Random Ramblings

In other news, we had an eventful weekend:  

On Saturday we kind of went on a spending spree because Andy got a reimbursment check from going to San Francisco.  We needed quite a few things since we've been holding off until some money came.  We needed dog food, cat food, bird food, all kinds of light bulbs (got the energy efficient kind that last for 7 years), a weed eater (ours is broken and our landlord said we could buy one and he would take the price off of our rent), and gas for the lawn mower and weed eater.  

Saturday night we went to the drive-in.  It was our last weekend borrowing the van from the family at church, so we decided to take out all of the seats, put in coach cushions, a blanket and pillows and camp out to watch the movies.  We also took Charley who loves to go and hang out at the drive-in (at least he seems to!). At the local drive-in it is $16.00 per car (which is still cheaper than the two of us going to the local regular theatre) which includes two movies.  We saw Spiderman 3 and the first 45 minutes of Ghost Rider.  Spiderman 3 was good but not as good as the others.  They, of course, left it open to yet another sequel.  I really gave Ghost Rider a chance but it was a poorly done movie with some really bad acting.  Good luck another time Nicholas Cage.

On Sunday we woke up to a room full of eaten electric cords.  Luckily none of them were plugged in when Kody, our newest addition, decided to teethe (sp?) on them.  He killed our TV by chewing off the end of the power cord and also chewed up some connectors.  It really isn't all his fault though.  He is a 6 month old puppy in a room with no toys to chew on.  While he should know better, I can't stay too mad at him for it.  He was just being a puppy and puppies can be evil little beings.  

Later Sunday afternoon we decided to take Charley and Kody to go swimming or wading.  Charley loves to swim and Kody, as far as we know, has never been in water except for a bath tub.  A lady I talked to at the dog park last week told us about a little park close by that isn't usually busy and has a little lake where she takes her dog swimming.  We couldn't decide to go there or to our regular place (which is a little creek in a local park).  We decided to go to the local one we knew.  Unfortunately all the parking spots next to the creek had been taken and we couldn't find anywhere else even remotely close to park.  So, we decided to try and find the park the lady had told us about.  

We finally, due to Andy's great navigation skills, found the little park.  When we got to the lake, which was nice and far from the road, we discovered that there was a little league game going on.  Charley was too interested in the people across the little lake so we decided not to let him off the leash there for fear he might swim across and try to play fetch with the game ball.  So we decided to try the local creek again, where we found one open parking space.  I slipped on my aqua socks (which Andy reminded me were only cool in the early to mid 90s but I think are very practical for wading) and we took the dogs for their first swim of the season.  Kody wasn't sure about the water at first.  It wasn't until after Andy through him in that he decided he liked it.  Charley got to go off leash (since it is away from the road and hiking trails) while Kody had to stay on the extended 16ft leash because we can't trust him yet.  They both were soaked, gritty with sediment, tired and very very happy when we left.  We took some pictures.  I'll post them later.  

Other than that I really don't have anything going on.  Things are really slow at work and this week is finals week.  Of course, that doesn't matter too much because I am taking classes over the summer too. 

Posted by Amy at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been a long time since I have updated my blog.  Not that anyone reads it anyways, so I'm sure no one will mind.

What has happened in the past 6 weeks?  

Well, we did end up getting all the cars fixed, a nice little dryer off of ebay, and we got a great new vacuum.  The garbage disposal is still broken, but we'll deal with that soon enough.  At least things are generally working in our house and that is comforting.

The biggest thing is that Andy and I went to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago by train.  We went because Andy had an AAG (Association of American Geographers) conference and because we just wanted an excuse to go to SF.  You can read our travel blog and see pictures of the trip at twotravellers.theshears.com . I must warn anyone who reads it that the blog is really long.  No, really, it is ridiculously long. Andy wrote most of it, and I must say that, he did a great job at logging all of the goings-on.

The other big thing is that we adopted another dog.  Yes, we officially have four dogs.  I know that we're insane, and a little scary to say/type out loud, but that is okay.  I think people that have four or more children have to be a little nuts - so, yeah....  Our newest addition, Kody, is a 6 month old Boxer/Terrier Mix (like his big brother Charley).  He is amazingly smart (and cute) and already knows our routine and many commands including sit, stay, speak, shake, down and drop-it.  He is also almost completely house trained. He is going to be a smart little guy like Charley.  He gets along famously with the other three and brings out the puppy in all of them.   

