Two Exciting Events This Weekend

First: Derek gm'd his first game. We chose World of Warcraft for him, because he loves the MMORPG so much and because it is just like D&D 3rd Edition. Moreso than we realized. This way, it's his game, his campaign and we join in his world when he wants us. Terry thinks Derek needs to find a group of friends to play with like he and Rob did when they were a couple years older than him. I agree. Derek did well for his first time and the other little boy who joined us, actually the son of one of our regular D&D people, surprised Terry and Rob with his "unique" way of looking at the game. Who knew you could use Animal Handling to send two undead dire wolves packing? Technical stuff aside for that little feat, it was still pretty good thinking on his part.

Second: Micaela went to her first concert on Sunday. She got tickets to see the Cheetah Girls for Christmas with the promise of a T-shirt and dinner with mom. Her smile was absolutely worth sitting in that big stadium, listening to a bunch of kids sing to tapes of their songs. The Cheetah Girls put on a very good show and I have to admit, I really like the message they give the girls. One of their songs talked about how the color of their skin didn't matter, it was the fact that they were friends and sisters that made all the difference. Another song was based on Cinderella. The chorus said something along the lines of "I don't want to rescued by a prince. I want to rescue myself." Go Girl! Independence is a great thing to teach the girls, as long as they learn respect for others in the process.

Overall a good weekend.

Forgiveness

I forgive you.

Edit: Moving on, because it just isn't worth it. I suggest, you do the same.

Please Let This Be An Isolated Incident

Day 7 of the new year brings the family a $1300 bill to fix Terry's truck. The damn thing started having problems before Christmas, but he was able to work around it, thinking the injectors just needed cleaning. So he bought the fluid, put it in and nothing much happened. Then it started dying everytime he was sitting at a light. The RPM was sitting between 500 and 600.

So we take it in, have the place look at it, and they give us a bill of $1300 to totally fix it. $300+ for a 'major tuneup', $300 for the O2 sensor and carb thingy, and $700 for something else, I don't remember.

Terry wants to pay the full $600, to at least get the vehicle moving again and I have to play the bad guy and tell him no. I agree to the O2 sensor and carb thingy, so the vehicle moves again and we still have to do the tuneup.

Just when things start to pick up (settlement for Terry's accident from 2005, Feb 10 will be another bonus day), we get hit. What the hell!

And for those of you saying "karma", well kiss off. Our family does plenty of good things for Karma: Donate to Goodwill, Safe Nest (shelter for abused women and children), Opportunity Village (place for disabled people to do things), gave back an extra Guitar Hero II game the guys gave us for free. You don't know me, or us, as well as you think you do.

Sorry, wrong kind of rant. The truck sucks. That's what I meant to say. I don't like the truck. I wish he had bought the other one instead of this one. There.

2007 So Far

So, let's see...

The kids are still arguing. Go figure.

Money is a little tight thanks to a dog who had to have $300 in blood work to find out there's nothing wrong with him. Just like when we spent $2000 for a surgery to find out there was nothing wrong with him. Damn dog. Also, Christmas was a little more expensive than we had planned. Bought presents for Derek, only to find out, he probably wouldn't like them, so we had to do all his presents over again and save the others for his birthday.

My oldest brother finally went back to Denver today. With the blizzards plaguing the city, there wasn't much chance he would make it into the airport, let alone home. Sad to see him go.

Work is busy. Making up for a week off takes time, but believe it or not, I did it in one day. And even includes the half day I took off yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday, I had my second root canal in two months. This time I did the whole thing in one long, three hour procedure. Now I just have to wait for the permanent crown to be delivered and have that put on.

Family is good, not necessarily healthy, but what can I expect with a child who has asthma? She returns to school and what happens? She gets sick... again. She's going to have to make it to Friday night, because she's already missed too many days of school.

Future January Plans:
1. Go to Baltimore with Terry on 1.18.07 to 1.21.07
2. Go to Atlanta for training meetings... again.
3. Work on getting passport for the Bahamas. Yes, you read that right. Bahamas. White sandy beaches. YAY!