A new simpson in town

Early last week Katie and I came home to find our next door neighbor outside with her lab puppy. Her brother, whose dogs produced the litter from which her puppy came, also happened to be over. Katie asked him about the rest of the dogs, and found that he was trying to find owners for the rest of them... 3 males, 1 of which they were keeping.

Katie had a little mini-seizure and decided she wanted to get one. She was actually trying to convince me that we needed a male, lab puppy. I briefly considered calling a priest to perform an exorcism on whatever demon was possessing katie, but then realized I was in a rare situation to get the dog I've always wanted.

So, all this was all to say that we have a new pup - Pluto.

I can't complain... but I'm going to anyway

I'm learning. Granted, I'm learning the hard way... but I'm learning nonetheless. The lesson du jour is that when faced with an undesirable situation, I should go ahead and face that situation rather than putting it off endlessly. Holmes Honda was kind enough to provide my education in this area today.

As I wrote on my blog a few weeks ago, I got a new car recently. I like to think that it wasn't an impulse buy - that it was actually the result of the amount of repairs that could have been needed for the accord to run reliably. In hindsight, it does seem to be true for the most part. I spent a lot of money getting the car into working order, and still had the terrifying problem of the transmission jolting the entire car whenever it shifted gears. However, I can't say that I didn't just want a shiny, new toy... since my gold '97 Accord was far from an eye-catcher.

Anywho, the purchase of this new car led to the problem of having to sell the Accord. I say "problem" because normally people are turned off by cars with transmission problems... and by turned off I mean terrified. So, I've been dreading trying to sell my car.

This weekend I decided to bite the bullet and take my car in to the shop to get a tune-up (free, because of a Honda mileage related tune-up that was never used) before listing it. Since it was already going to be there, I figured I'd satisfy my curiousity... or possibly prove my worst fear to be correct and have them diagnose my transmission problem. At least I'd be able to discount the car if I knew what was wrong with my car. So, that's what Katie and I did - we brought the car in this morning, expecting to spend the day about town until we heard back from Honda.

We got the call just as we were leaving the latest Harry Potter movie (Order of the Phoenix). The tune-up was complete, along with a warrantied replacement of the ignition due to some kind of technical service bulletin, and that my transmission had something wrong with it (torque something or other) and that it should be replaced. The good news was that due to some kind of emissions warranty extension that I qualified for a free replacement transmission. I could hardly believe my ears. A new stinking transmission... for free!?

So, my worries seem to have been for nothing. I did have some serious transmission problems, but if I would've just manned up and gone to see what the problem was rather than dreading the problem and avoiding it I could've avoided getting a new car so hastily. I don't regret leasing the car under the circumstances, as they were, but looking back I could've postponed the purchase for a few months when conditions would have been ideal. I could've had a proper down payment for a purchase rather than a lease, at a time when the '08 models would be the dealer's focus... making the '07s prone to discounting.

To quote my lovely wife - "Oh well. You live and your learn".

From the iphone

As I may have mentioned here before, Taylor bought himself an iphone. We're in Dallas this weekend and I'm getting to use it at length... And I'm finally buying into the hype. The features all work as expected, with a slick, usable interface. Even the typing, which I'd heard was difficult is fairly easy. I'm able to type here with minimal mistakes.

After seeing the iPod and internet features, I'm sold. I'll just have to wait until the price comes down... that way I can avoid being murdered by Katie.

My next impulse buy: Rock Band (The Game)

Silly sods

This past weekend, after much work and speculation in the seeding of our backyard, we decided to finally lay down some sod in the backyard.

This project went as most of my household projects go.

Step 1) Want something
Step 2) Construct a plan quickly
Step 3) Move toward plan hastily
Step 4) Begin enacting plan
Step 5) Realize faults in plan
Step 6) Attempt to fix problems
Step 7) Wish I would have paid someone else

In this case, I wanted grass in my backyard. I decided to lay sod. So, I ordered two palettes of sod based on measurements that were taken weeks ago simply by counting paces, and on the advice of a neighbor's neighbor's experience. I also planned to lay sod directly on top of the weeds in the back yard, because chemicals in weed killers would likely stunt the ability of the grass to put down roots. My brother and Dad volunteered to help in the cause, and my Dad also volunteered to pick up a wheelbarrow from home depot.

The first two palettes of sod were delivered on Friday morning, and we began early Saturday. As we started laying sod, we realized that we were probably only going to be able to cover half the yard. So, I asked Katie to take Taylor's truck and pick up another palette, which was all I thought it would be able to haul. As it turns out, the palettes weigh about 1700-2200 pounds... and Taylor's ranger was not build to handle the size or the weight of the load. This didn't deter the sod people from loading the palette lopsided into the truck. Katie tried to drive it home, but call soon after leaving the sod place because the truck's mud flaps were scraping the pavement while driving home. My Dad and brother went to off load some of the sod into another truck while I stayed to keep laying the rest of the first two palettes.

After around 4 hours of work - with Taylor and my Dad being gone for a bit - we'd finally gotten 3/4ths of the yard sodded. So, now I can either wait a year or two for grass to spread or I can take another morning and turn it into a labor intensive sod-fest. I'm happy with the results, especially since it's been raining enough to avoid worrying with watering morning, noon and night. It's the process that's been bothering me. With better planning and proper measurements and appropriate tools this could've been a much better ordeal.

Happy Birthday Katie!

Today the wife celebrated another birthday. Well, to be accurate, we've been celebrating it all week. She's been getting out of things by saying "...but it's my birthday week"... and "it's my birthday weekend"... and "I was born before now". I bought into those excuses... but after today, no more.

Anywho, yesterday we had a get-together over at her Mom's house with her side of the family. Today, we're hanging out with my side of the family. We'll be seeing Ratatouille here in about an hour and a half, then going to eat dinner somewhere. Hopefully it will be somewhere that will make her wear a hat and stand on a table while the employees sing an embarassing happy birthday song.

So, if you know her, give her a holler and tell her happy 17th birthday.