If it's not one thing....

My luck with expensive things seems to be running out lately; exhibit A: my car debacle a few weeks ago. Well ladies and gentlemen of the court, we now have a new piece of "evidence" to present: the crashing of my computer.

It was a rainy, dreary afternoon here in the good ol' pacific northwest. One of those days where you'd rather stay inside. Not me! ...mainly because I new if I stayed inside that I should work on my research paper that's due Monday. Instead, I went in search of paper and stamps for our wedding invitations.  The trip was a huge success and I was excited to come home and finish designing my sample on my computer and then trying out the new stamp. That excitement was ended quickly when I tried to start my computer. Especially when two hours later, I was still trying to start my computer.

I tried everything. I tried scanning the hard drive (it said it was fine) and doing the PC recovery; nothing! I then set the computer aside and drowned my sorrows in a box of samoas for about thirty minutes. I knew I could take it in but I new that fixing a computer is almost as expensive as going to doctor or fixing a car, but realizing I was out of options and in great need of my computer I had no choice. I ran up the Geek Squad up at Best buy where I was told by a man with a long beard, white shirt, and black tie, "with everything you've told me it's probably the hard drive or possibly even the mother board. To diagnose the problem, that's about $70. Then whatever the cost will go up from there depending on what you have to replace, but you're looking about $200 or more." My thought: Awesome! Then he said my favorite part of the whole conversation, "However, with a computer this vintage you're probably better off to just go buy a new computer."

Okay dude, seriously?! Vintage?! It's not like this was the first laptop ever made. It's like four years old. It probably looks older than it is due to the fact that there's a button missing (it came off after I had just replaced a different key and I refused to replace it because I knew as soon as I did another one would come off) and there is electrical tape wrapped around the powercord. Anyway I was trying not to laugh at this guy who was being super nice, but a small chuckle definitely got out.

After this conversation we decided to go check out the computer section to see how much this new computer was going to run us. Because we want to get a Mac desktop in the near future (and we didn't have the cash to drop on it currently), we weren't looking to spend a ton. After talking with a guy, we were able to find this lovely little Compaq that I'm currently coming to you from for $350. It's actually slightly better than the computer I had and will definitely do the trick. So Brett and I talked it over and decided it was definitely our best and probably only option and as you probably already know, purchased it.

Now I just have to take my computer back in to hopefully (HOPEFULLY!!!) get the stuff off the hard drive. I really wasn't worried about the pictures because I'm fairly certain I have all the ones I wanted, saved off of the computer. My music, well with all the music I had on there/money spent getting that music I would be stupid not to care about that. However, my biggest worry of all was not these first two things other people would be worried about (or all my school documents that are on there, which aren't a super big deal because the one's that are in progress are uploaded online), no it was all the wedding stuff, especially the addresses. So fingers crossed that when I go back in there, they will be able to get that stuff off of there. If not, at least they'll refund my money on that part...

When it rains it pours... and then the sun comes out :o)

I was sitting in class today when I got a text from Brett saying "Your boy chewed up something of yours. He's been scared and outside all afternoon." (your boy meaning Boston, the dog) Then I had to know what it was. My first thought was my power cord to my computer. This dog has a thing for cords... well only cords to my stuff like my cell phone charger or my Wii remote. It was definitely a plausible thought. Luckily it wasn't my power cord (I'm assuming it would have been a lot harder to replace). Instead it was my shoes that I wear for clinical. Normally I would just say, "Oh well I have other pairs of shoes and I didn't really like them anyway." Unfortunately I have to have all black or white shoes for clinical and those are the only all black shoes I have and I have clinical Thursday. I had planned on getting new shoes anyway because these shoes squeak when I walk in them (yes.. every step... annoying!), but I was trying to hold off until after gradation so it wouldn't matter about the whole color thing. However, events folding out as they did, today was the day.

