Medieval Contraptions on Friday the 13th

Dogs

Isn't she cute?!?!?!
Everyone's Resting...
He's a little cute too...
Sometimes they do rest...

PRIZE FOR BEST CAR DEALERSHIP!

CAR

So we've been messing around with this Jeep Patriot thing for a while now. Originally, I had talked to someone at Obrien Jeep in Greenwood, but we ended up going to Fletcher Jeep in Franklin because they actually had a Patriot in that we could test drive.

Immediately I knew that I liked the sales person from Obrien better, as the guy at Fletcher had no clue about the things he was letting come out of this mouth. The guy at Obrien, he was a bit more knowledgeable, but more importantly, if he didn't know the answer, he went and looked the answer up.

Case in point: Fletcher guy keeps insisting to me that air conditioning comes standard on the Patriot. However, that is not the case. I know its not the case because its an option that you have to add on, and it costs $950. He argues with me about it, even though he's showing me print outs on some Patriots that clearly show that the air conditioning is an option. After pointing it out to him three times, he finally relents.

So he doesn't have in stock what we want, and when we expressed interest ordering it, he totally blew it off and said that he can just get one from another dealership, no problem.

My initial thought? This guy is an idiot. I can't see any dealership being willing to trade with him, especially if they are semi close. Dealerships aren't able to keep the Patriots in stock, and most don't have any at all in. A dealership isn't just going to give one away when they know they'll be able to sell it, but whatever.

So I call this guy the next week and he insists that I give him a little more time, that he's trying really hard to get it in. He tells me that he knows that we want our car NOW, and that's what he's trying to do. (Sidebar: We never said or implied that we were in a hurry, actually to the contrary, we said we'd be willing to wait to order one in, but again, whatever.) A couple days later I call back and get the same thing, and he asks me to give him another week. (He's also irritated with me because I won't agree to a different color. I originally told him black, but later said I would be fine with silver too. But he wanted me to accept a Jeep Green one. No thanks.) So we do wait another week. Nothing.

So Mark calls to set up an appointment to order one. Very reluctantly, the guy sets something up and then makes the following comment to Mark:

"No offense, but I really wanted to sell a car in March...not May."

So obviously this experience has been about him getting what he wants, not us.

I try to convince Mark to go to Obrien Jeep or Shadeland Jeep, but he doesn't want to deal with anyone else, he thinks it'll be a hassle. (He would have to fill out another credit application, plus deal with another sales person) I point out that by the time he drives down to Franklin, he could have already done all that, but then he gave me some line about how the guys already done a lot of work on our behalf. Personally, I wouldn't say A LOT, and I think it was more on his behalf than ours. But whatever.

So Mark goes and orders the car. He calls me and lets me know that he did it. I ask him how much it came too, he says he doesn't know, he didn't ask. And apparently the guy didn't tell him or give him any information on it. In Mark's defense, he had just gotten off work after working a 12 hour overnight shift. He just wanted to go home and sleep.

So I call the guy to get the price. He tells me. After thinking about it some, I call back and ask if I can get an itemized copy of the order, what options were put on, etc. I would think that Chrysler would have sophisticated enough software to be able to do that. I was told he would fax it to me.

So I get the fax. What does it say you ask? Price * Sales tax = Total price. No details what so ever. So I just let it go.

Later Mark and I are discussing the options and looking at pictures when I think I point out the fog lights. He apparently thought the fog lights were something else that he thought looked stupid, so he said no when they asked about them. Had I gotten the print out, I would have caught that.

So Mark calls back about adding that option. They tell him that they can't just add that to the order and that it would have to be canceled and reordered and our wait would start over. He he says he'll talk to me and let him know.

We decide to go ahead and get them, but Mark wants me to call back and tell him, I assume because he doesn't want to deal with the guy. So I do. But the guy tells me that there's no way to do that because the order has already been placed. And that we would have to add them after market. After listening to him tell me that its too late for a few minutes, I tell him that he told my husband that the order would just have to be canceled and a new order placed. After a slight pause, he was like, "yeah, I guess we can do that." So I tell him to please do that. Needless to say, the man wasn't pleased with me.

So that's all about that...and that's just the Readers' Digest version!

Love you all!

Due to my lack of sleep and work schedule, all my days seem to flow together and I have a little trouble keeping my days straight. Not to mention what the stress and lack of sleep has done to my memory...so I'm gonna do my best to post interesting happenings since the last post.

