Thank goodness in this case with my host provider isn't done with changing things to the new server so I had someplace to go to revert.

RAW put in the gasket sealer and it seems to be working. No more temp fluctuations. He put an ad in the Advertiser with no detail. I think it said.

1999 Subaru, make offer

It wasn't long after the paper came out we got our buyer. RAW told him all that we know is wrong with it (an exhaust problem appears after I stopped driving it). The guy called his mechanic and he told him about the same as we heard to fix it.

He wanted to buy it for his daughter who's car died. He seemed good with the gasket fix we did. He just wants 10k miles out of it. RAW started the price at $3200 then called me at work and put me on the spot with the guy on what I want to sell it for. I told RAW, $2300. The guy said $2000. We said sold. Really that is all we really expected to get for it.

The guy put $100 down and would finish the transaction the next day (I still needed to sign the title anyway).

Then a Subaru enthusiast called. He said he can pull the motor and fix the gasket for $200. He had a Subaru right now with 250k miles and would like one with less miles.

We might of gotten a little more money from him and I would of felt better about what is wrong with the car since he knows how to fix it.

H, at work said what you got to do is take phone numbers and prices and call the one you like best back at the end of the day.

Of course RAW hears that that guy could fix the problem for little money. He is now wishing we could of paid $500 to this guy to fix it and then he keep it.

Bottom line, is I got $2000 to add to the kitchen fund and the Subaru is out of the driveway.

I miss it

Around that same time (4:30 a.m.) Abbott security seen a cougar on the property. They say animals act strangly around the time of a earthquake. I guess the cougar was confused and was reporting to work.

Seriously though, what is up with earthquakes and cougar sightings in Northern Illinois?

BTW, this is the 2nd cougar sighted in the area. A couple weeks ago a cougar was roaming North Chicago and Round Lake (a couple miles from home). Then the next week a cougar which I assumed was that one, was seen, shot and killed by police in someone's backyard in Chicago. Now there is another one roaming around out there.

Then last weekend Hilary Clinton stopped in to Crown Point for a beer and a shot. I seen the TV coverage of her having a shot with the people and knew it was in Indiana but didn't realize it was Crown Point and at Broncos at that.

It turned out to be a good thing to do. First he saved me $70 a year on my car insurance for being a good driver the last 5 years.

Then he went to the home owners. He says there is a new policy with more coverage for substantial savings. He wasn't kidding, when all was said and done he was able to save us nearly 50% of what we were paying!

When all was said and done, we walked out of there saving $410 a year

Anyway, I did some purging trying to get rid of clutter mostly in the computer room where it wasn't very inspiring in here. I lugged heavy boxes to the garage and had quite an impressive pile to take to the church garage sale.

Later that night I felt that spot by my shoulder blade where I pinched a nerve 6 years ago. I am like, oh no but it never got too painful. I guess it didn't matter because now my big toe is numb. I apparently pinched a nerve anyway and have nerve damage.

This week I finally got to the doctor to fix my itch ears. Why not throw another thing to fix while I was there.

I got some drops for my ears and was told to take Advil...well she said Aleve but that was because I told her I took on the night my toe went numb (I was trying it). I have discovered that Aleve puts in me in pain, not relieves it so I took the big bottle I just bought back and got some more Advil.

I hope my toe recovers and my ears stop itching.

Hollace is a very sensitive kid and one that I figure will be an easy target to bullies just like I was.

There is a girl two houses down a year younger than Hollace that is starting to mess with her on the bus. Haley keeps trying to "steal" things from Hollace or trying to take her stuff and the other girl sitting with Haley flicks her in the head and pulls her hair. Hollace tells them to stop and has told the bus driver which of course doesn't help.

My real problem is that Haley is very outgoing and is a friend to everyone and Hollace is very introverted and has a hard time making friends. I can so see Haley turning all the neighborhood kids against Hollace eventually. We live right next to a playground and am worried Hollace is going to be terrorized practically in her own yard. She is already a lonely kid wanting to play with someone. This is breaking my heart (I am nearly in tears writing this right now)

Maybe I am making this out to be more than it is or ever will be but I am genuinely worried that this is going to be the scenario.

I don't know what to do or tell Hollace to say to get Haley to leave her alone before Haley gets the idea that it is fun to mess with Hollace.

RAW is pissing me off about this because his solution is to encourage Hollace to slug her or something. He thinks that is the only way it can be handled. He has some unresolved issues from his childhood that he is trying to project on Hollace.