On my way to get shoes I realized I needed to get gas and since I still had a Cheveron gift card from Christmas I stopped there. When I pulled up though, the guy was right there and I was frazzled and couldn't find the gift card so I just gave him my debit card... Not really a big deal. I get my gas, head towards the road, get ready to pull out into traffic, and then realize my car is smoking... Awesome! Put the car in reverse, pull next to the vacuum stand out of the way, and pop the hood. Upon opening the hood I realized my radiator cap is missing. I look through all that under the hood junk trying to find the cap; not there. Get on the ground and look under the car; not there either. Realizing that I'm less than 100ft away from the Cheveron, I decided that I'm just going to walk over there and see if they have a new cap. I then closed the hood, look up, and realize there's a Jiffy Lube even closer and they are more likely to have a cap. So I walk over there, the guy comes to check it out, realizes that yes I really am missing the radiator cap, and then goes to check and see if they have it. And yes they did. He finds the cap in the stock room and then we head back to the car. After putting the cap on and realizing there is fluid all over the place, I asked, "Do you have antifreeze?" He says, "Yes we do, but we'll totally do that for free." He runs over and grabs the fluid and starts filling it up and says, "Yeah so don't worry about this it's free." I replied, "The fluid right?" Then he said, "No the cap too, it's on us. Save the money and go wash your car off." Freaking sweet!! I thank the guy like a million times and then hop in my car and get on the road to Dick's to go get my new shoes. I was thinking to myself as I was driving that when I got done finding shoes, if I still had time I should go back and get my oil changed at the Jiffy Lube as a "thank you". But of course that didn't work out because..........

As I'm driving and getting closer to Dick's I look at my temperature gauge and realize it's getting really close to the red line... Not good. As I pull into the parking lot the gauge is on the red line so being me I just turned it off and went into Dick's since you can't really touch anything when the engine is that hot. I find the shoes I want pretty quick and then the guy tells me about this protection plan. He says "You can bring these back no questions asked within the next year and we'll give you a credit for the price you pay today and you can new shoes." Then I interrupt and say, "even if your dog chews them up?" and he replies, "Exactly! That's actually the example I usually use. But basically you can get yourself a new pair of shoes every 6 months if you want and all you need to do is buy the protection plan for another $12." I was sold! Got my shoes, some new socks (I needed some new ones anyway), and the protection plan and then it was time to head back to my car. I pop the hood again and check the fluids. Everything looked okay and then I went to start my car. Yeah... that wasn't exactly happening. Pop the hood again, check all the fluids this time including the oil. Everything looked okay again so I went back to try to start it again and was still having issues. But finally with a little persistence and gas I was able to get it.

Driving home I was freaking out a bit because of the whole temperature deal (unfortunately I had a lot of experience with this over the summer). I had almost made it home and then it started red lining again. So I pulled off a side street and of course it starts to resolve itself so I finish the drive home and just shut the thing off. I walked in pissed (understandably) and start ranting about how I want a new car but of course I can't get one right now. Skip through the next hour where I was still pretty mad... Then Brett and I decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for what I like to call my "happy meal". As we're sitting there we start talking about all the madness going on with capstone placement requests and then just the stuff that had happened on the way  home. We then decided that maybe it was the cap they gave me or maybe it was because he only filled the reserve chamber, so that it might be good to stop at a parts store on the way home (We're genius when we put our minds together ;o) ) We got the parts and some antifreeze, popped the hood yet again, and found that the caps were exactly the same; so not the problem. Then we filled the reserve chamber again (cause what was in there had been sucked back into the radiator) and then filled the radiator itself... Half a jug later we decided we should go on a test drive. Fifteen miles later, ten minutes sitting in the driveway, and no overheating! Unfortunately past experience has taught me that it'll take a longer drive to make sure, but for now I think we solved it.

Finally, at the end of the night, after a deep breath...well many deep breaths... and some conversation, everything appears that it is working out. Whew! Tomorrow... if all goes well and my car doesn't overheat and I have time I hope to go get my oil changed back at the Jiffy Lube! We'll see if the plan works out :o)

Brett's Got a New Girlfriend!

Saturday, Brett and I went out for a little lunch date and to register. While we were eating he informed me that I had some competition. Apparently there is this little 18 year old Venezuelan girl that came into his work not to long ago to open up a checking account. Then Saturday she showed back up with her friend to open up an account for her friend. Brett was actually oblivious to what was going on until they had left because the girls were mostly speaking Spanish, so another employee who did speak Spanish, Claudia, was helping with the process. After they had left Claudia informed Brett of the topic of conversation, him!  When the girls walked up, the original one got all red in the face and said, "There he is!" Throughout the time that Brett was opening the account they were talking about him, although he had no clue because when they would talk about him it was in Spanish. After hearing the girl say that she liked Brett, Claudia decided to interject and asked, "Don't you think he's a little old for you?" The girl replied, "No, I'm old enough." Then Claudia asked why she liked him. The girl then replied, "Because he's older and looks experienced."  When Brett told me this part, I couldn't help but laugh and say, "Well that's why I picked you!" The best part was that Brett was literally right there and had no idea what was going on because of the language barrier. Claudia also told Brett that she thought about telling the girl that he was engaged but since she keeps bringing in new accounts she didn't want to stop the flow of business. Sounds like a good business decision to me as long as the girl doesn't show up in the neighbors bushes with a pair of binoculars!