My poor car. Ray's friend Jimmy is a master mechanic and has done some work on Ben's car very inexpensively, so when it finally came time to drop some serious coin on MY car, we knew where to go. It took almost 2 weeks, but my car is essentially brand new except for the body! I'll try to remember most of what he replaced off the top of my head because I don't have the list on me... fuel filter, air filter, front brake pads, front rotors, a flex tube in the front (yeah I don't know either), front struts, the filler neck for my gas tank (rusted and leaking gas - FABULOUS), catalytic converter, muffler, exhaust piping basically from the catalytic converter on back... YEAH and that's definitely not everything but holy crap. The ol' Cavvy was a mess. He only charged us for parts plus $250 in labor to put everything on. SWEET! We still spent some serious money, but at least my car will pass emissions now (no more check engine light!) and hopefully it'll last me longer than I need it to. I'm excited to clean it up and take some pride in it for a change :)
When we got back from picking up my car it was time to get ready for Jeanne's 40th birthday party (wahoo!). Parties at Ron & Jeanne's are always a great time :) We had a blast of course - ate lots of good food, got to play with a few babies (yay!), stayed up WAY too late and drank WAY too much wine... the usual. We really shouldn't have stayed up til 2am, because we had to get up at 8:30 the next day. Boo.
But we did have fun on Sunday, despite the early start. Ray invited us to hang out and check out his O.G. (that is, original gangster, for those of you who aren't frequently exposed to my husband's vocab) dirt biking skillz at an observed trials event in Taylorsville. Observed trials are all about control and balance on the bike, so they set up a loop of 8 sections which you repeat 4 times, and each section is full of rocks and branches and tight turns and steep inclines/declines, etc. You're scored by someone on the ground observing you at each section, and you get a point every time you put your foot down. You get maximum points if you come to a complete stop for more than a full second, stall your bike, or go out of bounds also (and the boundaries are of course VERY tight). I'll post some pics when I get home, but suffice it to say that it's PRETTY intense! There's a lot of man-handling the bike (which isn't light by any means!) plus your own weight, LOTS of control and balance and weight-shifting, and you're constantly trying to get through the current obstacle while setting yourself up for the next one, and keeping track of your back tire behind you... it's crazy. I was very impressed. I hung out with Ray's wife Shannon for most of the day because of course Ben was following Ray's every move all day (hiking through woods and streams and all over creation). We followed him through one complete loop (of 4 total), most of another one, and watched him every time he came through the sections that we could see from where we were sitting :)
Once Ray finished up, we had to head out to go visit Ben's dad and do some grocery shopping for him. Whew. First of all, we were both EXHAUSTED. Ben had taken a benadryl earlier in the day that messed him all up, and I was just plain tired. We couldn't decide who was safer behind the wheel at that point, and it was only about 4:00. Ben called his Dad on the way over, and they agreed that Ben would go to the store FOR him in order to speed up the process, since we were so tired and ready to go home (at Ray's event we were about 25 mins from his Dad's, plus another 45 minutes home to White Marsh). Of course by the time we got there, Frank had apparently changed his mind and was ready to walk out the door with Ben (and actually did proceed to walk out the door, at which point Ben had to get into a nasty fight with him in the middle of the hallway that brought the neighbors peeking out their doors... ugh). So after picking up his Dad's grocery list and money off the floor (you can guess how it got there), Ben finally made it back out to the car without his father, and we made the quickest grocery shopping trip in recorded history. We brought the groceries back, made sure he had everything done that he needed done, returned the key to Amberly's (and hung out to chat and visit with the kiddies for a few), and then headed home. Well, we ended up deciding to stop at Applebee's (given my exhaustion level and complete disinterest in cooking). That 2 for $20 menu is just too tempting. Except then we always end up getting a beer or two and ruining the cheap-ness factor that got us in the door in the first place. Their scheme is working brilliantly.
So anyway, it was an eventful and fun weekend :) And I'm down to 3 weeks of work remaining (it REALLY seems like it should be 2 at this point, but whatever)! Not a whole lot of excitement planned for this week though. I'm going to pick out a display for my bouquet today (which we had preserved because it was so pretty!), and I think Janelle is coming up to hang out at some point this weekend, but other than that we have a relatively placid week ahead of us... aaaahhhhh. And I'm making Old Bay Shrimp Scampi tonight. TOTALLY psyched! I love cooking when I have the time :)
Next week is shaping up to be even MORE fabulously boring! Of course, we're still a week out from next week - a lot can change in that amount of time! Those changes may involve my kittens getting "the snip"... I gotta get on that. They're still doing very well and behaving themselves for the most part :) And of course I have even more kitten-calendar-worthy pics of them to post! I gotta get on the photo-posting this evening.
I think I'll go call a few vets and get some snippity-snip price quotes (LOL, is it strange to "shop around" for a bargain on neutering?). The vet where we got the boys participates in a low-cost spay and neuter program so I know they're pretty inexpensive, but they're far away and if I can find one closer that would definitely be ideal! We shall see.
Update: A few photos from Ray's event
Are you sure you want to be a doctor??? You are turning into one fantastic domestic goddess :) Haha
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