What did you just say??

There are certain things that you don't want to hear when traveling.

• "Uh oh, we have a problem" muttered by a gate agent as they run back to the gate just before your plane is supposed to start boarding. Yep, we were delayed. Then back on for the original time and then delayed again.
• "My flight was cancelled!" exclaimed by the coworker with the rental car reservation trying to come in from a different city.
• "I think this is the right way to go but I'm not sure..." insecurely voiced by another coworker who is trying to guide us through the maze of a skywalk system commonly referred to as gerbil tubes.
• "Ladies and Gentleman, today is not a good day for flying" delivered by the pilot on my flight home. Storms plagued the entire flight path and it was rough and bumpy.

The good news is that I made it to my meeting up North and back without getting lost although I'm pretty convinced that the cab driver last night drove in a circle to jack up his fare. The meeting went relatively well considering how it could have gone and I made it home in one piece, safe and sound!

Ahhhh

This morning, my cell phone rang. It was the infamous dude from the car dealer - you know the one who didn't want to bother me with technical details. It seems that my car was ready. On Friday. WTF????? Didn't I get the message from them, he 'innocently' asked. Uhm, no I did not.

I called him on Friday. Not once, but about 5 times trying to get an update. I left him voice mail messages. He claims to have been surprised by my message when he got to work this morning. The story is that he was 'ill' on Friday and went home early. (Inconsistency #1 - He sounded fine when he left me a voice mail message asking me to 'call him back'. Wouldn't you mention an alternative contact if you were going to leave early because you felt like cr@p?)

His went on to claim that "Tom" called me to let me know my car was ready. I asked him what number they called because my cell phone never rang nor did my home number. He assured me that when I got to work, I would find the message from them about my car. I guess he didn't count on technology biting him in the behind. (Inconsistency #2 - We have this fancy thing called a 'call log' which records the time, date and name of every missed call. The last call from them was on Wednesday at 1:32 pm) I let him know that I specifically asked them to contact me on cell phone and that I wasn't at work for the past 3 days because I didn't have a car to get to and from work with.

He pretty much knew at that point he was busted and quickly made his exit off the phone. I wanted to wring his neck but I had to get ready for work. I decided to run over at lunch and pick up the keys. Of course, Mr. Inconsistency was no where to be found. I paid the bill (I did ask them to do some non-warranty work) and left.

I do have to admit that it stayed in 6th gear the entire time I was on the highway - yeah! I guess the brakes had been messed up for a long time because they definitely feel different - very smooth! The clunking noise that they claimed they couldn't find? I heard it at least 4 times on my way home and I still claim it is not normal. Did I mention that they fixed my tire? I knew there was a slow leak in one of my tires and apparently they put a plug in to fix the problem. However, they charged me $10 to do this and I have a tire hazard warranty from Dobb's. So they did me a $10 favor and never asked me if I wanted it fixed or not. It is obvious that the tires are not OEM equipment and have been replaced recently, but not one word was ever said to me about the issue.

It wasn't all bad news, I noticed that they used one of the coupons that I received in the mail. I looked through the remaining coupons and figured out that they used the "Student, Military, Senior Citizen" coupon. I'm not sure which one he classified me as, but I guess that was $45 less than I had to spend. I will never use this dealer again (psst, it rhymes with 'you lose'). Time to start shopping!

All Better

I feel much better now. It is amazing what good friends, cold beer, and junk food can do for your mood and your soul!

We had a good night, met new people and did pretty good at the music trivia. I rocked in the "Christmas in October" category - see it pays to have a ton of Christmas tunes on your iPod! We probably finished in the top third - it pays to have two members of your team who are in a band!

I'm in a mood

I just want to be left alone. In peace and quite. I'm in one of those moods right now. Just leave me the @#&*^ alone.

But I need to put on a happy face. We need to be sociable and go out with friends. I'm sure that a beer or two will do wonders to alter my mood. But right now, I just want the world to go away and leave me be.

Sigh, it is so wonderful to be a woman, isn't it?

Wheel-less

My car has no name. I tried to come up with a name that fits, but I was left flat every time. So it shall remain nameless.

I've had my share of issues with the car. Within the first 4 days of ownership, the dealer chewed up the center console installing an after market part. As mad as I was, they did the right thing and apologized profusely and corrected the problem. It took some time because it is difficult to find interior trim pieces on a brand new car.

I also had recurring issues relating to the gas cap. They kept telling me that I wasn't installing it correctly. Honestly, I have been driving for a number of years and never had that problem before. After repeated trips to the dealer, they finally determined the true issue and corrected the problem for good. For the record, it didn't have anything to do with the way I put the gas cap back on!

Within the last week or so, the engine started to make a funny noise. It was hard to describe. The noise was worst when starting. Mr. Monkeygirl said it sounded like a diesel engine. I thought it sounded like someone sticking a pencil into a cheap fan. However you describe it, it wasn't right. I could hear something when I would drive it. It was subtle, but it didn't sound healthy.

