This past Saturday, I had the honor in being in Deniss’s wedding. I’ve known Deniss since I’ve was born, and she’s known me since I was in my momma’s belly. She and her mom took care of me when my parents were working. We basically grew up as sisters and have always been close. I’ve uploaded some pictures from the wedding to share with everyone. If you’re reading this “note”on facebook, then you can see the pictures from my photo page. If you’re reading this post from my website, click here to be taken to the wedding pictures. Enjoy!

Deniss and Me

Sometimes being an adult has it’s advantages. This time… it doesn’t. I found out yesterday that there are a number of things wrong with my car. The rear differential is leaking, the torque converter in my transmission is bad, and I may possibly have an abs issue. Total cost of fixing everything? Probably about $3500. I think my truck is worth about 4g’s… in GOOD CONDITION! So the dilemma I face now is should I fork the money over and fix it or give it up and get something new? Keep in mind the car is running right now and is drive-able. However, I’d rather not wait until the car dies to make a decision.

I do have the money to fix the old thing if I choose to do so. But is it really worth putting that much money into it? I actually haven’t had too many problems with it since I got it back in 2002 brand spanking new. I bought it for about 19,000… since then I’ve replaced all 4 tires twice, gotten new brake pads twice, had the fluid’s flushed twice… I think that’s about all. So the total cost of the car including maintenance has probably been about 21,500  for the last 7yrs. Is that good or bad? I really have no idea. I’m pretty new at this whole car buying, repair… business. Should I put more money into fixing a car that is most likely going to have more problems down the road? I’ve got a bunch of miles on the thing…. 115,000. 3 road trips to Florida and back probably didn’t help matters. But if I just suck it up and pay to fix it, I don’t have to worry about a car payment. Not having to make a payment the last 3 yrs has been pretty  great.

Another option is getting a new one. Actually a new ’09 is absolutely out of the question unless I can get one at a bargain basement price. Which I guess in this economy is possible, but probably not with the kind of car I’d want. I started looking around yesterday and I think I’m set on a Nissan Pathfinder. I can’t not get an SUV of some sort. I don’t feel comfortable in cars… they are really hard for me to get in and out of b/c of my bad knees… occupational hazzard… .. j/k. Some have suggested crossovers, but I don’t really like the look of those either. I know they are all the craze these days, but I really think they just look like modernized station wagons. So now I’m on a mad hunt for a used low mile pathfinder. Well it seems Pathfinders have a pretty good resale value so finding a good deal on a used one has proved to be harder than I first thought. Plus with the economy being so bad, more people are buying used cars which is driving the cost of them up. What I found yesterday, though, is that some dealers actually still have new 08′s on the lots. Well this sounds okay to me. There’s not much difference between the ’08 and ’09 models, and I’m sure these ’08s have been sitting on the lot for a while seeing as we’re in the 3rd month of 2009! I’m thinking the dealers are wanting to get rid of these asap. Couple that with the fact that a car depreciates 35% after the first year, I’ve got good bargaining tips to negotiate down from. So with that being said, if I can get a new ’08 for just a little more than a used older model, I think I’d be willing to go that route.

I haven’t made any final decisions though. Like I said, my car is still running and it all depends on how desparate these dealers are to get rid of their SUV’s.

Updated – Sept 1st, 2010 – Just went back and re-read this post, and I can’t believe I was so fired up about this. I must’ve been PMSing. Or maybe Steriod use in baseball is becoming so nonchalant that I am now numb to it and don’t care. That’s kinda sad…

————————————————————————————-

I never was an Alex Rodriguez fan. This doesn’t mean I don’t think the man is talented. I’ve always thought he was an excellent baseball player. I just always thought he was over paid and all about the money. Who am I to say that someone is over paid right? People should get paid what their worth. And as we speak I’m actually in the middle of trying to convince someone I’m worth more than what was offered to me…that’s another story though. But with that said, I tend to think (in Baseball) if one person’s salary is more than a entire freaking ball club’s team salary… THAT’S getting a bit excessive. I guess if Texas and New York wanted to pay all that then that’s certainly their prerogative. But when those bidding wars start, it just seems like it’s less about the love of the game and more about greed.

I can remember a long time ago when Craig Biggio first became a free agent. He started getting offers all over… Colorado ended up being the highest bidder (I think?). But Bidge decided to stay in Houston even though he could have made A LOT more with the Rockies. That’s one of the greatest stories I remember reading about Houston sports.  It just showed that there are players out there that aren’t all about the paycheck and more about loyalty to fans and baseball itself.

Even though I never was a fan of A-Rod, I still followed his stats and record breaking achievements. I thought it was great to see someone out there that could accomplish such feats w/o using any drugs. When the Mitchell Report came out last year and all those players were named, I hoped that Alex would not be included in the report or in any other steroid scandal. I just wanted ONE person … ONE … that could stand above all others and show that greatness could be achieved with hard work and God given talent. I wanted to believe that a true baseball hero could exist. Now unfortunately Alex has been wiped from that list. Props to him for admitting it… but how much of it is the truth? Only he knows and we may never know… but now in my mind his numbers are tainted. It can be said, however, that his Stats could not merely have been achieved by drugs alone. The talent HAS to be there too.  I agree with this… but we will never know if his great stats could have been achieved without the drugs. How many games has A-Rod single handily won for his team by driving in a game winning RBI? Of those, how many were legitimate RBI’s achieved by pure talent alone? There’s no way to know… no way to tell how many games he’s cheated other teams out of.

