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November 11, 2003 Life is like an Everything bagel. So Marie is getting ready to drive. We've started looking out for potential vehicles for a purchase within the next year or so, and we've started pricing insurance. The hope is that X(f) will help out by either contributing to the down payment, or ponying up the cost of insurance for the first year (Or both! Oh, stop, my sides.). We already have an agreement with Marie that Calvin and I will make the payments for the first year of her car ownership. After that, she's responsible for her own payments and insurance. Whenever we negotiate with X(f), we find it beneficial to provide her will all the information she needs to make a decision up front. She's just not given to making phone calls or researching anything. So I'm working with my insurance agent to get an idea of the cost of insurance for different models and years of vehicles. Initially, I spent about an hour on the phone with the very nice and helpful lady, getting primary coverage cost on six different vehicles, two model years each. I gave the information to Calvin. He said he wanted to know other model years, and what the secondary coverage rate would be. And also how much it would be with and without the different discounts that Marie could take advantage of (Good Student, Drivers Training, Steer Clear). Those of you who know me can pretty much guess what's coming next. I called the agency back, and got the same very nice lady on the phone. I described to her what I needed, and she prepared to get raring to go over the phone. I stopped her. "Actually, I think I have an easier way to do this." "Really? How?" "Well, I have a spreadsheet." "You're kidding." "Um, no. I can fax it over to you, you can fill out the information, and send it back to me." "You're kidding!" "Um, no." She started laughing. She started laughing so hard that she snorted. I kept telling her to stop laughing at me. She didn't listen. "Wait, are you an Engineer or someone who works with numbers a lot?" "Uh, yes." "I knew it! You're just like my husband." And she laughed some more. What's more, Calvin laughed at me, too, when I told him about the spreadsheet. Hey, he wanted the information! I was just trying to get it in the most efficient way possible. Fine. So I'm an uber-nerd. Sue me. Speaking of vehicles, we got a new truck a couple of weeks ago. I know, it wasn't that long ago that I was gushing about our other new truck. Rest assured, there is a story behind this. It was approaching the time that we needed to get new tires on the Silverado. But we were loathe to replace them with the same size tires and wheels, because they just looked too small for the frame of the truck. So we investigated 20" wheels and low profile tires, to fill in the wheel wells a bit better. Calvin looked high and low, but just wasn't finding many options for 20" wheels for a 3/4 ton truck with an 8-bolt pattern. Finally, he found something he liked through D!scount T!re, we gave them a down payment, and waited a week for delivery. They called us back in on a Friday afternoon, to have the tires and wheels put on the truck. They pulled the truck into their garage and rolled one of the wheels up - damn, they were pretty. Except that, now that it was beside the truck, it looked like it might actually be too big. They installed it. Turned the wheel to test it out. It bumped and scraped against the frame. Dammit. It wouldn't work. Something about the offset or some such thing. Calvin was pretty frustrated - it took him literally a couple of months to find these wheels. The guys at D!scount T!re were really helpful, and tried to find us an alternative, but there was really no other option. Which is ridiculous, but common enough with a 3/4 ton heavy duty truck. They just don't accessorize well. Half-jokingly, Calvin said, "You know, we ought to just trade the damn thing in." Now, he'd mentioned this a few times, less jokingly, in the past. The Silverado rode stiffly, had the turning radius of a school bus, and took three-point-turns every time we had to park it. Add to that, now, the realization that fitting this thing out with decent tires and wheels was going to be a bigger challenge than we originally thought. Calvin had reached the end of his patience. I, however, was loathe to trade the Silverado in. We'd put an awesome custom stereo in it, which I loved to pieces. We only had three more years to go to pay it off, and I didn't want to start all over again on a five-year note. Plus, it was my baby. With our personalized license plate and the big American Flag decal in the back window, I was very fond of the thing. I did, however, understand and agree with Calvin's frustrations. So we drove down to the nearby Chevy dealership, just to see what kind of a deal they could work up for us. Two hours later, we left with a 2004 Chevy Avalanche. Once the salesman told Calvin that we could get it without that ugly plastic side cladding, he was all over it. We actually