What a week

The quarter is winding down but the work is definitely getting harder. These past two weeks have been a blur of tests, tests, more tests, and other projects. It was nice having 4 days off for Memorial Day but I spent most of it studying. Okay, we did take Saturday off and enjoyed our super weather, so it wasn't all work. Kelsey got a new mattress set since Memorial Day is apparently the time to buy mattresses. Hers was so old and ripped up I can't believe she was still able to sleep on it. But she says her new one is awesome. Too soft for me though. She just gives me the eye when I ask her if it's too soft for her, so I guess that means it's not.

Meg is doing really well in school still...she got a 96 on her math test the other day! Math! How exciting is that. Both girls are doing so good and we're so proud of them.

So my car went in for the 90k checkup two weeks ago. I specifically asked them to check the struts for me. They did all the stuff that comes with the checkup and tune up and told me that the struts were weak but not leaking and did not need to be done anytime in the near future, but would need done at some point. So we paid around $1200 for the work that they did do, and left. We ordered 4 new tires online because they also told me at the dealership that I needed two new tires, so we decided to replace them all at once. Called after the tires were delivered to the house, and made an appointment to go have them put on. They called later and said that I needed to have my struts replaced immediately, and also a CV boot needed to be replaced right away too because it was cracked. Something they NEVER mentioned when the car was there TWO WEEKS ago!

Total for new struts and new CV boot...$1400. I said to just put the tires on, I was picking up the car. I did some research for a good mechanic in Seattle, and found reviews for this little Japanese man with an auto shop downtown that apparently does everything he can to keep the costs down. So I have an appointment there on June 17. I only have to drive a few more days until then so I'm hoping that nothing major will fall off or fly out of the car before my appointment. I'm crossing my fingers that he'll be able to do the work for less money than the dealer. I really want to keep driving my car for another 7 or 8 years if I can....it's all paid off, and only has 98000 miles on it after 9 years, so I might be able to do it, especially here where the bus is such a great option. I'll keep you all updated, I'm sure everyone is on the edge of their seat to learn the outcome :-)

It's Hot

Yesterday a strange glowing orb appeared in the Seattle sky...one we had not seen for quite a whle. In one day, the complaints in the house went from "I'm cold" to "It's hot in here".

Temps hit 85 for us yesterday, with more of the same forecast today. That's it though, it'll be back down to the mid 60's by Sunday and next week more rain. But we'll enjoy it while we can...we plan to either go to Golden Gardens beach today, or may head down to the University Street Fair to hang out for a while. Yesterday Megan and I took the dogs to the park. Anyone who's been here over the summer knows that on sunny days, Seattleites head outside to lay around like pale fish and soak up some Vitamin D. Here's a picture of one of the local parks, which looks the same as every stray piece of grass available yesterday.



Last week was rough on all of us I think..I had three tests and they were all pretty hard I think. It's a relief not having to worry about tests today. Meg is having a rough time with the no smoking, but she's hanging in there for now. Jay is back to crunch time at work so he's putting in long hours again. Kelsey is just counting down the days until school is over :-(

Mom is having a carotid-to-carotid bypass on Wednesday. They elected not to do any open chest surgery, which I think is a good thing. So they'll just run a bypass from her left carotid artery, which is still working pretty good, to her right carotid artery, and hopefully that will better perfuse her brain and she'll be good to go again. She said yesterday that she's hoping to go home either today or Sunday and then back on Wednesday for the procedure. We'll all think good thoughts.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers (and mothers-to-be) I know! I hope you have a wonderful day today and that you're all spoiled by those around you. I am going to spend my day studying for the three tests I have this week, while my girls have promised to make dinner and (maybe) clean the house. I'm crossing my fingers :-).

Home from Baltimore

NOTE: I do not have any pictures, because we forgot our camera. I know, we're idiots, so sorry.

It was definitely a whirlwind weekend. We got up super early on Thursday morning (3 am!) to catch our 6 am flight to Atlanta, where we met up with Susan and John. The flight to Atlanta was decent because we got exit row seats, plus a two seat row so we were all by ourselves...and Delta has this cool thing now where you have a personal video player for each seat and you can play trivia with the rest of the plane. Jay and I made a decent showing in trivia, never winning but always in the top 5 or so.

After we got to Baltimore, we hit a grocery store and then made dinner for the Weiler clan (Susan, still need that orzo recipe!) and then we hit the RV to sleep. On Friday, Susan and I went to the bridal tea while the Weiler boys went to a railroad museum. The tea was really nice and I think Kristen appreciated the bead ceremony thing we did.

After tea we dropped some people off at their hotel and then went in search of a mall because I forgot to bring my black dress shoes for the weekend. Once we actually found the mall, after a quick trip to Camden Yards (lost), Susan got a dress and I got a pair of shoes in less than 20 minutes. When we got back to the Weilers, Jason had found my black dress shoes in another bag. Bummer - another pair of shoes for no reason :-).

The rehearsal dinner was at the Holiday Inn at the airport, where just about everyone was staying. There were a lot of people there - almost half of the wedding invitees I think. We finally met up with Hugo and Mary there. Mary got her hair done differently and it looked really cute.

Saturday we met picked up Mary and headed to Inner Harbor. It was cloudy and cool when we first got there, and looked like rain - and Kristen had an outdoor wedding planned. After we walked around a bit and had lunch, it turned into a pretty nice day. We dropped Mary off and headed back to the Weiler's to change, and then were ready to go at 3:23 - and then discovered that the wedding was at 4:00. So there was a bit of panic that we were going to be horribly late because we didn't even know how to get to this place. Turns out we got there at 3:45 with plenty of time to spare, as we were actually early compared to most guests. Met up with Grandma Flo, Ron and Gail at the wedding, and that's who we sat with at the reception.

The reception was lots of fun, with tons of swing dancing. We tried, but we were terrible at it so no swing dancing for us. We took advantage of a couple of slow dances but that's about it. There were lots of Kristen and Bob's friends from the dance scene there though, and the band was the Boilermaker Jazz Band, and I guess they're pretty well known in the dance world - so everyone had a great time. We got home around 10:30 or so, chatted with John and Raellen for a few minutes, and went to bed.

Sunday was leavin' day - Susan and John had a pretty early flight, so Mary came by around 9 and we had a huge breakfast at the Weilers. She stayed for a bit then took off to drive back to Pittsburgh. Jay and I enjoyed the sunshine and the quiet for a few hours then Jonathan and some of his friends came to pick us up and take us back to BWI, where we sat with them for awhile and had some lunch. The plane took off at 6, we were back home here at 10:30 and the weekend was over.

Whew, that was a lot to cram into a few days. So glad I don't have school until Wednesday. I'm now going to listen the lecture I missed on Thursday and work on my paper. In my pajamas. Which is how I plan to spend the day.