Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day REDUX

Remember the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad 12 hours?

Well, I may have just beat it.

Here are the yays and nays from the last 72 hours:

Yay! The nice technician at the Saturn dealership finally came up with a fix for the Saturn – the positive battery cable that connects the battery to the rest of the car had become corroded from the inside out. Apparently, there were 12 inches of corrosion in that cable [probably the original one from eleven years of service]. No wonder it was ruining the batteries! After 4 batteries in three years, I decided it was time to ask the technician at the dealership what in the world was going on. He fixed it. I liked it. It was good!

Nay! This morning, the newly-fixed Saturn wouldn’t start. Yup, you guessed it – the same clicking and lights flickering that it has been doing for months. The battery cable wasn’t the problem?! UGH.

Yay! AAA was able to come out rather quickly and the nice gentleman was able to convince corporate to give me ONE MORE BATTERY. I promised that I wouldn’t call again and that we would sell the car before it needed another one.

Nay! I need to careful and not call AAA for service again, because they just might cancel my membership. NOT GOOD!

Yay! We have a back up plan [or two or three] for when the Saturn dies again AND IT WILL. Because it’s eleven years old and it’s time to go to that big used car lot in the sky. SERIOUSLY.

Nay! This means we have to cut out all fluff from the budget, get down to brass tacks, eat ramen and rice and hope to hell we can save enough money for a new car before the Saturn dies. This will not be a fun year.

Yay! However, we had Christmas at my in-laws house over the weekend … post forthcoming, I promise.

Nay! I have to wait until February for my nook. :)

Yay! One more day of work and then it’s off to Texas to visit my parents! I haven’t been in MONTHS so I absolutely can’t wait to be there.

Nay! Husband’s relatively new computer (that he bought for law school a few months ago) has officially bit the dust. Something in the LCD screen broke and the crystal display is black in places and isn’t quite working. So tonight commenced the search for a new netbook.

Yay! There is the possibility of post-Christmas sales, so maybe we can some save cash on that one. That’s the one upside of the whole day.

Yeah, it’s been a crappy 72 hours. Let’s hope tomorrow goes by quickly.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

Photo Credit

That was my motto this week. Yes, it may be strange that I find my philosophies in movies made for children, but sometimes you gotta find it where you can.

And it got me thru just fine, thank you!

It’s that time of year, and we had a few holiday parties, one of which I had to plan at work (not surprising, as I’m an event planner!), and one at the apartment complex. Much fun and good food was had by all.

Then there was that small matter of a live show at a concert hall with 700 of my nearest and dearest friends and donors. Whoever decided to set up a major event one week before Christmas and the day after the office holiday party needs to be run of out town! It was insane. I’ve never seen so many people in this concert hall!

In any case, everything went off without a hitch and it was a great event! I received many compliments that everyone really enjoyed the show and the food and I even got an on-air credit for the broadcast. Isn’t that nice of them? I was quite touched. :)

Today in the office was quiet, filled with more holiday card stuffing and mailing and a bit of clean up. I’ve only got Monday and Tuesday and then Christmas vacation begins! I won’t have to be back until the 28th. Good thing too, because we’re off to Fort Worth to visit the parents! Yippee for Texas at Christmas!

Just keep swimming… just keep swimming…

Photo Credit

Btw, even though I love me some Dorie, I think Peach is my favorite. :) She’s just awesome.

Christmas Lights in the Cold

Driving thru the Snows with the top down on the Mustang… doesn’t really sound like my version of a good time. But that’s exactly what we did a few nights ago!

After our usual Sunday night dinner, our friends M and D wanted to go see Christmas lights – M absolutely loves them, just like me! So we picked the Way of Lights display at Our Lady of the Snows.

We had hoped there wouldn’t be too many people since it was already 8 o’clock on a school night. We were pleasantly surprised when we drove straight into the Shrine turn off and into the lights.

After going thru the lights twice, we stopped for a camel ride! Yes, I thought it was odd combination – beautiful white lights, the story of Christ’s birth told in lights, and camels? But everyone wanted to try it – well, except me that is. I ride horses, not camels. I was NOT getting up there. I had to take pictures after all!

This was the best shot of M I could find – for some reason that camel would not stand still for me to take his picture!

 

D poses kinda funny – but that’s why we like him.

 

And of course, dear Husband, striking a Heismann pose.

 

Inside the visitor’s center, they had a bunch of other displays set up. We saw a whole room dedicated to different themed Christmas trees. Down the hall there was a children’s village – and we fell in love with this candy cane made of legos! How cool is that?

 

They also had an auction of themed wreaths on display. This one below was my favorite – and I’m hoping it will inspire me to take on a wreath project next year and make my own.

On the whole, even though it was cold, we had a blast! I love spending the night out with friends. :)

I came home to Christmas Decorations!

I came home last night to find my wonderful husband had decorated for Christmas! I had an awful day at work and he knew just what to do to surprise me! :)

My real pine wreath on the front door

 

We decorated the tree that night, after he got it all set up in my craft room

The small nativity is set up in my craft room under the window

The stockings are hung on the bookshelves, because we have no fireplace anymore. :(

This is the small nativity on the front entryway table.

Of course, I had to try out the kissing ball.

See what a great job he did?

Fresh flowers.. err.. wreath this month

We stopped by Ted Drewes on Sunday …

and picked up this great pine wreath for the front door.

This is a St. Louis tradition – grab your real tree and a frozen custard. It was so cold that we just got our wreath and avoided the lines at the custard stand.

Husband and I had such fun picking this one out (even though it’s more money than I wanted to spend; whoops!).

The neat thing is I can take the decorations off and use them again next year. And it just makes me smile when I pull up to the townhouse and see this gorgeous wreath hanging on my door.

This satisfies month one of my monthly flower rule! Um, sort of.. right?