Saturday, July 29, 2006

sweet ride

Ruby, my old station wagon, now belongs to Jerry and his used car lot in Hurst Texas. I sold her yesterday with help from my wonderful Dad, and I actually enjoyed it. I was a little sad to see her go. We had lots of fun times with that wagon. Bought it in Seattle about a week before Max was born when I was REALLY pregnant. I'm sure the salesman knew he had a desperate sale on his hands, but we thought we bargained pretty well.

Since then, the car has been on a road trip with us when we moved back to Texas. Ten days with a 1 and 3 year old along the west coast. It's driven us to the beach, to Grandma and Grandad's, to every family outing for the last 6 and a half years. But it was time to move on.

Now I am a total stereotypical mom. I have a minivan! It is a sweet, fancy, almost spankin' brand new Toyota. It has 3800 miles and I hope to drive her to the end, in about 15 years! Photos coming soon.

Farewell old Ruby, hello, ????. We'll let you know the van's name when we figure it out.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Friday, July 21, 2006

bad car

some people actually enjoy the thought of getting a new car. it is just plain painful for us. decisions, car payments, even with a great deal right in front of us (thank you, benefactors, you know who you are) it is still hard to pull the trigger.

But the old car is not good for us. We made a deal that we would treat it very nice and pay for lots of expensive repairs in exchange for about three more years of good driving. And the car welched on that deal. So there you have it.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Take a Break from the Burka

When your repressive government (or family) decides to let you cool off during the summer, here is the spot for you. I'm getting Emma all set up, right after I order a chastity belt. Too bad the boys can't be "modest" too.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

cable karma

First time in 6+ years, I ordered cable. I did it, because it would be stupid not to. AT&T (who I don't like) had raised our DSL and phone service so high that the competitor's price for cable, DSL and phone is only about $8 more. Now we can watch UT Football this fall! Hook 'Em. Not to mention Nick for the kids, HGTV for me, and Comedy Central for news.

Of course, 2 hours after ordering, the universe righted itself. I was up north checking out a very cool UT surplus auction. It was preview day. It was also 103 degrees and I had the kids. On the way home, the engine light not only came on, but blinked at me. I decided to drive straight to the dealer (4pm) and prayed to God the whole way to get me there safely. I could just picture myself stuck on the 183 overpass, with three kids, in the heat in a stalled car with all of Austin streaming by at 80 mph. Got to the dealer, waited with three kids for 2.5 hours. Found out it is a $1200 fix after just spending that much in May. No loaner car. Taxi home $45. Decided not to take taxi. Drove broken car home. Prayed again. Woke up today and drove to gas station/repair shop 1 mile away because I trust those guys to help me make a decision.

Anyway, if you believe in karma, was the chain of events.....

a) ordering cable::disordering of universe::highly expensive breakdown

b) contemplate buying UT surplus at auction::disordering of universe::highly expensive breakdown

c) repair car in May::growing hatred for car::car repays hatred with highly expensive breakdown

d) Heard Bob Dylan song sung by old black blues singer on radio yesterday "Everything is broken" :: contemplate download on iTunes :: song trying to become reality so that I will buy it.

or a combo of all.

Friday, July 14, 2006

evidence

Here is the video of DLR on Conan, apparantly the disgruntled fan who posted it couldn't stand the sound either and dubbed over it. Turn the volume down and just imagine him butchering this song to a bluegrass banjo background. I can't wait for someone to post the real thing, it was horrible!

Top this.

Is there anything as sad as David Lee Roth singing today? He is on Conan O'Brian right now and it is so painful to see that we turned the channel away. He is singing Jamie's Crying to a bluegrass band. What the hell, does he even think of how this affects my generation? He looks like a big baby loser. I'm actually kind of mad about it, mad or sad, whatever.

Monday, July 10, 2006

50% less sunscreen

OK, so why did I wait until halfway through summer to get the boys the surfer shirts they've been wanting? Now I don't have to sunscreen their whole torsos. Max's even has fairly long sleeves. I'll get him all slicked down with sunscreen in about 1/4 the time. Even defiant Joey decided he needed one. Man, where was my brain?

Sunday, July 09, 2006

4am/4pm

It always happens this way. A couple of nights with too little sleep. David and I stayed up too late last night, reading books (my new one is The Omnivore's Dilemma --- it is very good/insightful/disturbing). We turned off the lights around 1am.

4 am. Joey starts throwing up. Moves into our room and begins nap/vomit cycle that is about, oh, 20 minutes long. At about 4:45 we hear Max in his room, moaning. David dashes in, and gets him to the toilet. So then it is non stop fun. By 5:00, my paper was on the lawn, so I just decided to stay up and read the paper in bed so I'd be ready to roll Joey over and help him out with the trashcan.

Around 11:30 they are done with the worst of it. Started watching TV, and then around 4pm, it starts: the bickering we never even knew we missed! They are normal. They are fighting again! Hurray!