Well, Sh**!

Bad news about the poor Geo. As many of you probably already know due to the high-speed communication highway that is my family, the Geo is a little more (or a lot more) worse off than initially thought.
I felt very car-smart going into Midas saying that the donut gasket was probably the problem and where I thought the problem was...but all my car jargon went down the pooper. Unfortunately the problem lies in the catalytic converter. There is a hole in the catalytic converter, which seems bad enough...but wait, there's more! On either side of the converter the flanges are seriously rusted out. If they replace the converter, the pipes are going to need replaced due to the severity of the condition of these flanges. The Midas guy was very nice, he put the car back up on the lifts and showed us the problem. He wasn't kidding. He said that because of the salt up North the under-carriage can rust a lot faster.
So Ben checked the Kelly Blue Book value of the car...and it is actually worth less than it would cost to fix it and that's in "fair" condition. So we aren't sure what we are going to do. But we will keep you posted.
On a side note...i'm a girl. I cried when I found out how much the car was going to cost. I think it was a mixture of how much the car was going to cost, it wasn't what I had expected to hear, and that she's my first car. The Geo means to me what a man's first muscle car is to him. :) Listening to her V4 engine purr....heaven.

For Shame...

Well, Virginia has gone and slapped us with the sticker of shame. My car did not pass their snooty state inspection. As if it wasn't bad enough that the trusty (or not so trusty) Geo had to tuck her tailpipe between her tires and drive away...the inspector plastered a pink rejection sticker on the front windshield. So the whole world knows, the Geo has been rejected by the state of Virginia. Bastards.
Basically what this means is that we have to get her fixed within 15 days and try the inspection again. The inspector said there is a leak in the exhaust system. Dad thinks it is a leak in the donut gasket between the manifold and exhaust pipe....or something fancy like that.
Midas here we come.

Christos Voskrese!

Happy Easter everyone! Ben and I went to church this morning and thought that if we went to the 9:00 mass that there wouldn't be as many kids and it wouldn't be as packed....we were wrong. We arrived like 5 minutes early, but it took us those five minutes to find a parking spot. The church was packed and we sat next to a couple that had two young kids...they were crying or screaming almost the entire time. After church I asked Ben if he wanted kids...he said "no." :)

When we got back to the apartment Ben set up a little Easter egg hunt for Aida. He put some treats and food into six plastic eggs and hid them around the living room. Once Aida got the hang of finding them, popping them open and eating the contents she had a blast. It was cute.

We miss everyone and wish we were there. Hope you all have a great Easter!

Christos Voskrese! Vosten Voskrese!

Happy Easter!

Today was my first attempt at making Paska. And I must say, they turned out really nice! Of course I haven't tasted either of them...but if nothing else they look pretty. And they smell great. I am really excited.

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

We will be seeing everyone in a couple weeks!

Hey there Four-Eyes!

Ben and I got our new glasses today. What do you think? It has been a long time since I have had the correct prescription lenses in my glasses and even longer since I have had new frames. So Ben, being the good husband that he is, really pushed for me to get new glasses this year. And even better yet...they are Coach frames. I know you are all impressed. :)

We were advised to wear our glasses for the next couple of days to get used to them. So far so good. I really like having glasses that i can see out of. But it does take some getting used to since I have been wearing contacts since 7th grade.

While we were gone, we set up the video camera to see what Aida does while we are gone. See we have been trying to leave her out of her kennel while we leave for short periods of time. Every time she seems to do pretty well. The video displayed that after licking the peanut butter out of her bone toy we gave her, Aida sat by the door occasionally whining for the majority of our 30 minute outing. At one point though, she walked into the living room and headed straight for the video camera on the coffee table. She stood looking at the camera lens for a second, dropped her head down and gave the camera a good stare-down for a few seconds...then walked away. I know it doesn't sound funny....but it was.

Hope all is well with everyone!

