I can say that the mold abatement was successful. Now I don't feel so crazy...I KNEW there was something not right about that bathroom. However, I now have a big empty room where my bathroom once stood. Looks like Dad and I will be laying some floor this week and putting back vanity, toilet, and the such. Fabulous. As Always.

Funkady dunk dunk

Oh this rain and fog is just killing me. I can't take it anymore. I need sunshine and flowers, birds chirping, people running and biking, grass growing. I can not take this cloudy, yucky, humdrum weather anymore. It is making me entirely unmotivated and grouchy. Never a good combination.

Mr. Sun, Mr. Sun come out and play. PLEASE..you are ruining my Chi.

Hum Dum Dee Dum, Hum Dee Dum Dumm

I am unmotivated. Not Good

Did you just call me little girl??

....I think to myself as I am sitting in the car dealership last night.  I look to my left and tilt me head.  Mom confirms.  Yes, in fact, he just stated "John, can you go run over there and run these numbers here for this little girl, she is convinced she can get a better rate."

Hmm, Check please!

It did not stop there...I got called cute, missy, honey, kiddo, kiddy pie, and little girl, all in one night and all by one person.  Steve, the car salesman.  That was just the tip of the iceberg too.  This guy gave all car dealers a bad name.  He tried all the tricks and in the end, refused...flat out refused to meet me half way on anything.  Not to mention John the guy who said he was doing me a favor by offering me $3500 for my car.  Are you freaking kidding me!  Jay got $2500 for a 1999 Rodeo that didn't even run!   This man knew I was coming in to test drive the car, and he did ZERO research on the vehicle.  I knew more than he did about the car.  He didn't even know what size tires were on it.  Lord love a duck.  Did I miss the memo that said the auto industry was no longer struggling?

The car was beautiful and it took a lot to walk away, but walk away I did.  Even if they could meet me half way, I don't think I would be able to swallow my pride enough to actually give them my money. Nope.  However.......

Fast forward to this afternoon at lunch.  I walk into the Ford dealership near my office.  I had not gone in there originally because last week they did not have any pre-owned Explorers.  But I thought, let's see what this week holds.  WELL....talk about a 180!  I got greeted at the door with a cup of coffee, had a great YOUNG" salesperson who knew the Explorer inside and out.  He had one on the lot that had almost everything I wanted.  He even had them look at my car super fast....and the trade in..more than double what the last place was offering, and without batting an eyelash. They said my car was in great shape and they washed and vacuumed it for me!  I know!   Crazy! 

In the end...I have champagne taste on a beer budget and will drive my little baby a little longer, but Carlos...you redeemed the dealership experience.....for me.  

I know why the Youth of Today are FAT!

Because it is freakin' cheaper to by a Playstation and every game that can be played on it than it is to buy a bicycle.  

Seriously, I had absolutely no idea how ridiculously expensive road bikes are..  aggggggggg.  I love my mountain bike, it is the greatest bike, but I have quickly discovered that it is not the bike I want to use for the triathlon.  It is like I am dragging a person behind me while I peddle.  Now, thinking back to my younger days, you could get a road bike anywhere.  Maybe not olympic quality, but a decent bike could be found for 100 bucks.  If you were crafty like my dad, you would get used bikes at the Rocky Hill Flea Market, fix it up and you were good to go for 20 bucks!  Ahhh how I miss those days.  I tried consignment, demos, used, trade ups, everything and the cheapest road bike I could find was $500.  If I wanted to go with a sport performance bike (flat bar) they were $400, but not ideal.  And to think, an actual Triathlon bike was 1800!  Yikes. Stripes. Fruit Striped Gum!  

I can't imagine how parents afford to get their kids bikes anymore.  For crying out loud, Target and Walmart bikes were $200.  I went to both today to buy a garbage can and sundries and was curious to see if the madness continued at the big stores.  So I looked at the bikes.  I was floored at how much they were.   I was even more surprised to learn that stores like Dick's, Sports Authority, etc...don't even sell road bikes.   This triathlon is going to bankrupt me before it kills me.   Oh...and the fact that I am pint sized doesn't help.  Who makes extra small frames anyway, 44cm was almost too big :)