I’m as disappointed in my post frequency as you are, my readers. But when your partner in crime has been away for 100+ days, your adventures become less exciting. Don’t get me wrong, as you are about to find out, I’m still having myself adventures, but they are of a different type. Speaking of the Viper Pilot, I have had a little more Skype time than normal with him. It makes me a happy girl when I get to see this face at least twice a week. 🙂
I can’t wait to hug him. |
The weather today finally took the advice of my new favorite bookmark.
Courtesy of Ginger Mail |
IT RAINED!!
The heat has been unbearable and even though it only rains for a few minutes then gets really humid and muggy, there is still a decent breeze and it is so nice to have the windows wide open to let in cooler fresh air.
For the past several days I had the rolladens all the way down all day in an attempt to make the house a cool damp cave (it didn’t work). Things were starting to look a little brown around here, which is very rare for our lush region. I have rain barrels to use on my garden, but I’m really getting sick of watering it everyday and I’m glad Mother Nature finally stepped in. 🙂
Elle and I are enjoying the dreary day. I took a nap, made homemade queso (recipe will be posted this week), did the laundry, got caught up on my photography class, and read a few magazines that were piling up. Elle napped.
Last Sunday, I had a successful day at Tongeren with friends. Nothing like a little retail therapy after the Saturday that I had (more on the car situation in a moment).
After three days of two repairmen constantly at work in my basement, I now have hot water thanks to this new funky device that looks more like a time machine than a water heater/furnace to me.
And by hot water I actually mean boiling water. I still need to figure out how to turn it down…
I took the Volvo back to the repair shop on Thursday and they discovered about $600 worth of damage. I was furious. I knew this wasn’t my fault and was determined to figure out why this happened. Wheels just don’t fall off cars for no reason. As it turns out, when they worked on it a few weeks ago, they looked up the specs on the wrong vehicle when they put the wheels back on. The wheels were torqued 20 ft-lbs below the minimum for my car. They will be covering all expenses but I won’t get my car back for 10-14 days since parts have to come from the states. I’m glad it all worked out because my next stop was the legal office, though a lawsuit wasn’t really on my list of things to do while the Viper Pilot is deployed…
Remember my electric gas-powered car Tori?
Tori has given me a lot of grief this week, too. While it is a mechanically sound vehicle, there are a lot of electrical problems with this stupid thing. I loved this car for the first week that we owned it. After driving it for a while, I decided it would become the Viper Pilot’s car.
After driving the sweatmobile for a few days (the AC doesn’t work), the dumb thing alerted me that the parking brake is on. It is, in fact, not on. But unlike most cars, it doesn’t just have a warning light on the dash. Oh no, that certainly wouldn’t get your attention. It insists on giving you a friendly little beeping reminder…ALL THE TIME. I mean, seriously, as long as the car is on, it is beeping. Here’s just a short sample for you. If you listen closely, you can hear the “humm” of the air conditioning trying to work and failing miserably.
I’m a circus act when I drive around soaked in sweat with all four windows down and all this ruckus. People stare. I tried replacing the fuses…
But I discovered that most them were blown (figures), which the Viper Pilot thinks is a result of the battery getting over-charged so I decided it probably wasn’t worth it. Besides, replacing the fuse for the parking brake didn’t get it to stop beeping anyway.
I finally said to heck with this and borrowed a fully functioning vehicle from a friend until the Volvo is fixed. Anytime I hear beeping, like a truck backing up, my kitchen timer, or my clothes dryer alerting me every two minutes that the cycle is finished, I throw something. Maybe that’s just me being the 5 month pregnant woman that I am in the dead heat of summer, but I’m scarred for life by this car and our sweet baby probably is too. I’m so over this. I want my personal mechanic and baby-daddy back.
I told the Viper Pilot I’ve had it with automobiles and started looking for a replacement that would be safe for the family and keep everyone sane. This one seemed to fit the bill.
I contacted the seller and they will ship it overseas for me. Should be here by early-September.
Oof. All of this on top of a few other things that I won’t mention, it’s been a week. I fortunately have myself some of the most wonderful friends who know just how to cheer a mama up…
The diaper cake has a bottle of bubbly in it…for later. 🙂 |
I swear by it, I wouldn’t survive this deployment if not for my amazing support system. I think a time out on some beach somewhere would be very beneficial for my mental health…
PROST!
Carol says
Those little Toms are adorable