Heroes

Thanks to cable channel MOJO I'm back up to speed on Heroes and ready for the season premier tomorrow night. I didn't miss it when it was gone, but it is nice to have "TV" back...

Bait and switch

This one is on me. For months now, my hooptie 1994 Mercury Sable has been making a groaning noise in the rear suspension. I've hesitated to have it looked at because it's 14 yeras old and has 136K miles on it. The only reason the car is still in my posession is because it was my father's company car years ago and I have personalized plates that I don't want to loose. I won't go into the details of why either is important to me at this time.

I spoke to some friends and decided I would get some estimates on what it would cost to replace the rear struts. I got a few estimages and decided to bring it into Sears Auto Center. I've heard good things and Sears isn't going anywhere anytime soon...

Here is the sequence of events.
-I arrived, said I think I need my rear struts replaced.
-Sears said they would do a front-end evaluation, look at the rear as well and call me when the tech has an estimate.
-I also asked if they could investigate the belt squeek under the hood.
-They said they would investigate that as well.
-Katie, Amanda and I went out to lunch.
-Sears called me back 30 minutes later and said that the driver's side front spring was broken and that the rear struts looked fine. They also said that the serpentine belt was possibly too small for my car.
-I could not believe that the front end has any issues, so I came in to have a look on my own.
-Sure enough, one was broken and it was only a matter of time before the other side caved under the extra load.
-The cost to replace the front struts and possibly the front sway bar and alignment would cost me $820.
-Ouch. I said for them to only investigate the squeeky belt and get back to me with an estimate on that.
-Katie and I went shopping in the mall; bought nothing.
-Sears called me while shopping and fixed the squeek. The squeeky belt was due to a bad pully on the power steering pump. The total: $320 - much easier to swallow.

To sum things up: I came in thinking my rear end suspension was shot. It turns out that it was fine, but it was the front that needed replacement. Instead of doing that, I had my power steering pump (which was working fine) replaced to stop the squawking that eminated from under my hood. What a day.

Happy Saturday

It's a gorgeous Saturday morning; 60+ degrees, sunny. I'm in my basement...working. Time for a vacation. Go Irish.

Rehearsal

Went to Johnny's rehearsal last night. He is marrying Julie on Saturday, September 27th. It was nice of them to have their anniversary date fall exactly one month after my own - easy to remember on my part. I hope everyone will remember thier roles because they had the rehearsal a full 9 days before the wedding instead of the night before. There were logistic issues; no big deal. We walk down the isle, we stand, we walk down the isle again. Pretty simple stuff. I'm excited.

We have not been at a wedding in quite some time and I like this group of people; I've known them all for over 15 years. Some have fallen in and out of touch over the years, but it's nice to see it all come together.

It will be my first outdoor wedding where I'm a groomsman. As long as the weather holds...we'll be fine.

Sick child

Working from home today; Amanda is 101.5 (a great FM radio station somewhere I'm sure). So you think you'd rather be at home with a feever-weidling child than at work? Here's a breakdown of my day which I will keep updated.

6:00 - Amanda awake, ready for her day to begin. She's crabby and has a feever
6:30 - our only option, I stay home with her and work from home
7:30 - I eat breakfast (Pop Tarts and a bottle of water)
7:45 - Katie feeds Amanda, leaves for work
8:05 - Amanda tired, needs nap
8:44 - Amanda up from nap, needs me
8:45 - conference call, Change Control Board
9:15 - walk to 7-11 for beverage
9:30 - conference call
10:00 - attempt to feed Amanda, she is fussy and refuses
10:15 - lay her down for a nap; no struggle
10:15 - make progress on work; check up on team at the office
10:30 - conference call
11:00 - make more progress on work, catch up on e-mail
11:15 - still napping, nice!
12:15 - still napping. breaking records
12:30 - lunch
12:40 - Amamda awakens
12:41 - 6 oz bottle gobbled down
12:55 - walk around the block
1:10 - back at desk; Amanda in exer-saucer and jubilant
1:20 - unhappy baby
1:30 - realized after 10 minutes she wants a pacifier
1:45 - Amanda napping
2:00 - getting work done
3:15 - Amanda awakens
3:30 - 4oz bottle; into the exer-saucer again
4:30 - Amanda napping (must be a record), catching up on e-mail & tomorrow
5:05 - Amanda awake; work day over

Pasta from Pizza Hut

Normally, commercials don't entice me to buy a product. This one caught my attention; we went with the bacon mac-n-cheese. It came with 5 bread sticks for $17 delivered. I recommend it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pyQ-lYbUdM&NR=1

Mom killed in Crosstown crash

It's amazing how connected the world is. The mother mentioned in this article is a distant relative of mine that I had just met at a family reunion this July. It's a sad story. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time...
story here