got a good trade-in value for the Silverado, a decent interest rate, and the payments were only a few dollars more a month than our original loan. Plus, a Bose stereo came with it, stock, with a six-CD changer. All it needed was a little oomph in the bass area. It's a 1/2 ton, which makes it a lot easier to accessorize, and it has a sport handling package that's a lot easier to drive. It's better on gas, too. Plus, you know, the whole Transformer thing is cool. And the side storage areas can be used for built-in beverage coolers! We picked Marie up from a school football game after we left the dealership. She said, "Let me get this straight. You couldn't fit the tires and wheels you wanted on the truck, so you got a new truck? If you bought a couch that was too big to fit through the door, would you buy a new house?" Smarty pants. We just had a fire drill at AcronymCo - I literally just walked back in the door. Every year when the weather cools off (but emergencies don't wait for good weather!) the security chickie comes on over the loudspeaker, the whoop-whoop-whoop-er goes off, everyone in the office groans, and we all file our way out the emergency exits and out into the assembly area in the parking lot. Today, someone started moo-ing as we were filing back into the building. Which started other folks nearby moo-ing. Pretty soon the whole crowd was moo-ing as we walked along the sidewalk in front of the building. A vendor walking up from the parking garage gave us a wild-eyed look. Really, I'd prefer to be referred to as lemmings. They're cuter. But do they make any sound as they're hurtling themselves off the cliff? Well, we got the news we were dreading, last week. Michael called and told us that he's getting shipped out to Kuwait next spring. His stay could be as little as three months, or as long as a year. Lilly's still staying in San Diego with Anthony, as far as I know. I don't think there's any stationing options open to her in Arizona. There may be in Texas, where her family lives. I don't know. We're going to visit her as much as we can while Michael is gone, and hopefully we'll be able to fly her out to Arizona on occasion, too. I don't want her to feel like she's all by herself in this. I'm heartbroken to think of all that Michael is going to miss, during that time in Anthony's development. They both seem to be taking the news in stride - much better than Calvin, Marie and I are taking it. It's the lifestyle they signed up for when they joined the Marines, I guess. There's the possibility that they can spend some time with us somewhere around New Year's - we're crossing our fingers. And next spring we'll all be going over to San Diego to see him off. Which gives us just enough time to stock up on enough tissues for the occasion. I seem to be Scroogie McScroogerson this year. I just haven't gotten into the holiday mood. I get physically angry at the television during holiday commercials. I was pissed to see Christmas tree displays in Home Depot the week before Halloween. I rolled my eyes when the local easy-listening station advertised a "Pre-Christmas Weekend" of "All Christmas Music, All The Time!". They traditionally start that up the day after Thanksgiving, and by the time Christmas rolls around, I'm ready to commit a homicide if I hear Elvis' "Blue Christmas" one more time. It sets my teeth on edge, just thinking about it. Michael and Lilly can't be home for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. It seems that all the various family members on Calvin's side are doing their own things this year. Which adds up to a very quiet holiday season for us. I don't mind that so much, actually. I'll be cooking turkey for Thanksgiving and having Heather over again, like last year. A measure of my weirdness is that not only did I have all the recipes from last year printed out and at hand, last weekend I discovered the same shopping list from last year stuffed in one of my cookbooks. Christmas will be much the same as it has been in years past, with the lobster dinner and baked potato soup and whatnot. Heather may be coming over again, with her friend Jina who will be in town visiting for the holidays. Good friends, good food, good conversation, and peace and quiet. I'm just sorry that Lilly will miss out on the grand family lobster tradition. I really am crossing my fingers, toes, and eyes that neither of them re-up in the Marines, and they move back to Arizona. Not that I want to be a clingy parent or in-law, but it does seem to be turning out that way, doesn't it? Marie hasn't told us what the arrangement is with her mom for Thanksgiving and Christmas, other than that she'll be home for the meals for both. Since the divorce, she's been sleeping at her mom's on Christmas Eve, doing the presents thing over there in the morning, then coming back to our house at around 1:00 to do the presents thing with us. She hasn't given us too many ideas for what she wants for Christmas, saying she "pretty much has everything she wants". Which makes me