BOO!!!

Happy Halloween! Okay, it's not really that scary, but I couldn't think of a better title for this post. It's been a couple of weeks so here's what's going on...

We went to Mr. Biggs for the boy's birthday. We thought about it and realized that we could either spend a bunch of money to have the neighborhood boys over and let them trash our house (which still has at least one box in every bed room) or let him pick a friend to take with us and go where he wanted to go. He'd originally said Dave and Buster's but we heard about Mr. Biggs and decided to check it out. It was just okay for us but the kids had a good time and that's the point, right? So we came home late and had a quick piece of cake and opened presents before off to bed. It's so hard to believe that we have an 8 year old. He and I are in Scouts now as well. He'll get jumped in officially at our next pack meeting. I should be able to have his uniform shirt done by then. If he was a little older I'd make him sew his own patches on and work on his arts and crafts badge at the same time, but my military side says that his uniform should look good so I'll do it for him... this time.

Jen was doing really well the week after my last post. The sun came out and the fall decorations sprang up all over the neighborhood. Then the snow came... and didn't leave! Seriously, it was all over the news back in my home town so you know it had to be big... or nothing else interesting was going on. Still, it snowed constantly for 2 days straight. I even got snowed out of work for a couple of days. In fact, the roads were bad enough that our kids' school even called off going to classes yesterday. Sheesh! Of course, today the sun is shining again and the white stuff is turning brown and black along the major roadways. The kids don't quite understand that it can be sunny and still be cold. They wanted to go out in their flip-flops and short sleeves this afternoon. How about... NO! While we were snowed in I got the garage cleaned up enough to get the Truck into it. That was good. Now here's the bad news.

I took the vehicle to our local dealer ealier this week. (Let me back up a bit.) As we were trekking across the mountains, our check engine light came on. I had just had the car serviced before we left San Diego so I ignored it thinking that the mechanic had just forgotten to reset the light and besides, we were planning to get the oil changed again soon after we got to Denver. So, I took the car in... told the desk guy that the engine light and battery lights are on steady. Also, there's a hiss under the brake pedal and the heater vent in the back doesn't blow hot air and there's a switch clicking whenever we turn it on. He says no problem... we'll take a look. I called back later in the day and he runs down a list of things wrong with the car. What's the damage? Oh... about $2800. That's not a typo. They wanted almost 3 grand to put in a new alternator (the one that's in there is fine) and install a new brake booster and pcv line (BTW, WTH is a pcv line?), new aux motors for the rear heater and nearly $1000 to change out the fluids for winter. I said thanks but no, would you just change the oil and give me a detailed write up? Sure. So we go pick up the truck only now it has a power problem. There's hesitation on acceleration and the check engine light is now blinking at me. The owner's manual says that means "misfire" which would explain the hesitation and rough idle. I took the truck back to Ford. Dude looks me in the eye and says, "We didn't do it." So now I'm waiting for the tech manual to be delivered and I've ordered a brake booster from Autozone. It should be here on Wednesday or Thursday which is fine since the manual won't get here until next weekend at the earliest. I do not like dealerships and this is just one more example of why.

So, in the spirit of the 'holiday' I've decided to just put that all aside for the afternoon and get the garage ready for tonight's trick-or-treat crowd. I'm planning to wear my flight suit and my new snow boots and try to look like a Ghostbuster. If that fails I still have the retro outfit that I bought for Jen's 30th birthday party and I can be Disco Dan or something. Anyway, hope your weekend is off to a better start. Don't eat too much candy and I'll see you next month. Bwahahahahahahaha!