Blogger Update

I wanted to let you know that I updated to "blogger beta" today; hopefully nothing changed for anybody. I also took the time to categorize all my blog posts, so all you have to do is click on a category on the bottom of a post to see all the posts for that category. So if you want to see all my Japan posts, for example, go to my very first post ever in my archives and then click on the word Japan at the bottom of the post. Hopefully, that will help people weed out all of the boring ramblings on my blog, ha ha!

Just an update:

I got my car back yesterday, to the tune of $850. Yikes—that hurt! Part of the problem is the tune-up I got a couple of weeks ago used the wrong spark plugs and settings, so my car was mis-firing and that was making it overheat. Then the fusebox blew up and the fan couldn't turn on at all; I'm not sure if that happened independently or because of the other part. I have so many things I am thinking about all of this, but I won't post them here. At least I have a car again.

And I'm still sick. Friday I was so sick I cancelled Thanksgiving at my house. I am glad the horrible body aches and painful burning cough is gone, but I am still coughing so much that poor Matt slept downstairs for the last two nights. Luckily, he's not sick—he has a very strong constitution.

So today my goal is to do laundry and get ready for work starting again tomorrow.

Ramblings

Oh, what a week I've had! This is a semi-vent post, so if you're bored with that sort of thing, you may want to stop here! I took the week off of work because we're not allowed to carry over our vacation time to the next year. Every year we get two weeks and we must use them or they disappear. Due to Random's health issues, I don't feel right going on vacation, so we haven't spent a night away from home since April of 2004. I absolutely don't mind that, but I do feel bad for Matthew. He has gone to visit his brothers in Denver a couple of times but what he really wants is to go somewhere with me.

So this week was my time off. I had wonderful plans of going to the gym, cleaning house, organizing things and getting my life all straightened out. I always cook a Thanksgiving dinner on Friday for my parents and I wanted everything to be perfect so I could enjoy cooking and not worry about cleaning, etc.

Well, of course, a big wrench got thrown into my plans, wouldn't you know! On Tuesday, I went to visit my best friend, Karen who I haven't seen in about 2 years! She has a new baby that I haven't even met yet! She lives in Laverne; about 45 miles from here. It was wonderful seeing her, but my car had overheated right before I got to her house. When I checked the water, it was empty, so I added some and drove to the AutoZone to get coolant. Well, the coolant was leaking out and I knew I couldn't drive it all the way home, especially with traffic the way it is here in So Cal. So I toook the car to her service station and she picked me up. Poor Matt had to drive to come get me through rush hour traffic and it took him 2 1/2 hours to get there! I felt so terrible for him!

So yesterday, the service station calls and said it was an electrical problem and they couldn't deal with it; we had to tow it to the dealer! Sigh—I know that means an extra-large bill when you have to do electrical work on a VW. And my car has 80K miles on it so you know what's coming down the road for me soon.

We spent all day trying to get my car towed—what an ordeal. It finally ended with us having to drive to La Verne so we could take care of it because the tow company and AAA couldn't agree on us doing it by phone. What a nightmare and it took the whole afternoon; we didn't get home till about 7pm. So now it's at the dealer's and hopefully they can fix it tomorrow or Saturday. Otherwise, I will have to take another day off of work to go get the car and take care of it.

So now, I've wasted 2 days, have no car and haven't accomplished anything. Nothing is cleaned, nothing is organized. On top of it all, I woke up sick this morning, so my throat hurts and I feel rotten. Once I get a sore throat, it turns into Bronchitis without fail, so I'm sure I'll be coughing for weeks. So that's my pitiful post and vent—I'd appreciate any prayers or kind thoughts thrown my way.

And by the way—if you're ever in LaVerne and need a mechanic, please take your car to The Engine Room on Arrow Hwy. They are wonderful people and honest and so nice. They didn't charge me a dime for my car, even though I know they must have spent an hour trying to diagnose my problem. Karen said they have always done a great job for her at a reasonable price and never done unnecessary labor.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I truly do have lots to be thankful for; supportive friends and family, an honest mechanic, a car that hasn't given me any difficulty at all for 4 years, a wonderful husband, a great job and the list goes on and on. I realize that for every problem I encounter that I find more things to be thankful for!

Breakfast with "Joe"

Mornings in our house have been especially sweet lately. You see, we've been having breakfast with Joe. That's our secret code name for our new breadmaker, a Zojirushi brand.

For some silly reason while we waited for it to arrive in the mail, we started calling it "Joe Zarushi" instead of "Zojirushi". Yes, we're pretty hilarious around here, dontcha think?

Well, this breadmaker is fantastic and I would highly recommend this model. I am eating the most wonderful, thick slice of bread slathered with butter as I write. This breadmaker cost more than many other brands and it's as big as a tank, but it makes delicious bread with great texture and crust. I even messed up the recipe by forgetting the butter the first time and it was still great bread! So while you're eating your cold cereal tomorrow morning, just think of me—I'll be having breakfast with Joe!