Since both Skaterboy and I rely on my car for transportation to and from work, I decided to have it checked out at a dealer close to work. I dropped it off on Wednesday morning. It is now late morning on Saturday and I still have no wheels. My pleas to the dealer about having no way to get home fell on deaf ears. Unless I call them they aren't very good about letting me know what is going on. I realize that I don't fully grasp the internal workings of a combustion engine, but they could tell me something. Anything would be better than what I am getting now.

What I do know is that the engine problem requires parts that had to be air freighted in. I know it is a complicated problem to fix. And it is technical, so "we won't bother you with the details". Whatever! Oh, and was I aware that I had a brake issue as well? No, but apparently I do. The brake rotors are warped and need to be replaced. The good news in all of this is that both of these repairs are covered under warranty.

Maybe since they are paying for the repairs, they are not in any hurry to get it done. Who knows, but in the mean time, I am sitting around without wheels of my own.

In an effort to maintain full disclosure, I am not completely stuck. My wonderful mother, Sewwhat?, was sweet enough to let me borrow her other car for the week. I've had offers of rides to and from work. One of my co-workers even offer me one of her 'spare' cars although she refused to let me borrow the 'vette!

Scrap Happens

I have a problem. I am a scrapbooker. That really isn't the problem, the problem is that I am a perfectionist. I love to use the creative side of my brain. It is a welcome relief from the day to day technical stuff I have to deal with at work. But, I put so much thought into what I do that I don't get much done in one outing.

Today, I was psyched to meet up with my friends and to have 8 whole hours to devote to something that I enjoy. I had a general plan on what I wanted to work on and thought I had everything together. I packed up all of my stuff in my MEF's baby Pearl and we headed off to crop. At the end of the day, I finished one - ONE - page. Granted, it is really cute but it isn't complicated. Argghh, this book is going to take me forever to finish. There is good news though, I think I have a plan for the entire book and I have what I need so it should go much faster now. Or sat least I can hope!

I took a challenge to finish 240 pages in 2009 and at this rate, I figure I have to finish about 200 pages in December to finish the challenge. I doubt I am going to make it but at least I have something to do on all those vacation days I still have accumulated for the rest of the year!

Into the Deep...

Over the past few days I have learned a few things. Some I knew, some others were eye opening.

1. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are really - well - magic. I have no clue what they are made of or why they work but whoever invented them should earn a Nobel Prize.
2. I discovered something called "Mean Green" that is the liquid equivalent to Magic Erasers. *Don't tell the bald guy, but there are some times were this works better than the Magic Erasers.*
3. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you have no choice but to get up close and personal with dirt. It can be gross and disgusting, but it is the only way to get the job done.
4. The next time I need to fix something that breaks and Super Glue fails me, I am going to try to use Spaghetti sauce. Those little spats of sauce refuse to come off the walls, the tile, the stove, and any other object within a 25 yard radius of the pot. Or maybe spaghetti sauce could be used as an environmentally friendly dye-pack filling.
5. If something is really dirty, you can clean it once and move on. But be prepared that when you walk past in a couple of hours, you will probably need to clean it again. And again. It is amazing what you don't see when you clean something the first time.
6. When you start cleaning the cleaning supplies, you have officially met the criteria for deep cleaning.
7. If done right, cleaning is an aerobic exercise. Up, down, squat, stand. Repeat 2,000 times or more and it is exercise.
8. A career change to a cleaning lady is not in my future. I'm way too picky. Really, really picky. I must have cleaned the range hood 10 times over 3 days before I was finally satisfied. And I bet if I looked again, I would start cleaning it again.
9. Buying a box of latex gloves is a life-saving move. And you can never have too many. Really, they are cheap and you can just grab another pair.
10. The dog will still love you despite the fact that you have left him home alone for hours for days in a row. And you come home reeking of cleaning supplies and latex gloves. Even your husband understands!

OMG!!

Some days things are good. Some days things don't work out quite like you planned. When I get up in the morning and head to the office, I normally have a general plan of what I need to do or accomplish in a day. Most of the time, my best laid plans get whacked by something unexpected that comes up. Oh, I get stuff done but not the things I was planning or counting on.

Today, the stars must have been aligned because I actually accomplished - count them - 3 whole things! I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but lately it seems like a major accomplishment. Better yet, one thing I did was mainly a "copy and paste" job from some information I got from multiple sources. You would have thought that I just sent the next best selling novel or blockbuster movie out based on the responses I have gotten so far.

I am going to relish in the fact that I got a few things done and made some people happy today. It doesn't happen often in my world. I'm generally the bad guy telling people they can't have what they want. Or they can have it but they have to wait until they are old and gray. Some times I write the most brilliant (ok I think they are brilliant) documents explaining the problems of the world and then no one reads them.

But today was a good day and I'm going to revel in it!!