want to spoil her more, since she shows such gratitude for what she has. Plus, you know, there's the whole straight A's thing. I'm not worried if I don't get a list from her (I usually start asking for it at the beginning of November). I have some good ideas in mind. Calvin and I decided not to buy gifts for each other this year, other than stocking stuffers. We want to get something together, for the house or the truck, or something that we all can enjoy. And I confess to having absolutely no ideas on what that item should be. It's nice, though, that this year we don't have an overwhelming amount of Christmas shopping to do. Have I mentioned lately that I hate the mall? Thank God for Amazon. Last weekend was quite excellent. Friday night we had about 30 people coming and going at our house. A co-worker is switching departments and going to the night shift, so we had a farewell for him. And he has a lot of friends. We had all of our friends around us, too. Heather was there, and my friends from work, including Archibael - the only notable exception was the absence of AB, who couldn't make it. Everybody brought a ton of food and drinks to supplement what we were providing (that BYOB thing tends to be a hit-or-miss, sometimes). Everybody started showing up at 4:00, and the last folks left at 11:30. There was drunken dancing to 80's music in the living room (using the remotes as microphones), and football tossing in the back yard. One person brought his 18 month old son, who entertained himself by opening the CD changer and tossing the CD's around. No damage was done, though, and it was hysterical to see him doing his little squat-hop dance to the music. The pool table and dart board were active all night long, and one friend played bar tender and kept us supplied with appletinis. I really, really like the fact that when we have parties, everybody seems to enjoy themselves very much. I think it's a telling thing that folks don't tend to want to clear out until late. And it's really cool to look across at Calvin through a crowd of people, grin, and realize that we have a LOT of really good friends. Calvin had to work on Saturday (and he has to work this Saturday, and he'll be out of town Monday through Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, and will have to work that Friday and Saturday as well. Sheesh.). I spent the day lolling around and reading, with short breaks for working out, lunch, and napping on one of the lounge chairs on the patio. When Calvin got home, we had a quick dinner of something forgettable (ziti?), dropped Marie and her friend off at the mall, and went to Wherehouse Records to buy some new CD's. 80's, hip-hop, and disco, and for the next three hours we just drove around town, up through Mill Avenue and into Scottsdale, listening to CD's with the bass up and the windows down. When we got home we went out to the hot tub for a while and enjoyed the moon - it was so bright we could have read by it. Sunday morning Calvin and I sat out on the patio with our coffee, he with a newspaper and me with a book ("Wildfire at Midnight" by Mary Stewart). Then we soaked in the hot tub. Then we had lunch. Then we hung around the house and I did some laundry. Then we got bored. So we hopped on the motorcycle and went tooling around, once again up Mill Avenue and through the college, on the twisty-turny road to the zoo, and then up toward Scottsdale. We stopped at a bar for a couple of beers and a plate of appetizers. Then back home to get the truck and go back out again to do the grocery shopping. Cooked up some steaks and baked potatoes, watched something forgettable on TV, and went to bed. Somewhere in there we talked to Michael and Lilly. The brevity of my description is by no means intended to detract from the fact that I fully enjoyed last weekend. It was full of my favorite things - hanging out with people I like, hanging out alone with Calvin, tooling around listening to music, taking a motor ride on a glorious day, enjoying the peace of our home, and many opportunities for the consumption of beer. Siki-saki, siki-saki, oy oy oy! Oh, hey, I wanted to mention that Heather got a fabulous new job. One that is more perfect for her than any job I've ever heard of, other than Official Puppy Cuddler of the Animal Welfare League. So why don't you head over to her site and give her lots of hits and send her lots of e-mails by way of congratulations? She'll thank you (and curse me) for it. Come on, it'll be fun! Heh. Something I love: Sweet Tarts. They're like little tabletized bits of Kool-Aid powder. Something I hate: Stores that use the word "Shoppe" in their name. It's shop. S-H-O-P. Don't get cutesy. Something I love: Lunch with Calvin. Mmmm... Sorrano's Mexican. Something I hate: The word "chipolte". As used in the Wendy's commercial for their Homestyle Chicken Strips. Every time he says it, I cringe. I don't know why. Comments on this entry? Head on over to Colloquial!

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©Laura Charon 2000 - 2003.