The lost pictures

I was going through my pictures on the computer and decided to post some of the other pictures I had from this past visit. They are pretty random...but i thought they were cute...

Ben took a nap the first day we arrived and Nathan decided it would be funny, and it was funny, to go up and "spoon" with Ben in bed. Nathan was quite pleased with himself as you can see by his face....he was the big spoon.

Here I am with my singing pig dressed up like a bunny from Aunt Debbi.

After a long day of snow-blowing for me and playing in the snow for Aida, we both relaxed on the couch (& floor).

Aida tends to snooze in the car on the way back to Virginia and this last trip was no exception. She made herself comfortable on the back seat for most of the trip. She is a good traveling dog.

Play with Food

The Christmas before last Mom and Dad got us an apple/peeler/corer/slicer from Pampered Chef. At the last apartment we didn't have any room to really set it up so now that we have the counter space, we pulled out our cool contraption and tried it out. Ben had lots of fun playing with the apple and Aida wanted to join in.

After playing with the apple, Ben decided that it would be fun to try out a potato. So we made curly potatoes with lunch. They actually turned out really good. And I am sure we will make them again.

After all the food fun, Ben and I headed out to the DMV to get my new license. My picture turned out really nice surprisingly. And the Virginia DMV is a little different from Ohio's. When you come in you have to go to the information desk. Once you "check-in" at the desk they pull a number out of a dispenser that prints out an individual business card sized paper, kind of like when you go to a deli counter. Then they tell you to sit down until they call your number. They have like 20 desks and 2 or 3 digital signs overhead scrolling the current number they are "serving." They also have this somewhat digital sounding voice come over the speakers announcing which number is next. So I just thought that the magnitude of the Virginia DMV was quite interesting.

I also registered to vote while I was there. I was pretty proud of myself for getting that handled so I can vote this November. :)

Also, for anyone who may have heard...last time I went to the eye doctor he was concerned about the cup size in my eye. He thought it could be an early sign of glaucoma and seemed a little nervous about it. So he got me in to go through a few tests in order to better figure out my enormous cups (hehe). I went in for those tests today, and, to his surprise, concluded that I am actually at low risk for glaucoma despite my large cups and optic nerves. Whoo hoo! One of the tests I did was to test my peripheral vision. I guess if there is vision loss in certain areas of your peripheral it is a sign of glaucoma. The doctor said I did really well on those tests and asked if I play video games....I said yes and asked why that would matter. He said that video games can actually improve your peripheral vision. So I thought that was pretty good validation for those years of playing video games with Nathan and Daniel...and Mom and Dad....and Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry....lots of video games. But it payed off. Thanks. :)

Fun in the Snow

Ben and i had fun on our visit despite the dumping of snow. Here are a few pictures I took while we were in town. The first one is from Saturday when mom and I were trying to make our way home from Acme, dad and Ben were certain that we'd get stuck at the end of Maplewood so they heroically walked down the middle of the street to push us out of the snow if we needed their muscles. We didn't. But it was a nice gesture...and good exercise for them. Mom and I initially did get stuck and the 4th St end of Maplewood but we got unstuck and drove up 4th street so we could attempt the other side of Maplewood. Then we couldn't to the other side of Maplewood due the the snow and a tow truck blocking our route. So we made our way back, yet again, the the 4th street side of Maplewood. All the while, Ben and Dad were walking back and fourth trying to meet us at whichever end we were coming from. Like I said, good exercise.

The next picture is of Aida out in the snow. She quite enjoyed her time romping like a gazelle. She doesn't get much of that in Virginia...we've only had one snow that she could romp in.

And the last picture is just a random picture out the back door at night of all the snow. Fun.

We arrived back to Virginia to bright blue skies and 60 degree weather. We had to open the windows of the apartment and turn on the fans because it was so warm inside. We are happy to be away from all the snow, but we miss everyone. Aida misses everyone too, but I think she misses the snow more. :)