Category: Personal

After 4 days, 8 dealerships, 6 test drives, and 1 flood we have a new car.  Here are pictures, and then I’ll elaborate.

Behold the Marshmallow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll be brief, but suffice it to say that buying a new car isn’t really my favorite thing.  We visited two dealerships on Sunday, three on Monday, one on Tuesday and two on Wednesday.  We would have purchased the car (a 2009 Honda Fit Sport with 76555 miles) on Wednesday, but our mechanic didn’t have any available openings till Friday.  He checked it out, told us it was good and we bought it.  I just want to give a shout out to David at Galpin Ford for a very good buying experience.  Very low pressure and helpful.  I would also like to thank Darrel at Jim’s Alignment & Brakes for looking at the car.  Both guys were very helpful.

The flood has nothing to do with the car other than it happened Thursday evening in Mayer.  In case you are wondering that is the same Mayer that was evacuated because of a forest fire earlier this month.  No one was hurt, so that is good.

We had a good week in AZ, but would have liked to spend more time with family and less time car shopping.  I guess it is what it is.  Ashely and I are not ready for this work week to start and are rather tired.

 

First off I just want to say that biking to work basically sucks.  Ashley is nice enough to give me a ride home in the evenings, so at least I’m only riding one way.  After doing research we have landed on one of the following cars to replace the Kia.  A Honda Fit, Hyundai Elantra, or Hyundai Accent.  We would prefer the Fit, but will settle for one of the Hyundai’s if needed.  Looking around Montana the pickings are slim, so we are doing a road trip to AZ (by road trip I mean flying down and driving the new car back).  There are a lot more cars there in our price range.  Any who we’ll be down there the week of the 16th spending money and visiting family.

Speaking of family Brenda and Paula were here last weekend and we did a camping trip.  We visited a number of waterfalls around the state and camped next to a noisy highway.  We also hiked 3 miles and almost 2000 feet up to Lava lake.  Here are some pictures:

The camping was fun, and the company was enjoyable.

A huge praise.  There was a forest fire in AZ near Prescott that could have burned Brenda’s house, and the Burris family ranch.  Both were spared (go firefighters) though some stuff at the ranch didn’t make it.

I think that is all the news.

Well, after 10 years and one month I am saying farewell to my Kia.  I was driving to work Wednesday morning and the timing belt broke (if you are wondering it happened somewhere in this area).  Naturally I had just changed the oil Tuesday evening and filled it with gas the previous Friday.  After talking to the mechanic it will be $500 just to get it together enough to find out if the engine is still good.  Assuming the engine is good the total cost of a repair would come out to $900.  I’m not willing to put that much into the car.

On the up side, it is summer now so I can bike to work.  We have money set aside in the budget for a new vehicle so that is good.  The other nice thing is whatever we get I’m betting the windows will roll up and down.  I’m looking forward to that.  I’m hoping to buy something in July.  That will give us some time to save a bit more and get a feel for the car market here.

That is my big news.  I’m looking forward to the three day weekend.

Let me see, what has been happening?  We have been busy.  We had company Sunday evening and Monday evening, and will have some more this coming weekend on Saturday.  Ashley is still busy at work, though she is starting to feel more on top of things.  Hopefully that won’t change.  I’m trying to think of something exciting to say, but nothing is coming to mind.  I read this verse tonight in my devotions- Matthew 6:34  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

As Ashley and I are facing change and a future that is unclear (where do we live, do we stay in Montana or go to another state, how does work fit into all that?) this verse was a good reminder.

I was doing my devotions this evening, and I ran across these verses:  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. That is John 3:19-21.  It is just a reminder of the gulf that separates believers from non-believers.  There is no middle ground.  The light exposes us for what we are.  The darkness hides us and lets us pretend to be what we are not.

I have a lot of thoughts, but it is late and I do not feel I’m being coherent.  Just in case you were wondering our trip to Bozeman was a blast.  Ashley and I had a very good time together.  It was restful, refreshing, and fun.