I can't remember when my last post was, and I'm too lazy to go back and check before I write this, but I planted some herbs on Monday. Dill, Marjoram, Parsely, Chives, Cilantro, and something else, I can't remember. I am very excited to say that they have already started sprouting! Plus then on Tuesday I planted some jalepeno peppers, red peppers, canteloupe, and tomatoes. The melons have begun to sprout already as well!!!

As you guys know, we sent our documents over to Vietnam already. I've been really stressing because we had to resend an application and some pictures, and our documents are getting ready to expire. If they expire, we have to start everything over again. By expiring, I mean they have to be submitted to the IAD before they hit the six month mark. That would REALLY suck.

But just 10 minutes ago, I got the following email:

Hello Angel, I just spoke to Thuy she said that your dossier has been handed in. They are waiting for a list of children from the orphanage's that we work with to come in so that they can match you. They thought this would happen next week.

So I am pretty excited!!!

I've been thinking about this a lot here recently. I think that no matter what happens, we will end up with the child that we were meant to have. It's been a long road to get here, and stressful, but I know that it will be worth every single bit of it.

Just another day...

Man! I have to tell you I am SO, SO exhausted. I, of course, worked crazy hours all week. And then I worked an eight hour day today and yesterday. I'm really a little irritated that I've had to do that, because I haven't had a chance to really enjoy this nice weather!

So a lot has happened in this last week, so I better get to it!

The main thing was our water situation. Monday, I had a well company come out to look at our well and give us an estimate. (we had water, the pressure just wasn't right) He told me that to fix what needed to be fixed, it would be 600-750. I said ok, as I didn't really have much of a choice, as it needed fixed. An hour and a half later, all they succeeded in doing was getting the well pump stuck and leaving us without water. Oh, and he wanted to charge me $225 for it. For not repairing anything. And they told us that it would probably be about 3,000 to fix and that we might want to consider city water.

We decided to go ahead and go the city water route. After a series of subcontractor quotes, we finally got one to connect us for $2,480. Plus we had to pay a fee to the water company of 700. PLUS, we have to pay a monthly surcharge of $53 with our water bill for 240 months. If you do the math, that's 13,000!!!! Luckily our home owner's insurance reimbursed us $2,400, so it was really only about $800 our of our own pocket, plus the $53/month charge.

On a brighter note, I planted some herbs yesterday. I think some chives, sweet basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, and marjoram. Not sure how long they take to grow, but I hope its quick! I will plant some more outside, once the "danger of the last frost" has passed, whenever that may be.

Last but not least, I still think Daylight savings time sucks. And I especially think it sucks that I lose an hour of sleep during tax season. As if I don't suffer enough from lack of sleep... ;)

I'M BACK...FOR NOW....

So I have to tell you that this past month or so has been absolutely madness. I'm not sure I remember ever being so chronically exhausted. I have been working 16 hour days, plus Saturdays and Sundays. I haven't had time to do a lot of things, and Mark is only available when most people are sleeping. So my point is for nobody to take it personally, as things will slow down here after awhile.

Note worthy items:

• I think that we have decided on a new vehicle. We are going to go with the 2007 Jeep Patriot. We will be trading in Mark's Scion. The Patriot will fit in with our lifestyle a little better, plus it gets awesome gas mileage, better than the Scion. And plus it's a vehicle that we both decided on. If all goes well, we will probably have it this week.
• We finally got our paperwork submitted. It's been an ordeal, but I think we have finally got it all taken care of. We had to submit an application and photos separately, and once I know that they have arrived in Vietnam, I will be able to finally stop stressing about it. Special thanks to my mom for saving us in the photo disaster!!! Also, since I'm on the subject of thanking people: Dad Hunter-Thanks for getting us the green slip info so quickly. Jason-Thanks for shoveling our driveway. You went above and beyond what I expected. Marty-Thanks for fixing our pipes and restoring our water, we really appreciate it.
• I think a pipe cracked on our well pump. Our water pressure has never really returned to normal, sometimes I can take a shower, sometimes I can't. A guy is supposed to come out and look at it tomorrow, so we'll see. He says it will probably be less than a thousand dollars to fix--although I was hoping he would say less than $100. But oh well, I suppose that's the way it goes.

So this spring I had high hopes at trying my hand at a garden. However, my hopes have been all but dashed when I was informed that it's too late to start right now. If anybody can give any advice I would appreciate it. We bought seeds for: Watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, snow peas, cucumbers, zucchini, jalapenos, red peppers, etc.

Also, I think we need some advice on getting grass back. When do we put grass seed down? Do we need fertilizers? Weed killers?

Last, we really need to put trim down in our dining room. I've been researching it, and I think that we can do it. But I think that we need to borrow a miter saw or something like that from someone... plus I need someone to come with me and show me what to buy.