Four hundred sixty-seven dollars and sixty-eight cents

Yeeeah.

Here’s my layman’s version of what went wrong - translated from the guy at the shop. In my car, a consistent amount of power is supplied to the blower fan. The knob that controls the fan speed interacts with the little credit-card-looking piece in the upper right hand corner of the picture. (That little piece actually sits behind the user interface.) When you turn the fan on low, that card only lets a small bit of the power through to the fan. When you turn it on high, it lets all the power out to the fan. Because of the electrical power that’s constantly being regulated, that piece gets hot. Mine got all warped and stopped working altogether (I guess it blocked all power?) Anyhoo, that little credit card piece doesn’t come on its own, it comes with the whole new AC/Heat control unit. So I have a new control unit in my car.

But you know what? I’m okay with it. I deposited the stimulus check this morning, so I still have a bitty bit of money left to blow on Rum and Ring Dings put into the savings account.

On a sickeningly-cute note, Ollie was groomed today for the first time. (Bad Cocker Spaniel owner that I am…I though I could take care of his haircuts myself.) It got to the point that I could actually ruffle the hair on his head between my hands and give him a mowhawk. It looked really cute. Now he still looks cute, but almost a bit too “Little Lord Fauntleroy” for my taste. He also smells like a cross between an air freshener and toothpaste (they brushed his teeth!).

“i smel like a grl.”

Posted at: 9:05 pm in Family/Friends, General, Home and Garden | Permanent Link | 2 Comments - add yours! »
Tags: car repair, cocker spaniel, dogs, grooming

In the continuing saga of the paid-off Saturn

Recap:

• I made my last $330 car payment in January.
• In February, I spent over $600 on That would have been payments for February and March.
• April - nothing.
• May - nothing. Getting excited!

This weekend the fan stopped blowing. The AC works, mind you, but you have to put your hand to the vents to feel it. WM changed a fuse, but that wasn’t it. So I’ll call the shop this morning and hope they can take me ASAP.

Because it’s been over 95 degrees all weekend, and supposed to be 99 today. At least my stimulus check is coming on Friday. Maybe. Hopefully.

Posted at: 7:56 am in General, Home and Garden | Permanent Link | 1 Comment - add yours! »
Tags: budget, car, irony

Stimulate THIS!!!

(I spent far too much time fuming about this.)

I was sort of counting on the money this month, but it was no life or death situation. I’d have liked for TurboTax to email me before May 16th, since they knew about this since February. And once I finished filing and got my refund, why would I continue to go back to the site?

Honesty, if they had just taxed us all less to begin with, this wouldn’t be necessary. Because I’d sure spend more if I didn’t lose 30% of my gross salary right off the top every week.

(various images taken from Google images. If you’re the copyright holder of any of them and object to their being used in my little graphic, I’ll take’em down.)

Posted at: 8:00 am in General, Home and Garden, Play | Permanent Link | 3 Comments - add yours! »
Tags: economy, money, politics

Zahara and Shiloh

If you’ve read me for even the shortest amount of time, you’ll know that I have two dogs. Max, who’s six or seven and Ollie, who’ll be 1 next month.

Max has gone through a lot. He was picked up as a stray when I came across him at the Animal Orphanage. Shortly after he came home, he bit me twice. Hard. He hated anybody who wasn’t white and was really skittish around kids. He’d shake if you held up a stick or broom or anything that you could beat him with. We worked and worked the kinks out with lots of love and treats, and he turned into my little cuddlebug. He loves and licks people of all colors and sizes. He moved from the first apartment, to the house, then moved to this apartment with me. He put up with me leaving him with BvP for the first 8 months, then taking him to live with me last February. He adjusted to a new guy and a new puppy. Max is a champ.

Last year, we got Ollie. Ollie was from a cocker spaniel breeder in Pottstown. His birth was completely planned for and welcomed. He lived his first 2 months in a lovely suburban home with a big yard and lots of furry friends to play with. Then he came to live with us, and found some new furry friends, and an apartment with lots of activity, people, toys and two lovely parks in walking distance. He’s completely loving, trusting and outgoing with EVERYONE and with the exception of the neutering has never had a sad day in his short life. And he’s still a puppy, which makes him clumsy and adorable and overly enthusiastic about everything.

That, along with his floppy ears, soft curly fur and instantly recognizable breed, draws people to him. They’ll pet him in the elevator, in the lobby, and during walks. We get people approaching us in the park asking about him and asking to pet him. He loves the attention and responds in kind with licks, grunts and the occasional trickle of excitement-pee. Which people STILL think is adorable.

Max loves pets and attention but is far past the ga-ga crazy puppy “LOVE ME!” stage. His fur is brown and black and wiry, not soft and curly and inviting like Ollie’s. Problem is, many of the adults who pet Ollie completely ignore Max. This is not a problem with children…they tend to love and pet both dogs. But teens and adults will pet Ollie, ask about his breed, and ask if he’s a good dog. Max’ll sniff their shoes and hands cautiously, but he usually gets the shaft. Then he’ll shuffle back to my feet and sit there, patiently waiting for the Ollie love-fest to end.

This breaks my heart and short of seeming like an overbearing parent (”Make sure you pet Max too!”) I have no idea what do. WM and I just pet Max ourselves and tell him he’s a good boy.

NB: The post title comes from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s two daughters. Zahara was adopted from Ethiopia…had a shitty start but lucked into a charmed life with two loving parents and pretty much any luxury she could ever want. Shiloh, her little sister, was born into this Hollywood lifestyle and is regularly dubbed America’s most beautiful baby. While the Jolie-Pitts show equal attention to both girls - at least in photos - Shiloh is fawned over more by everyone else.

Posted at: 8:00 am in General, Home and Garden | Permanent Link | 1 Comment - add yours! »
Tags: dogs, max, ollie