Feb. 16, 2004 - President's Day

The weekend was nice. I had the sunroof open on Saturday (I had the heated seats on too�) I am not a Valentine�s Day kind of girl. I don�t need a Hallmark Holiday to make me feel loved. But to each his own. We cleaned the house and did a food shopping before we had to leave to go to a dinner party at my aunt�s house.

The theme of the evening was A Pink Dinner Party. Everything we ate had to be red, white or pink. I was in charge of the appetizers. I wanted to get really creative, but all I could think of was shrimp cocktail. Pink white and the sauce is red. BAM! Well this isn�t as easy as it sounds. I AM DEATHLY ALLERGIC to the shrimpy. I had to have Kevin do all the prep work and all the handling. This drove me up a wall. I am not a good direction-giver. But it all worked out. I only had three near death experiences while the shrimp was on the counter. Kevin had not had a chance to wipe down the counter and I put my arm * thisclose * to the puddle of shrimp juice. That would not have been fun.

We listened to old records on an actual record player that belonged to my great uncle. I heard what the Beatles really sounded like forty years ago. We listened to Jimmy Hendrix and The Who. I loved it. I learned that my mom won a bowling trophy for her bowling league three days before I was born. I have never heard that story before. I NEVER knew she even knew how to bowl. I kept teasing her all night. I was like, �woman. who are you? What else are you keeping from me?� She just laughed. There isn�t too much about my mom that I don�t know, so this really threw me. Kevin and I were getting ready to leave and I was saying goodbye to Joan (my aunt�s friend) I said, �Nice meeting you Joan. Take care. Mom, yea it was nice meeting you too.� She said, �(laughing) Nice meeting you?� I replied with, �well yea you fucking keep things from me and I feel like I have never met you, you bowling fool you.� We laughed so hard. Good times.

Houseblends, Cartman, grinding machine and glass one hitters�never again will Valentine�s Day be the same.

Sunday morning I woke up early so I could Swiffer WetJet the floor. How outrageous it that? I love that little mop. What a kick ass job it did on my tile and my hardwood floors. Yay! For inventions!!!! My house is all clean and sparkly now. We picked up Emma around noon-time and we headed down to my uncle�s house to go look at the truck.

I talked to Elle about the truck deal on Friday night. She was in one of her negative moods and she had nothing good to say about this. I heard her out and I did agree on some of what she said and I tried to convey that to Kevin. I tried to talk him into a smaller truck like a Tacoma or a Ranger. He said no that would be like telling me to drive the Bug and not the Jetta when I knew that the Bug was too small for me. I had to agree with him on that. I discussed the price of gas and how that would affect the money situation. I asked him about insurance, blah blah blah. He said he already thought about all that and figured it all in while making this decision. Ok. Whatever.

Of course he is in-love with this truck. It is a nice truck. Perfect condition. The chrome is gorgeous and not a scratch on it. The truck drove like a car. He wants it. Today he is calling Chase to get the exact pay out on the bug. Then we have several choices:

1: Take a loan from the bank to pay off Chase so we have the title and then we sell the car. That way if we don�t sell the car in a timely fashion the payments will only be $110 a month and not the $312.50 a months we pay now.

2: Go to the bank and see about a home equity loan. We might be able to kill three birds with one stone. We would have to see how much money we could get and depending on that we could buy the truck, pay off the bug and have some money for home repairs. Or pay off the Bug, home repairs. The combinations are endless, but we would have to know how much we could get. Neither of us knows anything about a home equity loan or how it works. I don�t know what the rates are or how much the monthly payments would be. Just a thought.

3: This is LAST resort. Take money out of the IRA or the mutual funds. We get taxed heavily, but we would put the money from the car back into the accounts. Like I said this is last resort. It is an option and it is nice to have options sometimes.

Kevin is totally overwhelmed and very cranky. I want to just scream at him. He is always asking me, �what do I say?� I am like well what do you want to know? Then he tells me. I say, �then that is what you say to the people on the phone.� Geesh. This is HIS project, not mine.

Just have to wait and see. I have no patience for waiting. I am not a good waiter for anything.