Other than that we have mostly been working and going to school.  Andy is finishing up his last semester of classes. I am just taking whatever I'm able to, which amounts to two classes per semester, which is better than nothing.  After this semester Andy will be teaching a class over the summer and taking two (one of which we're taking together).  Then, in the fall he will be teaching one class and then working solely on his dissertation and other original research.  If everything goes according to plan he will have his PhD by next summer. I'm so proud of him!  I can't imagine getting my PhD.  He makes it look so easy (when I know, for a fact, that is an amazing amount of work) because he is so blessed academically.  Things just seem to come easily to him and he can remember the smallest details and facts.  Crazy boy!

Posted by Amy at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

* WARNING: Long Post *

Not much blogging lately. Things have been crazy and I have been busy.  Also there is the whole problem in the fact that I am not supposed to be online at work anymore.  Apparently some "computer guy" told my boss that the DSL was somehow putting too much of a burden on the server and that we shouldn't use it anymore.  Although that hasn't stopped my boss from using his computer (which is also linked to the server) to get online in his office all day.  As my friend Kory said it is really terrible when "computer illeterate people are in charge of computers.".  My boss seriously has no idea about computers at all.  He has called me (at home) several times to ask me how to sign into the computer after it restarts because he forgets.  ::sigh::  Oh well.  

So what has been going on?  Well for starters it seems like everything we own is systematically breaking down.  First our cars broke down a few weeks ago and we got those fixed.  Well Virgil, the Volvo, decided he was going to crap out on us again.  He is running like crap and the check engine light is blinking which Andy found out on a Volvo forum means that you should not drive the car.  I'm going to attempt to make the rest of the long car story short.  We were offered a van to borrow from Nancy and Al at church (thank you!) until our car was back and running and we took them up on the offer.  We picked up the van almost two weeks ago though and our car still isn't working.  Why?  Well, we tried to get it towed using Andy's AAA card but apparently it had expired.  He has his AAA through his parent's account and they had to pay for my brother-in-law, Tim,  to go into rehab and didn't have the $200 and some odd dollars to pay off the AAA when it came due this month.  Needless to say I'm glad they are helping Tim, but we just had no idea we couldn't use the card and it was quite a blow when we couldn't even get it to the mechanic.    

So, we decided to look into how much it would be to have it towed ourselves.  We found out it would be between $60 and $70.  I called our mechanic to see if he had any ideas and he said that - that was probably the cheapest we would find it for.  He also suggested that we try and get a AAA card on our own, which could be the same amount of money but would give us a year of coverage.  I had not thought of this.  So, I called Andy and told him the plan.  He called AAA and eventually found out that if you want to renew your membership at our local office you can do so for $70/year for just him.  So, we decided to go for that.  But, Andy had to go himself and he wouldn't be able to get there before 5:00 (when they close) until Saturday of last week.  So, we had to wait until Saturday.  And now we have to wait to use the membership until the card comes in the mail (7-10 days) and it hasn't shown up yet.  I hate to ask Al and Nancy to use the car longer.  I doubt they'll mind though, but I still kind of feel bad for asking since they've already been so generous.  So, we're waiting to for the AAA so we can wait for the estimate so we can see if we can fix the Virgil.  I hope it isn't too expensive.  