By “he” I mean me.  I finally passed my Microsoft 70-697 exam.  I don’t know why this one gave me so much trouble, but I now have my Windows 10 MCSA.  I am glad that is done.  I’m sure my boss is as well considering how expensive the tests are.  I’ll take a month or two break and then move on to my CompTIA Security+ and Linux+.  For now though I don’t have to worry about it.

Ashley and I will be taking a mini-vacation in Bozeman this weekend.  We are both looking forward to getting out of town and just hanging out together having fun.  One of Ashley’s co-workers will be taking care of Fern for us.

Speaking of the cat… nope I haven’t got anything to say.  The weather here has been all over the map.  We got snow a couple of days ago and it is supposed to be around 64 on Wednesday.

I’m talking about the weather, so I’ll quit while I’m ahead (or at least not behind).

So, ironically my lack of discipline blogging actually reflects an over all lack of discipline I’ve been struggling with the past few months.  Happy new year by the way.  This blog is going to be a random meandering thing, don’t feel bad if you get lost.

What has happened the last six months?  I failed my Windows 10 MCSA test… twice.  That stung.  I’m studying again and will retake the test in the next few weeks.  Ashley’s grandpa gave us some money and we were able to purchase an Acorn grill which has been awesome to cook on.  Ashley was featured in an article in the Yellowstone Valley Women magazine, which was really cool.  We have officially had our cat for one year and she has started taking liberties with our food (stupid animal).  I bit the bullet and have copied all of our movies/TV shows onto our server and finally setup a real HTPC using Kodi.  It rocks.  We celebrated Christmas in AZ and that was fun.  There was actually about three inches of snow Christmas morning.

That will do for now.  I’m sure I’ve left something out.  The events above are not in any kind of chronological order.

My blog got hacked.  It has been taken care of.  I had to delete the blog and start over.  I as able to get all the text out, but if you are wondering why there are no pictures, I wasn’t able to get them out.  I’m afraid my hacking skills are lacking.  I still am not sure how they got in.  It took about a month after I started over to get off all the “this site is bad horrible no good” lists.  So much for my mad IT skills.

So I haven’t got anything new to report, but I will continue bragging about my wife.  Here are the pictures of her latest project.

The wood is from old pallets that a local company was getting rid of.

Once everything is lush and growing I’ll put some more pictures up.

Ashley planted, tomatoes, green beans, snap peas, strawberries, zucchini, butter lettuce, leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli rob, garlic, and onions.  She is still planning on planting rhubarb, peppers, and herbs.

It’s actually been closer to a month and half of busyness, but who’s counting (oh wait, I am).  I took my next Microsoft exam (70-688) and passed.  I think I now have an MCSA in Windows 8.1 but I’m not sure, given the whole “we’re getting rid of this certification” thing from Microsoft.  Any who I have one more test (assuming I get it taken before August) and I will have an MCSA in Windows 10.  I’ve got my study book in hand and my virtual machine installed.  Bring it.

The Fargo trip went well, better than I thought it would.  The conference was interesting, and Ashley and I had fun on our “date” day.  We went to the zoo, and heard the wolves howl at the tornado siren.

Ashley got all of the stuff done for her party.  The party went well and every one really liked the decorations.

Pictures Removed
To wrap this up I will continue the saga of our cat Fern.I just wanted to brag about how talented my wife is.

About a week before we left for Fargo Ashley took Fern into the vet because the silly cat was licking her stomach bald.  The vet said it could be stress and then gave us a liquid steroid to give her just in case it was some type of allergy.  We also found out that she had gained a pound since we got her.  So we put the unhappy cat on a diet and started squirting medicine in her mouth twice a day (you know to help relieve the stress).  We left Fern at the same vet while we were gone (and paid a boarding fee).  We got back Thursday, picked up the cat, and took her back to the vet on Friday because she had a cold.  $75 dollars later we find out that the steroid they gave her to help with the stomach licking also suppressed her immune system.  Oh and her bald spot is bigger now.  Apparently she is still stressing.

So that cat bit was more rambling than I had hoped and not as funny as I thought it would be.  I’ll stop while I’m behind.