Rolling the Vehicular Dice

So, I have a new problem in my life.  You see, there are 221 days until my wedding and I would say that I am the opposite of "in shape."  Therefore, I have pulled out my old friend Jillian Michaels and her 30 Day Shred... I hate it.

So, while I've been doing well with the working out - it SERIOUSLY compromises my motivation to blog.  Which sucks, because even though my blog has become useless wedding trivia.... I've been really into it lately!

So, please forgive me as I try to get back into the groove.  It's hard!

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So, on Friday, I'm jetting off to Pennsylvania.  I get to go meet sweet baby Ruth, baby girl of my college roommate. 

I'm so excited I can't even tell you.

However.

My car, Miss Daisy, is 6 years old this year.  We had a pesky little issue with a nail in her tire, once upon a time, but otherwise, she's the most perfect, healthy 6 year old baby Jetta I've ever had.  (And also the only one).

I just rolled over 60k miles, and I kept feeling like I should send Daisy for a checkup.  I called the dealership and they told me that a standard checkup - not including any repairs that might need to happen - was $400. 

And then I passed out cold.

Apparently the joys of vehicle ownership have not yet fully sunk into my head yet.

My dad has decided it would be smartest to rent a car to drive from Indy to Pennsylvania, thus resulting in a much smaller chance of him having to drive to Ohio and pick up a few former college roomies.

I have decided that costs too much money and we should just take our chances of Daisy becoming a traitor midway through the Ohio tollroad.

Anybody ever been on a road trip and had car problems?  It's my nightmare.

Anybody want to pack my bags?  I'm sure I only need like 18 outfits for a three-day weekend.

Happy Tuesday.

Clearly, I'm a Domestic Goddess

This past Sunday, I realized that I'm quite the domestic goddess in training.

Example 1: the sun, which rarely seems to shine anymore, came streaming through my bedroom window onto the TV I used in college.
Clearly I don't use the TV much anymore. Clearly, I need to learn how to dust... which I did, for several hours. Yuck.

My second domestic-goddess-y thing was cake pops. I had tried them back in August but my technique and my dipping chocolate was all off.

Thanks to the trusty Lis Loves' Cake Pop tutorial, this batch turned out perfectly. If I may say so myself. With a cake pop in my mouth. At 7:08 AM.

And last but not least, I made a kinda-sorta version of chicken Parmesan for dinner. There actually wasn't Parmesan cheese... but whatever. I totally rocked it. And took a pic of the raw chicken for proof that I'm clearly domestic.
Call me if you need any cooking tips. I'll be in the kitchen. (Or not.)
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On an unrelated note.... on December 15, 2008 (as in - a year and a month ago), I woke up on the coldest day in a loong time in South Bend, Indiana and got into my car to discover one of my tires was low.

I wrote a post about how this one low tire literally turned into a fiasco.

It was during final exams, I was supposed to drive home that week, and on and on.

Since then, this one tire has been giving me trouble. Since the rim of that wheel looked a little scratched, everyone told me that I had somehow damaged the tire. So instead of having it confirmed that I broke the tire, I just keep filling it up when the pressure is low.

So, a year and a month later, I took it to a tire place yesterday. Within 20 minutes, they confirmed that there was a leak from the previous owner and it had come loose - they fixed it up and there was no charge.

That's all it took.

In conclusion - procrastination never pays off. I have spent many cold days standing in the parking lot of the gas station freezing my butt off filling up my tire. And it could have been fixed for free.

This lesson brought to you by an almost domestic goddess.

If you need me today, I'll be at the mall.

A Bad Day, I'd Say

Today was Monday. The first day of final exams. The first day of my last week of my fall semesters at college. All of these things, in my mind, make up a good day. So - I had finished my Sales final early and was eager to get to Target.

I was hoping to pick up a 500 GB external hard drive for the boy for Christmas. It was on sale, people!

So, I get out to the parking lot into my car. And then this little guy pops up: Anybody recognize that indicator? Any takers? No??

Well, don't worry - I got out the manual. And the manual said: LOW PRESSURE. CHECK TIRES.

So I opened my glove box to get out the cute pink lunch box that holds all my car tools. Only, where was the lunch box? Ohh, that's right - in my old car. Silly me.

Hmmm.... so what's a girl to do? GENIUS IDEA!! Go out and look at the tires. Surely you'll be able to see something, right?

Well, actually - wrong. But that's neither here nor there. What I did see was that the rim (or that plastic thing covering the middle of the wheel) was cracked. As if somebody had crashed into MY TIRE for god's sake. So I got back into the car and called my dad while my teeth chattering wore off. Positive note: Weather.com said it felt like -2 Degrees Fahrenheit outside. Score. I pulled off the little plastic/metal cover thing because I didn't want it to fall off and be lost forever, cause then I'd be pissed.

So I called my dad. We chatted. He said it would probably be OK to go a SHORT distance to get more air. Unless the car was visibly bumpy or weird-driving. Which I immediately claimed it to be. "It's shaking really bad I can barely control the wheel!! Eek what do I do!?!?!" Actually, it seems as though that may have been an exaggeration. Drove totally fine.

