Tracey

Okay, fast version of the weekend since I haven't felt like posting all day!!
Friday:
Left work early (around 2:00) to catch the VIA train to Cobourg where Dan picked me up on his way from work. It was great, we haven't been on a road trip in a while. I brought my wedding books along and we had some great brainstorming/conversations and settled a lot of things.
Got into Ottawa around 8:00 and shot the breeze with Jody and Jen for a while. Watched Ali. Still not sure if I liked it or not.
Went to bed around midnight and completely passed out. Traveling will do that to me.

Saturday:
Got up early so we could eat breakfast and be out the door in time to return the VCR Jody had rented.
From there headed to Hull Quebec to visit the Museum of Civilization. That was a lot of fun, we walked around for about 4 hours before we'd had enough. Then we went and parked the car and went for another walk. We walked past the Prime Minister's house, but he didn't want to come out and play, so we went to the Governor General's house. She wasn't interested in coming out to play either, but we did stroll around her yard for a while and look at the gardens.
By then we were exhausted, so we headed for home and ordered in some Chinese. Dan looked at Jen's computer which has been acting up lately (ie. not booting at all) and then we ate. Went out to the park to play frisbee for a while (we had an active day!!).

Sunday:
Got up kind of early again. Had some breakfast and went back to looking at Jen's computer. Went out to a few Future Shop's to get some parts, but nothing helped, so Dan packed up her computer and is going to fix it at his house.
We left around 1:00 to head for real home.
We had just ramped back onto the east-bound Highway (401) from the southbound one (416) when Dan noticed that his ABS light and battery light had come on. I looked in his car manual and it said that in this event, you should shut down anything electrical. We scoffed at it and kept driving.
About 45 minutes (and a warning from my dad) later, the car completely died and left us on the side of the highway. Luckily, I'm part of an Auto-Club through my parents, so I called for a tow and we arrived in Canadian Tire just before closing. We signed his car in and walked to the nearest hotel for the night.
I had a hard time getting to sleep because I was so worried about my Jury Duty. I was supposed to be in Oshawa for 9:00am the next morning.

Monday:
Got up around 8:30 and called the court house after worrying about it all night. The woman told me that there were no trials this week and that Jury Duty had been postponed to next Monday. Apparently someone had tried to call my house, but with no answer, so I lose. Oh well, I still get to go next week.
Around 11:00 we picked up Dan's car and headed for home.
Took a side tour along the way and he showed me some properties his parents are interested in buying and maybe the one we could buy to build a house on!! :) It's been for sale for years, and might still be next year when we return to seriously look! :)

Blah blah blah, a bunch more crap happens and I finally get home around 8:30pm.

That's my weekend! :)

Um...okay, so I lied.
I am around to post. Just a short one though.
Dan's just getting in the shower and I'm almost ready. He was busy playing Warcraft III while I was getting ready, so I'm ahead of schedule now. Even got my skirt ironed and everything!
My parents are picking us up at Yorkdale on the way though so we don't have to rack up miles on Dan's car. Plus, their air conditioning is better, and it will be nice to all talk together in the car. Aside from that though, I really don't know what to expect from the afternoon. Apparently my dad doesn't either though. I asked him what time they'd be returning us to Yorkdale and he said around 10pm. That seems so early! He and his brothers usually like to stay up late and talk, and being back for 10 means we'd have to leave there by 9 at the latest. We'll see. We're going to be parking in front of the theatre so that even if we are late getting back, our car has a reason to be there and we'll be less likely to get a ticket.

Jody called me this morning. He had my/his car taken in for certification finally. The only things it needed were the reverse light was burnt out, and so was the rear license plate light. No big deal at all!! I'm so glad that the little "accident" he was in didn't cause any harm to the certification. I also told him to go and pick up the papers for the transfer of ownership. So hopefully he'll pay me today...finally!! I only gave him the car like a month and a half ago!!!

