ugh

so I stayed late at work on monday to make up for being late due to evan's school delay. I decide to take the highway home because it's faster. well it wasn't on Monday. I'm driving along and I hear in sound of "muffler-on-pavement". Crap! so I pull over. sure enough my muffler was making sweet love to the pavement. So I go to call Jay, and I can't find my phone. I know I had my phone, I had just used it outside of Dunkins. so after 10 minutes of moving stuff frantically, I notice I'm pulled over just in front of one of those highway call boxes. so I go over and push the "service" button and return to my car. thankfully I found one that actually works. decide to continue the phone hunt. I eventually find it on the floor in the backseat under the passenger side chair. whew! so I called jay to inform him of the situation. ok.

20 minutes later I need to use tha bathroom, and still no tow truck or statie in sight. so I decide (after much debate) to call 911 to see about how long of a wait there was (ie.. did I need to head into the woods?) well the dispatcher guy transferred me to the barracks, and as it was ringing, the statie pulled up behind me. ok.. but I waited for the guy on the other end to answer and I told him nevermind that the trooper just pulled up.. I didn't want to hang up and have him think something was seriously wrong, ya know?

so of course I don't have AAA, we talked about it.. on several occasions, but never really had the extra funds at the time to get it. The trooper called the tow company, and a coat hanger and $65 later, I was on my merry way home, with instructions to get it properly fixed in the morning.
so in the morning I call the place I wanted to go to, closed. so I call meineke.. oh good they can fit me in.. while I was there I had them check out this "rattle" I've been ignoring for months b/c I had a feeling it was going to be expensive. so the tell me it's the tensioner (ya know keeps that timing belt nice and snug) well my car don't have an ordinary tensioner.. it's hydraulic.. which means it's a very costly part. Thank You Toyota... new belt and tensioner can be replaced at meineke for a whopping $533 bucks! I asked how much he charges for labor, he says $75/hr. yikes! it's cheaper to go to the dealer. so I tell him not right now, and call the husband, and tell him the scoop and that I'll ask around.

The meineke guy was nice enough to not charge me for the new bolt for my muffler support strap, and I was on my way... to the mechanic that I wanted to go to in the first place. he calls up his part place and when he talked to the guy his reaction to the price of the part was "holy shit, that's not cheap".. lol.. and from what I understand the tensioner is a pain in the ass to get to. He says he can do it for $401. woo. It's needs to get done so I schedule for next thursday. I guess my belt is all cracked too, and either way it's not really good, and I knwo I've been putting off too long anyway. so in the mean time lets hope my belt doesn't snap and my car needs a tow.. what are the chances that it's gonna snap this week? (knowing me prob very likely)

so yesterday I'm wearing a brand new shirt.. brand friggin new... I go to a clients house and return back to work with friggin bleach spots on my shirt. WTF?! so I say to my boss, "is it possible for road salt to do this?" thinking htat maybe I brushed up against my salt covered truck. he said no, which I was expecting, but I couldn't figure out where it came from.. "unless.." i say " it was from when i stopped at the Shell to use the bathroom".. he says " I could see that.. they clean it with the bleach and don't clean it up well.. " i did shake my hands after I washed them b/c they have one of those super turbo blow dryers that distorts your skin in funny ways.. I don't like it, so i shook off the excess... grr.. stupid people not cleaning up friggin belach.. I can't have anything nice.. and this time it wasn't even my own fault! (I do have a bad tendency to drop food on my clothes. lol)

there might be a snow day friday! we'll see I guess.. apparantly the storm is moving fast.. channel 5 in Boston says the snow is coming thursday afternoon.. I'll have to check our forecast though.

for crying out loud.

I got a letter in the mail today from my doctor.. she's leaving the practice and going back to working in the ER. This is the 3rd doctor I've had since I've graduated college in 2002 that left being a primary care doctor. I never even had a chance to meet this one.. I would have recently, but she was booked and I had to see a different doctor in teh practice. the doctor before that I saw once, just once.. it was the "i'ts nice to meet you" appt... and the one before that I saw twice.. she retired. The retiree's office moved and I didn't know until I showed up for an appointment and there was a sign in teh window stating they had movied 6 months prior! and I only found out she retired when I wanted to make an appointment. so then I moved my records up to greenfield and picked a new doctor. she was nice.... I only found out she left when I was sick and needed to make an appointment. Then I waited a while to pick a primary care doctor b/c I was annoyed so I picked this new doctor.. a year later.. well atleast I received a letter. I think I'll hold off on picking a new doctor.. again.. I'm doomed.

I wish I could have one of the mid-wives as my primary. I know them real well!! I saw them a bunch and they never left.

Mr. Evan's school picture!!

came out Great!! I was so excited to see that it came today! don't worry, mom I've got one here with your name on it for when you come visit!

updated

I updated parts of my blog today.. instead of a stagnant photo of me at the top, I embeded a slideshow of selct pictures from my web album.

I also updated my links. may I direct you to my Real Estate page that I created. visit it, and tell me what you think. It's basic, and it was created using google page creator. It looks nice and I hope somebody will find it useful :) know anyone? send them there.