So, next our dryer broke.  Kory and Amy thought that they had an extra dryer in their basement which is one of the most random things I have ever heard.  On further investigation they actually had an extra washer (just as random).  We did appreciate the offer though and are looking into eventually buying a cheap dryer if I can't find one on freecycle for free.  Then our vacuum decide to break down as well.  We have gone through 2 vacuums in less than a year which is very sad.  Unfortunately the first one we bought was a refurb and the second one we bought was a special at Wal-Mart.  Somehow we lucked out and both of them do not have parts made for them anymore.  Andy thought he found a generic part (they both broke their rollbar by the way) on some vacuum website but once we got it - it was almost 2 inches too long.  Andy tried to call them and e-mail them for a refund or a return but they would not return our calls or e-mails.  So, we're stuck with a $30 rollbar that we can't use.  I guess I should just put it on freecycle.  Maybe someone else can use it.   And lastly, our garbage disposal is broken.  This is both inconveinient and gross.  Gross because there was stuff in it when it broke and I don't think I was able to get all of it out and gross again because we kept forgetting it was broken and loaded it up with more stuff.  ::sigh:: So I put a little mesh drain cover on it, from the dollar store, to ensure we don't clog it up more in the meantime.  We just need to call the landlord to get the garbage disposal fixed but I really don't want him to come over when our house is overrun with laundry, because we have to hang dry it now in the basement which we hate, and our carpet has an amazing amount of dog hair on it.  In fact I think our carpet is officially pure dog hair now.  I just don't think he would really appreciate either of these things in his house.  

So, eventually we have to buy a new vacuum, new dryer, and get the Volvo fixed.  Everytime we think we are going to come out a little ahead financially it seems like everything breaks.  I guess it is a good thing that it breaks when we have the money but I've started to become less optimisitic about the whole thing lately.  I just figure that we're going to be struggling for the rest of forever and I should just suck it up now and stop trying to think we'll ever have a savings account or anything like that.  I'm just a bit jaded by the events of the past couple of months, but I think I have a right to be at this point. 

Posted by Amy at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While our cars have were out of commission Amy let us stay at her and Kory's house for two nights.  That was so awesome of her!  We would have never been able to go to work if she hadn't helped us out.  And our petsitter came over on last minute notice to let the dogs out since we couldn't go home to let them outside.

 Well Virgil had an ignition coil go bad, and Pedro has a leak in his breakline (which we had to pay for since it wasn't the mechanic's fault).  Then Andy found out that Virgil is about to have his brakes go bad (only 15% left on them).  So, we are hauling him out to the mechanic again next week to have him fixed. 

All in all, for everything we've had to pay out for this ordeal, it is going to cost us about $950.00. 

Bye-bye tax refund.  It was nice to see you in our account for a couple of days.  

The good news is that we will have two cars that are in good working order and we're still going to be able to get our used couch!  Andy figured it out and we can still get the used couch/loveseat from the place down the street.  So, at least that much.  I'm just glad this all hit while we actually had the money to fix it.  If this would have happened in a month we would have been in a lot of trouble! 

So, most things are back to normal in the Shears' household for the time being.  Well, at least we consider it "normal".  

Thank you again, to Amy (and Kory who I knew would have also invited us in if he wasn't in NY) for letting us crash on your floor and taking me to work for two days and fixing me awesome vegan stirfry!!!

 

 

 

Posted by Amy at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow.  Well, you may or may not read Andy's (husband) blog.  If you do you know that our 1997 Volvo 960 just threw up the "service engine" light and started running terribly.  So, we were down to one car because Andy has lost his wallet and did not have his AAA card and we didn't want to have to pay for towing to get it to the mechanic. 

So today Andy calls me and tells me that the breaks in Pedro, our 1977 VW Bug, just went out!  We just had his brakes fixed a month ago!  Andy was doing a half an hour drive to Canton and luckily they didn't go out until he was in the parking lot! Andy is okay and nothing was hit thank goodness.  Unfortunately Andy is stuck in Canton and I have no way to come and get him.  Ugh.  I'm not sure what we're going to do.  Now we have no car.  

Luckily Andy called AAA in Indiana and they faxed him a temporary card so he could get Virgil, the Volvo, in to get repaired.  Now, we're going to have to get Pedro towed to and somehow get Andy home. I have no idea how we are going to get to work tomorrow.  The bus lines don't run to our jobs because they are in a different county.  And we can't rent a car because Andy is the only one who is 25 (you have to be 25 to rent!) and he lost his wallet over the weekend!  They say bad things come in 3s.  I hope this is the last for a while.........

 ::sigh::

(Andy just called me and said the mechanic who fixed Pedro's brakes is going to fix them for free as long as it was something wrong with one of the parts he put in.. thank goodness..)

Posted by Amy at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)