Congrats Kali!

Kali has graduated from her doggie class and as you can tell from the photo, she’s very proud of herself. I would recommend the classes to anyone. She learned a lot and is much better about not jumping up on people…well, unless you are the meter reading woman and you comment about the “good dog” bumper sticker on our car then that “good dog” jumps on you. Ugh! I blame the entry point. Someone coming in through the garage really threw Kali off and that was a high energy time in her pre-walk morning. Enough excuses, she fucked up.

The floor is done! That is not a project we will engage in anytime in the near future but it looks nice now.

You know how I love car repairs so life dealt us a couple. The car was vibrating at higher speeds really bad and there was some sort of rotational noise that was driving me up the wall. Smart Mau took it to a dealer and got a nice, insanely expensive estimate. I called a normal mechanic and got the expenses cut in more than half. There was an axel bearing in need of replacement…ya that right fallangy thingie, whatever. Apparently it causes pull so it was probably a must and the vibration subsided slightly. We also replaced the rear tires which were not nearly as cheap as the tires on our previous cars but one had a broken belt…yep, that was the main vibration because now it’s gone! Ah, so nice to be in the car again that drained us of any extra money we thought for a moment we had. We still need 2 more tires, an alignment and new rotors. That will have to wait a bit.

Inga will be arriving today so we are in the process of a whirlwind cleaning adventure. It is so exciting! Oregon to Ohio? Probably more exciting for us! The weather is not cooperating for our tonight’s evening or tomorrow’s plans so far. I wonder if this visit will take us back to when we were 15 hanging out listening to the Ramones? Money, children and automobiles might make it a little different huh?

I have a disturbing animal story that ended up with me getting into a fight with 2 redneck guys in the park by myself at night but it is long, drawn out and I would rather not go into it right now. There is a small happy ending thanks to Kari. We really do make a good animal advocates team!

I thought the fireworks were over?

Since Sky was at a sleepover Saturday night, we went to see Sicko with FunkyB & Doug. Some creative accounting is how we managed to “afford” it. I think it was his best film yet. It wasn’t full of the usual antics that got him so loved/hated over the years. I sure want to move to France now but being I am not an EU national, it would be next to impossible to get work permits :P Sky also opposes this idea because he says “I know German Mom, not French!”.

Sunday FunkyB took Sky to see the newest Harry Potter film while we tried to finish the floor. This has become a tradition between them so he takes Sky to see all of the movies in that series now. A huge thanks to “Uncle FunkyB” for paying for everything. Sky really enjoyed it and I overheard him playing outside yelling spells at invisible enemies. Come on, he’s 10 after all!

We haven’t had a thunderstorm in a long time that caused problems but one rolled through rather quickly on Sunday. Sorry Inga, I know you wanted to experience one. I was researching some stuff on the internet and it got really dark. The lightning got closer and closer until it was over the top of us. The first big strike knocked off my computer, the second huge boom/flash I could feel through the cell phone I was on so I quickly hung up. I realized the dog was outside and it was pouring so I tried to get her to brave it and come out of the shelter she’d found under the stairs. She finally ran in right as another gigantic flash came that made me scream and slam the door shut. Everyone knows I am not scared of thunder and lightning so you should know it was HUGE. That one knocked out our cable, fried Skylar’s TV and set off my battery operated alarm clock which was not set to go off (had to remove the batteries to get it to stop). Apparently it hit the next door neighbors’ wires. They lost a computer and the neighbors on the other side lost 2 TVs.

Luckily my APC just needed to have the breaker tripped then my computer worked again (I was really worried about that of course) but it fried our cable modem so we had to swap it out and had no internet until the following day. We currently have no network because it fried our Linksys router and Mau’s computer took a hit so it is disabled. I am awaiting a call from our insurance company to see if we have a claim and can be reimbursed for what we will need to replace. You can be sure that the next time there’s lightning in the area, I will be unplugging all electronics!

Ryan & Skylar

Skylar with his cousin, Ryan, when his Aunt Michelle brought down the Nintendo DS their Grandma bought him. Thanks Grandma because we sure as hell couldn't afford one and now I can confirm Sky's odd hair didn't come from MY side of the family.

Warning: Shoots flaming balls

We spent 4^th of July at Steve & Shawntee’s. They got a new place with a pool but the pool wasn’t ready nor was the weather cooperating that day. We saw quite a few people we hadn’t seen in a long time so that was very cool and we set off a ton of fireworks.

We finished painting the upstairs room and Mau started the flooring. We have realized something. We are not professionals. I can definitely do a decent paint job but putting down a floor? That is another story, especially when you don’t own the proper tools. It would be a super easy job if there weren’t small annoyances like vents in the floor or if the tiles didn’t have to fit all the way up to the wall. In other words, cutting the tiles is an issue with the tool we borrowed and so far it looks good, much better than the floor underneath, but no pro job that’s for sure! We have about half of it down and Mau will finish it up next week…hopefully after finding someone with a table saw and depending if the store gets the rest of the wood in. It was a lot of work (thanks Inga! j/k) and really hot so we took Sunday off and went to the lake to get wet in the 95 degree heat. It was the relaxation we were looking for.

Someday I hope to be paid. I have spent more time on the phone to people in NYC it's unreal and I still do not know for sure.

Butterfly