I also deleted the links to peoples blog that I don't really read on a regular basis. No offense to those who I deleted. I'm just busy, and don't get to read them.

also very important:
the writers deserve theri money! Give it to them God damn it!

Birthday

Poor evan. he was excited all day for his party, and then it was finally here. Evan picked up the present that Cecile brought, and then she said "That's mine".. meaning that, that was the gift she brought. a couple minutes later Evan got really upset.. he was just a bear for pretty much the entire party.. he stormed up to his room a few times. when it was present time, I went up to his room where he was all huffy, and asked him if he wanted to open them up and he said no, and then I said "are you sure?" and then he said "but everyone already just opened them, but I want to open them". ooh.. so that's why he was upset.. he thought the other kids were going to open up his presents. so I explained that no one opened the presents and that earlier Cecile was just saying that gift was the one she brought for him. and then he was prefectly fine after that..



we made caramel apples, played pin the badge on the firedog's hat, had a pinata, and cake and ice cream.. jays says, "man I never had parties like this", and I said.. "me neither" atleast that I could rememeber.

I remember always being jealous of Christine b/c she ALWAYS got invited to birthday parties. my first ever Birthday invite (from someone at school) was when I was in the 2nd grade. It was from Josh. it was a great party.. he had pony rides. (then christine was jealous of me! ha!) I had a great time.. then we were best friends for many years until he moved away thanks to Hurricane Bob destroying his house.

I also remember being jealous of Christine because she (and kristen too) always got bunches of money for their birthdays from family (like $50) and I was always *lucky* to get $10. I was always grateful for my gifts, but secretly angry b/c it was so unfair. and it wasn't just one year... it was EVERY year, I think except for one.

oh wait.. this is supposed to be about Evan's Birthday, not mine.. so anywho.. he was fine after he realized no one opened his presents. and a couple hours later was the family party.. he had a great time here.. got lots of kool toys.. some of which the grown ups had fun playing with. he got an awesome pirate ship for Jeff & Becky, the marble thing from Grammy and Mike, and a knight dress up set from Trev, and some Diego toys and pants from Mimi and Grandpa.. and from us he got new shoes and a "laughtop".. he also got some interesting toys from all his friends.

how are you all? I have this bad habit of not posting. Sorry about that... This past month has been going well. The cat is doing good. she's got a follow up appointment next week. the vet had said she was a under weight so I've been feeding her kitten food trying to pork her up. not sure if it's worked, but I guess we'll find out.. getting herself locked in the attic for about 2 days sure didn't help my efforts though. (oops)

the family is finally feeling better after a rough few weeks with some nasty bug, that kicked everyone in the house on their asses.. except me.. I didn't get it. after it was all said and done, though, I woke up last friday with an earache. It hurt and I couldn't focus on anything! I went to the doctor's and got eardrops.. it worked apparantly.. my ear is now fine.

_________________________________
Anybody else still not sure who the hell their going to vote for for president. Let me just say that I tend to vote Democrat, but I'm on the progressive side of the spectrum. I listen to left-wing radio shows in the car.. (the Disney Channel has left me unable to watch news at home when the kids are around) I listen to the local AM station that has local news in the morning, and then switches to syndicated radio shows. I like it. It makes me feel informed.

After watching SiCKO my biggest thing I want to hear about in a candidate (besides teh Iraq fiasco) is what their plans are regarding health insurance. I like Kucinich's idea of Medicare for all. His plan is to phase it in over 3 years. The only other plan that I've heard talked about (not to say that others haven't been, I jsut haven't heard it) is Hillary's plan... which I absolutely DON'T support! it's pretty much teh same crap that we have going on here in Massachusetts.. where insurance will be required, and if you can't get it through you're employer you can purchase certain plans from the state from a sliding scale for fees. This is a good idea... IN THEORY!.. and of course Fmr. Gov Romney implemented this plan... let's get him and Hillary to live on say 19K a year.. and busting their ass working to do so at a industrial or manufacturing job.. and let's make them live in an area where the cost of living is fairly high.. where the median income is about 35k-40k.. let's watch them see how they pay their bills, rent, and food, and just for fun let's make them HAVE to pay for the health insurance they can't afford.. even with the sliding scale.. ha.. they would never do that, yet they expect many in our lovely state to do just this, and now Hillary wants the country to have battle this too! that's Crap and it makes me angry. It makes me angier that the media is not talking about this in regards to Romney, and to Hillary..

but at the same time, I think she'll be an okay president if it weren't for this healthcare crap. *sigh*.. atleast by the time elections come around here to MA many will have dropped out of the race and I won't have as many candidates to choose from.

and while I've got yor attention on pres candidates.. why hasn't the media gotten Romney to explain why when he left our great commonwealth, why she swore up and down that he was leaving us in $2 million (or there abouts) in a surplus when it was really in fact, a $2 million DEFICIT (or there abouts) that gave a new Gov a run for his money, and gave him a rough start in office.. (of course there is always the office furnishings and the new car)

yay for Caelan!

so the cat is back, only she appears to be sore and/or weak. she's got some battle wounds on her ear and is walking gingerly. no doubt she got in a scuffle with something, and got her ass whooped.. I offered her some food.. and canned food, but she doesn't seem to be eating. if she doesn't perk up by tomorrow sometime I'm calling the vet.