Anyway, that's all for now I guess. I'll try and send out a few more packages early next week. I sent out two on Friday, and I just need a couple more items to finish out the rest of them. This is so much fun!! :)

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

I actually had a really productive day today! Most of my weekends are productive. What's up with that?
I'll finish up yesterday first though.
Went to the Chiropractor, got Dan a hair cut and the oil changed on his car. He also go an engine shampoo too, I was thoroughly disappointed by the process though. I had pictured lots of foam and pretty smelling soap. Turns out they spray your engine with a heavy duty de-greaser then scrub it with dish brushes then hose it off and spray on some kind of sealant. His car still stinks to high hell whenever we turn the vent on. What a let-down! :)
We also did a bit of shopping. I went to Chapter's and bought my dad some new local map books and a card. He loved them! They're always going for motorcycle rides to remote areas and maps come in really handy. I got them one of the area we live in now, as well as the area they're planning to move to. Handy stuff.
Then we came back into Toronto and started getting BBQ stuff ready. We had Robin over for dinner. It was really nice to see him again! We had a great evening.
Went to bed late and got up late this morning. It rocked! :)
We got up and just vegged in front of the Dreamcast for a while before showering and heading out to do our laundry. The weather was nuts today! We went into the laundry mat and it was sunny and by the time we put our laundry in and went to go next door to get some groceries it was pouring rain! So we got our groceries and put them in the car and it was sunny. Went into flip the laundry from the washer to the dryer before walking to the dollar store and it was pouring again. We stayed in the dollar store until it stopped raining and then I went back to check on the laundry. Craziness!!
So we took the laundry and the groceries home and I called my mom to see if she wanted to go shopping. I was in desperate need of a new pair of sandals since it's getting too hot to wear pantyhose to work every day! I got these sandals:


I totally love them!! I've been trying to find a pair like them for years. I probably spent too much money ($125) but I don't care. They're really high quality so I'll be wearing them for years. Yay sandals!
Then I took the Go Train home and am chilling (literally...did you know it's supposed to go down to 10C tonight??). Going to call Dan soon and see how his afternoon was.

Just got an e-mail from Mike saying that he found a place that might work out for us. It's only a two bedroom, we were kind of looking for three, but it's got a living room plus a solarium, so that's more living space right there.
It's $1550/month and it's right down on the lake. Also includes 5 appliances which I would assume to be fridge, stove, dishwasher or microwave, washer & dryer. Nice! :)
The best part though...it's available May 1st and Mike is willing to move in early with me and we'd both pay a little extra for the summer until Dan moves in in September.
Would mean I'd have to sell my car, but I think it's a worthy trade. I was going to have to sell it at the end of the summer anyway.
We're going to look into it more and maybe go and see it this week or on the weekend. I'm very hopeful!!

I thought I had written the first half of this story the night that it happened, but I guess I was wrong. I just told shellbell on ICQ.
Dan was on the way home from my house last Thursday night. He was driving on one of the many country roads required to get to his house (he lives in the middle of BF nowhere) when he saw two deer on the other side of the road. He slowed down to look at them and when he turned his head back there was a third one in front of him that bounced off of his hood. Smashed up his car pretty good...I'll post the pictures at the end of the entry if I can figure out how. He also killed the deer on impact, so at least it didn't suffer.
He called the insurance company the next morning and it turns out that when you hit a deer it's covered under comprehensive coverage which is good, because it's only a $300 deductible and Dan figured there was probably $1,500 to $2,000 worth of damage to his car. So he dropped it off at the insurance-recommended body shop for an estimate on Friday.
The insurance company called him back today and told him that they figured the repairs to be worth upwards of $4,000 and the worth of his car to be no more than $3,500 which in the eyes of the insurance company means "write-off". Now, looking at the photos, there's no way that this car is going to be a write off...damnit...he drove it to the garage the day after it had been hit, there is no structural damage to the frame or anything, just cosmetic body work.
He's a little upset now because he doesn't know (and neither does anyone we've talked to) what you do when the insurance company calls your car a "write-off" and you still want to keep it. Aren't they supposed to give you some money or something for it?
He thinks he can do an okay job fixing it himself, but not for free. We've got a really good junk-yard around here where you can just wander back and pick and choose parts from about 50 of your kind of car around your year. We might be able to go there and pick up a new hood and side panel (which would be at least what we'd need) for a couple of hundred dollars and then he'd get a professional to re-paint the entire car...which is only a couple of hundred dollars as well. But those things add up if the insurance company gives him nothing. I mean, what has he been paying them for all along then?!?
I just can't wait to get this sorted out, I'll keep it posted.

( See Pictures of Dan's Car )