Calgon, take me away!
The past 7 days have been quite a ride! We woke up to a flooded backyard (and empty pool) last Thursday. Turns out that our pump housing had completely cracked and while it was running overnight, pumped the water into our yard. The dogs seemed to enjoy it though, so that was a plus.
We've got a deadline coming up at work on Friday that is fairly important, but I had planned a while back to take this Thursday and Friday off for our annual "Guys Trip to Vegas". This has provided me with a little extra panic that I don't normally have. Working for Aspyr is, on the whole, pretty stress-free but this one was accidentally of my own making. Still, it looks like everything will fall into place nicely. Sleep is for the weak.
Adding to my scheduling woes, Beth's mom flew into town this evening, and will be leaving on Sunday. We had a very nice dinner with her, but I'm unfortunately going to miss visiting with her due to the aforementioned Vegas trip. On the plus side, Beth will have her to herself for 4 days. The puppies have accepted Beth's mom into the pack, offering to clean her nostrils and ears repeatedly. This is another plus, since her allergies have kicked in. You haven't lived until you've had 2 puppies overwhelm you and offer to de-booger you without warning.
In more house news, we turned on our AC today for the first time this season. I think I've written volumes about our craptastic AC unit, yet still the chapters keep coming. It's clearly malfunctioning badly - it turns on for maybe 5 seconds, then turns off and the cycle repeats. We renewed our home warranty last month knowing full well that we'd have more AC problems until we could afford to replace it, and it looks like that's going to pay off, although at an inconvenience to us yet again. But again there's a plus side: I'll be in Vegas while it's broken and 97 degrees here in Phoenix. I suspect Beth may not find that to be much of a plus.
My goal is to win a minimum of $20k in Vegas. After taxes, that should give us enough to replace the AC, pay off some credit cards, put a down payment on the elusive 4Runner, do some minor fixit tasks around the house and buy the puppies some more rawhide bones. I'm not greedy. :-)
Comments
Lol. Good luck.
Posted by: Farhan Mannan | April 13, 2006 10:43 AM
Once you get the A/C fixed, you should try to remember to run it for 10-15 minutes every month or two in the off season to keep things lubed and flexible. Same with your car A/C except most cars these days run the AC when you have the defrost on so it dries the air that is blowing on your windshield, which keeps the AC from seizing up.
Posted by: Humbaba | April 17, 2006 10:22 AM
Brad, I just have four words for you while in Vegas:
Bobby Flays' Mesa Grill
Go there for lunch to avoid spending a mint on the dinner prices. I just got back from Vegas with my brothers (for our 1st annual brothers week in Vegas trip) and while we had lots of great food, the Mesa Grill absolutely kicked our asses. And if you don't believe a restaurant can kick your ass, just you wait.
Enjoy!
Oh, and on the gambling side - go in the MGM Grand Casino entrance, bear to the right and look on the right hand wall for a bank of 4 Monty Python video slots. Not common, these are the only ones I saw in any of the casinos I went to. It's fun, and it paid my brother and I handsomely to boot!
Posted by: blucaso | April 19, 2006 10:11 PM
4Runner? Seen the price of gas? If you're going to get a mammoth gas guzzling vehicle at least buy American.
Posted by: someone | April 25, 2006 09:04 PM
"If you're going to get a mammoth gas guzzling vehicle at least buy American."
Features, price and reliability - those are far more important than jingoism.
Posted by: Brad Oliver | April 26, 2006 03:05 AM
Jingo all the way! At least research and test drive some Chevys and Fords if you haven't already. American cars have improved quite a bit but a lot of folks are stuck on bad 80's or early 90's experiences. If a U.S. car and an import are at least close I think it makes ECONOMIC sense to keep the money in your own country.
Posted by: someone | April 26, 2006 10:23 AM
As soon as a US car comes close to my Accord, or my wife's Camry in features, price, and reliability, I sure will give them a look. I did when I bought the Accord last year, and nothing came close.
It is not difficult to do, but it takes a very long time and a lot of effort to reform a broken industry. It takes commitment by capital and labor, and a dedication to shipping a quality product. That dedication is only an infrequent guest at American car makers, on both worker and management's sides.
Things are improving, but it is going to take a long time before I would class us as 'caught up'.
Back in the day, Roman bridge builders had to stand under new bridges with their families when the first legions marched over the bridge. They also only got paid half the money, with the rest to come if it was still standing in five decades. There is a reason why those bridges are still standing in much of Europe.
If you and everyone you know would be killed if the product failed substantially, would you ship it as is? Methinks the American car makers have forgotten just how important it is to do a good job, and to always try to do it better.
Scott
Posted by: Scott Ellsworth | June 21, 2006 11:57 AM