Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings

This post will probably cover a lot of different topics, hence the title.

The weekend: It was a lovely weekend. :-) Brian finished up with his work, and after that, we test drove Kias. I have serious new car envy. I drove the Sorento (mid-size SUV), Optima (comparable to the Honda Accord), and Sedona (minivan). I liked all of them, but my favorite was the Sorento. If I'd had the money, I'd have left with a new one that day! I may end up going with an Optima because it's less expensive, and that's fine - it's a very nice car, and with the V6, it's got all the power I need. The Sedona was OK, but with the way it's designed now, you have to take the third row of seats out to have any appreciable cargo space in the back. I don't need a third row of seats so much that I want to hassle with that, so it was third on my list. At any rate, now I know what I'd like, and that gives me a goal to work toward.

After fun with cars, we went to Golden's and got lots of books for cheap, did some grocery shopping, and cooked dinner. It was a very domestic evening - Brian cleaned, I cooked. :-) Sunday morning we got up and went to church - Brian had to usher, so we were there for both services. I like their Bible class. The children have their own classes, but all the adults have one big class and the pastor teaches it. I'm sure that if it were a larger church, different age groups would be broken out. But I like the one big class. After church we went to lunch, and then I came back home. Traffic was nasty around Hillsboro - I think it's because of the ongoing road construction on I-35. It will be nice when it's all done, but right now it's just kind of a pain. I never saw any accident or anything, so I figure it was the road work slowing things down.

I don't have my car back yet. I talked to the dealership yesterday. They think they know what the problem is, but can't *prove* it because my car won't act up again. Well, duh, THAT'S the problem - it whacks out once, and then runs fine for three or four days. I don't want to play "guess what the problem is", but it's just about to the point where, if it wouldn't break the bank completely, I'd tell them to just fix what they think it is and go from there. The rental car expense is going to break me. That being said, at this point, I'd almost rather wait until after my refinance funds, so I'll have enough money to cover the cost of all of this. OY.

Yes, I closed on my refi on Monday. I'm glad I'll be getting extra cash out of it, and glad I'll have that cash for this car repair nonsense. But it pisses me off that a big hunk of my so-called emergency fund is going for car repairs and rental expense. Feh.

K asked about switching weekends - A is in a friend's wedding and it's the last weekend in March (which, being a 5th weekend, is supposed to be his weekend with J). I said that was fine, but when we tried to find a weekend to switch to (couldn't be this weekend, because J and I have tickets for Thomas the Tank Engine), every one ended up giving him three weekends in a row. So, not an option. He said he'd just owe me a big favor. Hmm. I wonder what that big favor could be? :-)

I wonder, though, if he realizes how much I hate giving up my free weekends. He's married to A, he sees her every day. Even before they were married, they were close enough that he could see her every day. I see Brian every couple of weeks, maybe two weekends in a row if things work out right. And that sucks. Long distance sucks, and I miss him, and I wish he were here, or I were there, or something just as long as we could be in the same place. I'm sure K would tell me it's my own damn fault for going and falling in love with someone who lives 90 miles away, and maybe that's so. But I didn't start out looking to fall in love, it's just one of those happy surprises that life hands out every once in a while. I just wish we could be together all the time instead of only on the occasional weekend. So, while I don't mind helping out if K is in a bind, and I don't mind switching out if he needs to do that, I do hate that I'm losing a weekend with Brian. J and I are going to go down to Waco that weekend and we're all going to go to the zoo, which will be fun, and I'm glad Brian and J get along to where we can do stuff like that. But it's not quite the same as an entirely free weekend. Oh well, until the logistics work out (and they will), I'll work with what I've got.

Transcription: I got my transcription machine in, and Julie and I are going to get together this week so I can really get going on that. I hope I like it, and I hope I do wonderfully well. It would be fabulous if that worked out to where I could do it full-time. Yeah, I know - great use of my law degree, working from home and doing transcription. But you know what? I don't give a rat's ass about my title or my job description. All I care about is making enough money to take care of me and mine and doing something that I don't hate and don't feel like I suck at.

More later, gotta work.