A rainy spring morning in the front yard
I've really been enjoying all of the flowers in my front yard this year. All of the bulbs are coming up, daffodils, hyacinths, crocuses. Here are some pictures.

Crocuses




Hyacinths


Daffodils and Lavender



  ¶ 7:45 AM 2 comments

  Water Lilies
Since Katherine asked, here is a pretty good picture of water lilies at the botanical gardens in Santo Domingo:



And here are some variations on that picture:



  ¶ 7:45 AM 1 comments

  Various thoughts
1. Check out this post at Beth Keck's blog about wanting what others have. I found it very powerful. I would quote it, but you really have to read the whole thing.

2. I'm starting to feel pregnant, in that I'm slightly nauseated a lot of the time, more than slightly sometimes. Odd things: anything touching my neck really bugs me, I get really hot and then really cold (Erick has found me wrapped up in blankets with the heater blasting and has taken to calling me Grandma). Also, a favorite blogger of mine, Feeble Knees, is also pregnant, and she posted about having cravings for fried egg sandwiches. That sounds absolutely, unbearably disgusting to me. Blaaa. I don't really have any cravings, but I could not face opening the refrigerator a couple nights ago due to the smell of the leftover chinese food in there. This is despite having some of it for breakfast the previous morning. Go figure.  ¶ 9:01 AM 2 comments

  Jeep Update
We finally got the Jeep/Insurance thing resolved. Erick talked to the claims rep yesterday and convinced him that we should have the car repaired at the dealership. He gave us the usual "Well, we normally don't do this, but I'll make an exception this one time...bla bla"

So we get the Jeep back today! It really hasn't been that bad, I mean, we've had a nice rental car, a Toyota Camry, which I wouldn't mind owning at some point. But I'm glad this thing is over. Now we can focus on getting all of the stuff in Erick's wallet replaced. Oh, and his cell phone.  ¶ 9:24 AM 6 comments

  Devolving....need....links....
When I started this blog, I put some code in it to track where I am in the TTLB Ecosystem, just for fun. The ecosystem ranks blogs by how much they're linked to. At first, I was a Flippery Fish. But now, I've devolved into a Slimy Mollusc. Not pretty.

I did realize, though, that at one point I was a Lowly Insect, so I guess things have gotten a little better.

Not that I care (sniff).

Never mind.  ¶ 11:53 AM 1 comments

  Not too bad!
After Birgit and Katherine did this, I decided, lemming-like, to do it too. So here it is:


create your own visited states map

50%! I got to visit many of the western states thanks to a 21-day driving trip that Erick and I took in 1996 (a good test for the first year of marriage that we passed with flying colors!)

The visited map for the rest of the world was...not so good. Gotta work on that. Maybe we can go visit David and Katherine in France.

  ¶ 11:33 AM 3 comments

  Violated!
Our Jeep got broken into last Thursday. It was parked at the back of the guitar shop parking lot during Erick's band rehersal, and stole his wallet and cell phone. Yes, that would be the cell phone that we JUST got.
They completely shattered the driver side window, scattering glass all over the parking lot, and the inside of the jeep.
Erick was, um, pretty upset when he came home, talking about how he wished he could have caught them, and what he would have done to them. I was more bummed about what a PAIN this whole thing was going to be, getting the car fixed, getting all the stolen stuff replaced, etc.

I didn't know that dealing with the insurance company would be the worst part. I've had AAA for over 10 years, and have been very happy with them. This time, though, they've been awful. Erick called and filed a claim with them as soon as he got home on Thursday. He told them that he would like to have the car repaired at the dealership, which has a body shop. They said that was no problem, and that they would call us in the morning with an authorization to use our dealership. Well, they didn't call. The dealer said to go ahead and bring in the car, and they took pictures and arranged for us to get a rental car. They even had the rental car company come and pick me up at the dealership. The dealership had not heard from AAA, even though we gave them the dealer's phone number.

The dealer talked to AAA, who they deal with on a regular basis, and they were incredibly frustrated. We couldn't get a claim number, AAA couldn't find the dealer in their system, even though the dealer is a AAA approved repair shop, and then AAA said I would have to wait 2 hours to get an authorization before I could get a rental car. This is almost a day after we filed the original claim.

I talked to the claims person yesterday, and he was rude and confrontational. He finally explained that we can't use the dealership and referred us to a glass service that will come to your home or work to fix the car. Ok, so I made an appointment with them.

Unbeleivably, this is Tuesday, and the car still is not fixed. Erick went to pick up the car from the dealership, but the dealership said that this glass service has not done a good job in the past, especially working with moving glass, like we have in our door. There would still be glass rattling around inside the door months later. So Erick left the car at the dealership and is calling the claims person AGAIN.

The upside is, my car was broken into, and suddenly I feel like a criminal for trying to get it taken care of properly. I really hope this is over soon. Any recommendations for insurance companies?  ¶ 9:28 AM 1 comments