Welcome to Friday (and to Mike)
A quick recap of the most entertaining parts of last week: On Sunday, I did the local Victorian House Tour with my mom and Aunt Lisa. It was entertaining, although the houses weren't really Victorian. Later, I finished putting up the Christmas decorations at home. I was still feeling like a great big humbug (or at least like it certainly couldn't be time to be thinking about Christmas yet), until Bryon turned on all the Christmas lights, turned off all the others, and put on the classic Bing Crosby Christmas album (a standby in my family's house). Apparently it's just not Christmas to me until ol' Bing makes his appearance. The next Saturday afternoon, Bryon and I drove to Owego to visit Meisha and Dave (friends/co-workers of friends, basically). They have a gorgeous apartment and share many of the same interests, including video games, manga and Magic... the boys played Magic, and Meisha introduced me to the wonders of the Wii—we played tennis, bowling, baseball, and even the doctor game that Dave had previously let me play on the DS. AND... I got to play Guitar Hero and Final Fantasy XII. Talk about your fun visits. All in all Meisha and Dave are really nice people and Bryon and I both had a great time hanging out with them (plus Jesse and Graham).
Yesterday, I had "one of those days." I popped awake at 9:30 (I'm supposed to be at work at 9), I may or may not have smelled vaguely like cat pee (thanks to Ripley peeing on the jeans I'd been planning to wear), and there was no exhaust coming out of my muffler. Fortunately both of the latter issues have now been resolved.
I had a good muffler-repair experience yesterday. First I went to Cole Muffler, who told me that I needed to replace everything after the catalytic converter, to the tune of $465.00. Being that it seemed a bit steep and I really needed to save as much as possible, I asked if I could call around a bit and see if anyone else had the parts in stock. I called Steve's American Lifetime Muffler, and they quoted me $160.00. Installed. Needless to say I zipped right over there. Not only was their price ridiculously low compared to Cole, but they called me before starting work to let me know I didn't need everything replaced, just two pipes. So the grand total including tax, installation and parts was only $145.00. These people are great. Just a little friendly advice to anyone in the area who might need a muffler repair now or in the future.
Anyway... things are getting crazy as we count down to the holidays. Mike will get here around 3 p.m. today, and will be staying until January 2. No word on whether he's staying with us or with Bryon's parents; usually it ends up being a bit of both. The holiday scramble of present-buying, cookie-baking, knitting, and visiting friends is upon us, and at this point I'm just hoping to come out the other side of it unscathed. I'm in serious danger of not getting my major Christmas project done on time, despite having started in August, and I still haven't written my Christmas cards. I will try to get them done tonight so they can go out on Saturday instead of Monday, which I've been told is the Black Friday of the postal world.
Tonight looks to include cleaning... some more cleaning... possibly baking Christmas cookies... and knitting. And hanging out with Mike. Whee! :D
Yesterday, I had "one of those days." I popped awake at 9:30 (I'm supposed to be at work at 9), I may or may not have smelled vaguely like cat pee (thanks to Ripley peeing on the jeans I'd been planning to wear), and there was no exhaust coming out of my muffler. Fortunately both of the latter issues have now been resolved.
I had a good muffler-repair experience yesterday. First I went to Cole Muffler, who told me that I needed to replace everything after the catalytic converter, to the tune of $465.00. Being that it seemed a bit steep and I really needed to save as much as possible, I asked if I could call around a bit and see if anyone else had the parts in stock. I called Steve's American Lifetime Muffler, and they quoted me $160.00. Installed. Needless to say I zipped right over there. Not only was their price ridiculously low compared to Cole, but they called me before starting work to let me know I didn't need everything replaced, just two pipes. So the grand total including tax, installation and parts was only $145.00. These people are great. Just a little friendly advice to anyone in the area who might need a muffler repair now or in the future.
Anyway... things are getting crazy as we count down to the holidays. Mike will get here around 3 p.m. today, and will be staying until January 2. No word on whether he's staying with us or with Bryon's parents; usually it ends up being a bit of both. The holiday scramble of present-buying, cookie-baking, knitting, and visiting friends is upon us, and at this point I'm just hoping to come out the other side of it unscathed. I'm in serious danger of not getting my major Christmas project done on time, despite having started in August, and I still haven't written my Christmas cards. I will try to get them done tonight so they can go out on Saturday instead of Monday, which I've been told is the Black Friday of the postal world.
Tonight looks to include cleaning... some more cleaning... possibly baking Christmas cookies... and knitting. And hanging out with Mike. Whee! :D