After getting lots of good comments from the BYBers, I posted this update

What I did was email the school social worker who has a big anti-bullying program going on. Once a week Hollace has been meeting with her for her Aspergers so Hollace has a relationship with her (and also she lives 2 doors down from us). I wanted her to help Hollace learn how to deal with Haley better.

She wrote back saying she was going to talk to Haley by telling her that other kids on the bus reported the incident and that she would talk to Hollace as well.

Also RAW asked the bus driver to move Hollace's seat away from Haley

I don't think Haley had a good day yesterday. She got some kind of note or notice from the bus driver, a talking to by the social worker and after school, her dad marched her (in tears) to our house to apologize to Hollace. Of course her dad had to throw in one of those "kids will be kids" statements.

I really hope that Haley was just being obnoxious in her messing with Hollace and not really mean spirited and that this is the end of it but part of me worries that this event could make things worse as far as in the neighborhood. In the meantime, I will have Hollace passing out the Tootsie's whenever Haley is at the park ;-)

I guess Hayley wrote Hollace a note apologizing as well but she left it at school so I don't know what it said.

Getting ahold of iPower is maddening. YOu can never get through via phone. They have a live chat that you can wait an hour for your turn. It usually is at the moment I step away that they come on so they cancel the chat since I am not there.

So I usually email them. Only there seems to be a 24 hour turn around time on emails with them and they apparently don't read what I am writing cause I am getting no where with them. Finally after many email exchanges that really went nowhere I realized what the problem is with no help from them. It is simple really so I can't figure out why they couldn't get tell me this in the first place.

Color is the theme. I plan on painting the walls granny smith apple green with natural cherry cabinets (nice warm color, the light stuff, not dark) and dark blue countertops.

Lets get this party started!

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Oh and happy anniversary to us! It has been 15 years of happily wedded bliss. Ok, I exaggerate a bit. Didn't really do anything special. It is just another day.

I have always been a Beatle-freak so it was a no brainer for me to just buy it without seeing it first.

I love how the actors perform the Beatle songs and the story goes so well with them. I love Julie Taymor's (director) vision with this movie. She seems like such a cool person.

I am in love with both Jim Sturgess and Joe Anderson from the movie. In love, both of them ;-)

I also bought the soundtrack and put the movie on my iPod where I watch snippets whenever I get a chance.

Now I got to go see 21 which Jim Sturgess stars in. I didn't realize it was him when I first saw the trailer which is on the Across the Universe DVD

Ok, that is it, you can now continue on with your day. I just had to get that off my chest ;-)

It has been three weeks and I just renewed the book so while watching the evening news I picked up a hook and made a blue strawberry (what the heck, that is the color I had handy). I needed to put the top leafy part on which required gluing on so I grabbed the craft glue and ran into the living room with my project to see something on the TV.

I couldn't get the glue out and apparently squeezed the bottle too hard because instead of coming out of the, obvious to me now, tip, the plastic bottle ripped apart sending white glue all over the coffee table, my favorite pants and my fairly new carpet!

What a freaking mess. I hope I can get the glue out of the carpet. I am afraid I won't find out for sure until it drys then it will be too late. Ack!

I have been driving my new car for a week now and I like it. Not so much the steering wheel though. First of all the leather wrapped thing is too smooth and my hands just slip. The steer is a bit tighter than the Subaru so I am afraid it will slip away from me during a crucial turn. The other thing I don't like is the spoke is at the bottom. Apparently I like to drive with my hand at the bottom and I just can't with this car.

Driving at night is still the coolest though with the days getting longer, I probably won't see those cool blue lights much. Tonight we set the clocks up for daylight savings time which mean it will be dark in the mornings again. I will have to live with that for awhile. In the meantime, I need to get that beast to a car wash. I hate new cars for that reason!

This week at work has been back to normal again as well. Busy, just with mundane normal stuff.

I spent time this week planning on how to make my computer room more inspired. I then realized I really should use that energy to do the kitchen. How dare the computer room try to prioritize itself like that. So instead, I tried to clear the clutter and manage all those cords. I took count of how much I need to plug in just for the computer area. Twenty-two! Only 5 of those can be plug in as necessary. I think I need to rewire this room!

This week I finally ordered my new Mac. I finally decided to order from MacMall because they had a $150 rebate and Parrells software was free (after rebate of course) so the savings were over $200 compared from ordering from Apple.

While Apple had it immediately, MacMall wasn't getting any in until the 11th. Because of that I held off ordering so I could be absolutely sure.

On Wednesday I finally pushed the Submit button thinking the deal wasn't going to change, might as well....

On Thursday, Mikey at work tells me he is getting his new MacBook Pro that night. He ordered thru Apple and reminded me that through work, we get $200 off! Dang, if I would of held off a day, doesn't it just figure. I then did the figuring and with the tax difference and the fact I have to buy Parrells, it figured out to be only a dollar different.

