Chatty Kathy

Lately I have been conversing alot...... with myself. I like the way I respond and I always laugh at my own jokes. I understand me quite well. I talk about the weather and the kids behaviour. About the mom's that I see at school everyday when I pick up Dylan and sometimes I finish conversations I had with those mom's or even Tim, that had been interrupted. Am I going crazy? Am I lonely? Nah I think it's rather that I spent the 3 weeks the computer was down reading that I have gotten used to being inside my head!

3 weeks without a computer wasn't as bad as I feared. The power cord for the laptop went out and we had about 10 minutes of battery left on it. I had bills to pay and blogs to write and pictures to upload. OMG how was I going to live with out this hunk of metal that burns my lap and gives me more headaches then it's worth? Since living without it seemed impossible we decided to go to a local computer shop. The closest Circuit City is about 50 miles away, That is a weekend trip, not a "quick before Tim has to leave before work," trip. I went in and the lady told me she ordered it and it would take 4-5 days to arrive. Ok, no biggy, I can go to the library and if I am really desperate go and bug dad. That was a Thursday. Monday rolls around and we decided, since we are driving by we are going to stop in and ask the status of our power cord. We get in to the shop and she tells us it was shipped out on Saturday and should be there tomorrow. So we leave feeling good that we have successfully lived without the Internet for 4 days. Tomorrow gives us one more day of watching the weather channel so Tim knows how to dress for work, and texting Jenilee since we can't chat on Yahoo.

Anyways Tuesday rolls around and I haven't heard from her by 3 pm so I decided to drop by after picking up Dylan from school. When I walked in she kinda grimaced and then told me that it hadn't been shipped yet. (Um Hello, just yesterday it had been shipped Saturday morning! WTF) She said it should be in in a few days and as soon as she got an e-mail about where it was that she would give me a call. 4 Days later, Saturday, still no call! I was getting irritated but I also felt a bit liberated by the absence of the hunk of metal. I had been reading more, and even got a ceramic house to paint.

The next week things were hit and miss, I would call and get the brush off, some random story as to why it wasn't there. Excuse after excuse. She was closed on Tuesday when the cord was supposed to be re delivered, though the next time I talked to her she said she stayed open late to wait for the delivery and it never showed up. We called three times and I drove by and she was closed! Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving she was closed and then for the rest of the week. The Sunday after Thanksgiving we headed to Carmel, we had called Circuit City (CC) and the machine said there was a CC there, so we drove the 50 some miles down there to find...... The store was closed. Not cause we were there early or because it was Sunday. No it was an empty store. Completely closed up. Couldn't CC have at least taken the location out of their system?

We walked around the mall, it was 25 degrees so it was a brisk walk and then went into a resturant for burgers. Buffalo burgers! YUMMY! I just can't remember the name of the resturant, but I will put it in here soon. I have to say one of the best mushroom and swiss burgers and onion rings ever! Oh and instead of chips and salsa on the table, cucmbers in a pickle brine, OMG to die for> If I could find out exactly what they had done, cause they tasted a bit like pickles but were crisp and clean like cucumbers. OOOHHHHH

Anyways, so we had to wait till the next weekend to go to Ft.Wayne's CC, (we knew it actually existed). I still called and got the run around from the Computer lady. It was 18 days later and still nothing. Sunday came around and it had dropped 3 inches of snow on us and we weren't sure we would be able to go anywhere. We went grocery shopping and watched the sky and the Weather Channel until, tada, the sun came out! We called CC, asked if they had the part in stock, and when they confirmed Tim said great, we have a warranty for it, we will be there soon.

We bundled up the kids, and since it had been snowing Tim drove the whole 50 some miles to Ft.Wayne while I compulsively cleaned the passenger side of the van (Tim's side!) It was beautiful, all those white fields and the houses covered in snow with wisps of smoke rising from the chimney's. The contrast between the dark, wet, barren limbs of the trees against the glaring, pure white of the fresh snow.

We finally arrive and get in. We all rush for the bathroom, that was a quick run out the door and we were all drinking soda or juice in the car all the way up. After our bladders had been relived we found someone to help us. We explained our situation and he proceeded to tell us that even that even though we have a warranty and they have the part we needed their we have to call the CC warranty division and get them to mail it out to us!

All I wanted was to scream bloody murder. You could see the fear in the poor geeks eyes as he watched my gulp and swallow my anger. We were told we could purchase one for $90 and then get one through the warranty and if it came within 14 days we could return the one we would purchase. So we bought one cause as much freedom as I felt, I really needed to pay the bills!

So one power cord cost me 21 days and $130 dollars, even though we have a warranty and it should have been free! I did get my money back from the lady at Computer Wizard and I think when I went in to ask for it, she was waiting for it anyways. So she wrote me a check and I ran to her bank and cashed it....just in case!
So that was the last few weeks. We had snow and rain and all things wintery fun. Thanksgiving was 40 degrees, slightly breezy. Tim and I played keep away with Dylan. Deven played board games inside with the other kids, and Dad and John. We had a great feast with lots of fun people. We had our first family snowball fight, and it was actually snowing during the fight. Dylan got me square in the nose with a big snowball, thankfully he doesn't know how to pack them yet!!!!
How was your holiday?