So I drove to the local Meijer, which happened to be the closest large store. (P.S. Meijer is like Wal-Mart or another big-box store only a little less dirty.) Rushed around and picked up a tire pressure measuring thing. (Side note: SHIT!! Did I want 1-15 psi or 10-50 psi or 50-100 psi. Shit shit shit why did I not check before I left the car. Contemplated leaving the store to check the car, but hell no it was cold!!) So I got the gauge. And some other random muffin mix and other random things bought to make myself feel happy (didn't work).

Got into the car with freezing, shaking hands and got the guage ready. Looked around to find the correct pressure - 34 psi. Checked 3 tires - they were all about 31 psi. Checked the 4th, rim-less tire - 28 psi. Didn't seem like a crisis situation to me, but what the hell do I know? Called trusty dad.

He said to get to a gas station with air, STAT. Of course the first station didn't have air. NEXT. The next one did, at the cost of $1 per 3 minutes. Talk about a rip. Can you guess who didn't have any quarters to fill the meter? That'd be me.

I then filled the lowest tire. Turned on the car. No dice - the light was still on. At this point, I had all my 'emergency' gloves and hats and mittens on, but I couldn't unplug the little cap with gloves on so... my hands were PURPLE. Couldn't feel them AT ALL. I was seriously freaking out because I thought, for the first time in my life, that frostbite was an option. Filled the 2nd tire. Went to check the pressure when, LOVE OF JESUS, the gauge broke. Popped off into about 58378 pieces. Fabulous, really.

Went into the car. Blasted the heat. Called my dad sobbing. He said that it sounded like the pressure wasn't THAT emergent of a situation and that I could probably drive to Target, get the gift, and buy ANOTHER gauge and check them in the morning when I wasn't so worked up.

Then I mentioned that boo hoo my feet were freezing because I was just wearing these little flats with no socks and woe is me. And then my dad flipped his shit. Because I wasn't mature enough to be at college and because I was an idiot and didn't I ever learn anything? And I should have been prepared for an emergency and why wasn't wearing a full snowsuit with boots and I am unprepared and shouldn't be allowed to live - the end. Commence more sobbing. End conversation with slightly angry tones.

Arrive at Target. Guess what they were sold out of?? I'll give you $.25 if you guess right... the external hard drive that I drove all around creation for. Ohh, and guess what ELSE they were sold out of? Tire gauges. Seriously.

So I drove my big cart all around the store and purchased a pair of earrings and a can of shaving cream. And then a thing of Edy's ice cream in Carmel something, because I refused to pay the same price for what I really wanted - Häagen-Dazs dulce de leche. So I settled for the LARGER (like I need it) giant tub. And it did not quench the hunger. So I got Chick-fil-A.

And then I drove to Wal-Mart and bought a tire gauge, thus completing my tri-fecta of big-box store experience on this particular Monday (Meijer, Target, Wal-Mart). Bought something at each store.

The end.

Thus ends my presentation of a very bad day. Please feel free to leave sweet murmurings of sympathy at my awesome good luck.

And also, I still haven't purchased the boy a Christmas present. Hold me.

'Tis the Season

This was the first thing I saw when I woke up this morning: my baby buried under a good couple inches of snow. (Please, enjoy the photo I took through a dirty window and a screen). Makes me feel so festive, ya know? The snow, the biting cold....

So, I've been drinking hot apple cider all week (do you think it's making me have a sore throat? Because I definitely have a sore throat). I've also been blaring Mariah Carey Christmas and sneaking up Christmas decorations wherever I can.

You see, I have a roommate who believes Christmas doesn't start until the day after Thanksgiving. I'm all for celebrating Thanksgiving, but I feel it's just really cutting into my Christmas time this year.

Is it bad that I'm starting Christmas a wee bit early? Is it bad to listen to 24/7 Christmas radio programming before Thanksgiving? Have you been sneaking up the decorations? Or are you one of them - who is celebrating Thanksgiving before Christmas, thank you very much?

What the Heck??

A couple of days ago, I was driving around town and nearly crashed my car. Eek!

Why did I do such a thing? Well, after I recovered enough to drive around the block and take another picture, this is what caused the ruckus.
Seriously? Gas for $3.95 - as in under four dollars? Are you outta your mind?

Edit: Obviously, since I've written this post, gas has gone above $4. The world continues to spin on its axis. Whew - that was a close one!


love,

The People's Car - No, MY Car

When I got home from school on Sunday, my mother's former car was sitting in the driveway. Unusual, because it is usually parked on the right side of the 2 car garage, next to the minivan.

Why wasn't it in the garage? I thought it was odd, but didn't obsess over it.

We (my dad, brother, and I) unloaded my (and my brother's) car of all of my college dorm room gear. (Where did I get all this crap??) Anyways, we sat down for a spaghetti dinner and I didn't think much more.

After dinner, my dad made me do the dishes. Humph - first day home and already the household slave. Geez. After that, he told me to pull the car (my mom's car) into the garage. Weird, but whatever.

I get into the driveway, open the door, and what do I see?

A 2007 Jetta - and it's mine, all mine. This would be the first car that I've had to myself (and haven't had to share with my 19-year-old pig of a brother).

So I've only driven it about 20 miles since Sunday... and keep in mind that I live in a somewhat rural area... I clearly need to get out more. Although I can't afford the gas, so nevermind.

In other news, I have done 4 loads of laundry and mowed the lawn today today... where does the laundry keep coming from??

love,