When I got home I decided to cancel the MacMall order. Who wants to deal with rebates, give me my saving right up front.

About 5 seconds after I hit submit at Apple, does the phone ring. It is my credit card company noticing all the activity (that is quick). First off they tell me about a Apple charge for $5 at iTunes. Uh, that was suspicious? Then she got to the computers. I appreciated the call. She did seem embarrassed that it wasn't really fraud and tried to turn her concern to the fact that my credit limit will have a $5000 hold (between the 2 computers) on it for 10 days before the canceled order clears. Not a concern since I only use 10% of my credit limit anyway but she just kept stressing this.

Now I am waiting for my order from Apple which will probably get here about the time the MacMall one was, so I didn't save any time.

Hollace had one of her rare sick days last Saturday. I was dreaming about being sick at work then I wake up and she comes in bed with me. She is feverous. For several hours I wait before giving her Motrin cause I wanted her body to fight whatever ails her. At 1:00 she is getting more miserable and I take her temp. 103.1. Eek! About an hour the meds kick in and she is back to normal. She even got dressed, something she doesn't like to do on a healthy weekend day. About 8 hours later, the Motrin wears off and she is wilted again and 103.2. More Motrin, off to bed and she sleeps it off. The next day she is fine with the exception of a stuffy nose.

I left before the big thing was done but all indications were that all was going to go well. I stopped by the building the thing was at while they were practicing and it looked good. The client was very happy.

Why did I waste all that energy worrying about this?

Now onto the car, another source of anxiety for me the last week, especially yesterday.

I went in today after work and bought my purple car. No sunroof which I am still a bit sorry about. I still think there was something up about that cause Walt my sales man seemed surprised himself.

Anyway, it was a pretty pleasant experience. I for some reason was getting myself worked up for the worse where they try and tack on everything. When all was said and done, my invoice price was all I paid, no hidden extras or strong arming me for rust proofing or something. They did try to sell me on an aftermarket sun roof but nothing too pressured.

I can't wait to see the car tomorrow since I didn't get a good look at it before it got dark. I think the purple might be a little darker then I hoped. Funny that I was so set on getting the purple when I never really seen it on an actual car. While I waited for them to clean it up I kept looking at the red one in the showroom and wondering if they could of got me one of those with a sunroof. Oh well I will get over it.

In the meantime I enjoyed the blue dash lights, very cool.

The problem with Hyundai's however is they have a bad rep. Everytime I tell anyone I want an Elantra they either groan or flat out tell me they suck. The thing is that with all the research I have done I learn that isn't the case anymore and that they are really good cars. They have lots of features and aren't all that expensive.

Now it is time go test drive one. I decided I wanted a purple one with a sunroof. The Hyundai guy say he should be able to get one from another dealer.

I need to get this car on Friday. That is the last day of their $1000 cash back and also my rent a car is due back (I had to extend it a day since it really was due today)

I get a Car Quotes thing from the credit union where I only have to pay dealer invoice.

Today I called the dealership and stupid me mentions the Car Quotes and with that pretty much said, you aren't making any money from me. An hour later they call back and tell me my car, the purple one with a sun roof turns out to already be sold.

Dang, now I have done it. There isn't anything in it for them to go out and find my car anymore. Now I feel screwed cause I won't probably be getting any car now and the $1000 rebate will be done and ....I was pissed.

But then at that moment work got crazy with all these little emergency requests. The big job I mentioned in the last post got completed this morning and the client LOVES it. The all employee show for that is tomorrow so in the back of my mind, I can't relax yet but do feel better about it.

In the middle of all the crazy work, my boss emails me a nice note with my performance review. I apparently have done really good this last year. That was good. Then right before I leave the Hyundai guy calls and has secured my 2nd choice of a car (purple with no sun roof). He will have it tomorrow. I feel much better now but I know anything can still happen and I am still worried about the final sale.

We had the Subaru towed back home. Have no idea what to do with it. I don't want to think about it right now.

Also during this week of major decisions, Apple finally annnounces the Mac Book Pro updates I have been waiting for for months. So now I need to make decisions about that too. If I buy from Apple, I can get the faster drive and get it in a few days. If I go to MacMall, I get the standard drive and save $200 in rebates but it won't ship out for a week and a half. What to do, what to do?

I look forward to staring at a blank wall doing no thinking this weekend.

Wish me luck tomorrow on the car and the All Employee Meeting show. I hope I can survive whatever life throws me. I feel a bit at the end of my rope.