Baseball season is starting up again and he’s at it again. I read today that he hit a 2 run homer. I also read that he was greeted by a lot boos and jeers in addition to a few positive cheers above the visitor’s (Yankees) dugout. I have no doubt that he used the negative energy directed at him to hit that homer. He even made a statement that he would like to invite all those fans out to Fenway to help him in the rivalry series. He does not hide the fact that the boos actually help to fire him up. What another slap in the face to all the fans out there. Fans have the right to be upset. Maybe they don’t play the game, but they also feel cheated and betrayed. So they have the right to display their displeasure regarding the situation (as long as it is not in poor taste). But for A-Rod to just throw it back in their face like that… it’s not right. That’s not taking responsibility and owning up to what he did wrong. He needs to realize that fans are going to be upset with him and that they will need time to heal from all this. They need time to accept him back as a respectable ballplayer. Alex apologized for his “past” actions and wants to move forward. We all do Alex … but we can’t just flip a switch and make it all go away. <<snip>> Baseball fans just need time to forget about it. So stop acting like you’re too good to be boo-ed and start acting sincere about your apology. Maybe one day your adoring fans will start trickling back to you.

I think Alex should feel lucky that he still has a job and gets to play the game. If I ever failed a drug test at my workplace, I would no doubt be fired right there on the spot. (Apology or not)

The debate rages on! Someone at lunch today brought up the fact that AT&T was thinking about dropping the cost of a 8gb 3g Iphone to $99.  (I did mention that an 8gb refurb was available for $99 just last month). Anywho, I believe he said “$99 who wouldn’t get one?” I of course spoke up immediately and stated I would not. I wouldn’t even consider it. He questioned why, and I stated that 8gb is simply not enough storage space for everything I would want to store on it. (Not to mention, I do not like the virtual keyboard and would prefer a real keyboard for texting and such). For me, I would want to use the functionality of the Iphone to its fullest. Music, Photos, Video, email, web browsing, etc etc.

Of course what takes up the most space would be Music, Photos, and of course Video. Now I don’t know how much music the average person has, I like to think I fall in the middle somewhere.  Currently I have about 1400 songs on my Ipod Touch which I bought around Christmas time. I haven’t quite uploaded my entire music library on to it yet, but I plan to when I get around to it. I also have a few full length movies: Wanted, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Independence day. As for photos, currently I have 652. All this coupled with a few Apps gets me to just under 8gbs. So if I had opted for a 8gb Ipod touch, I would be pretty close filling it up right about now. (In just over 2 months!)

We had another coworker join us at the table and he has an 8gb Iphone. He stated that for him that was plenty of room. He has about 300 songs and about 8 full length episodes of the Office (some of which are 1hr episodes). He stated that he doesn’t feel the need to upload his entire music library on to his Iphone b/c he stores all his music on a server so he can just add and remove as he pleases. So for him, perhaps the 8gb Iphone is enough.

However, for someone like me, I would rather not go through the hassle of adding and removing songs on my Itouch.  While I do not think I would EVER in one sitting listen to all 1400 of my songs, I do like knowing that they are there and I can listen to them whenever I want. Unfortunately I can’t predict the day before or the day of, what I will want to listen to. Different moods strike me at different times and for those of you that know me, you know that I listen to ALL kinds of music. From classical to contemporary, from showtunes to rap… Alternative… Pop… Country… Movie Scores… etc, etc. There’s no way I could pick what to upload!

So for me, I love my 32gb Itouch. As of right now I’m not worried about running out of room anytime soon. Perhaps I probably could’ve done with a 16gb, but I got such a good deal on my 32 gb, that it pretty much cost the same as a 16gb.

While the debate can rage on, I think in the end it depends on the person’s situation and needs. But to make blanket statements such as “Who WOULDN’T get an 8gb Iphone for $99?” … well I just think that’s ludicrous.

The T-shirt thing did not work. I was up just about all night b/c he kept managing to wiggle out of his shirt. I think he’s actually Houdini reincarnated b/c that shirt was pretty much tied to him, so I don’t know how he was able to wiggle out. Unfortunately I fell asleep between 4-6am and in that time he managed to get his shirt off AND pull out his drainage tube. Well I wasn’t sure how much of a problem this would be so I spent 7:30-8:00am this morning trying to call the vet to ask if I needed to bring him in. Also during that time I went to ANOTHER vet to see if they had a cone collar that would fit him. Sure enough they did. The Doc finally called me back around 8:30 and he said as long as the hole was still draining and fluid wasn’t getting backed up then it would be fine. I just needed to keep the hole where the drainage tube open. This involved placing neosporin in the drainage hole, which by the way was really disgusting. So as of right now poor Indy is at home by himself with a cone collar on, dripping fluid out of his leg, AND probably extremely uncomfortable.