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01/02/2005 Archived Entry: "build me a nest"

Can't sit. Must nest.

We've worked hard today. And by we, I mean Chris as he won't let me do any of the actual work. We have three floor to ceiling bookcases in our living room, all of them packed to the gills. Since we got the TV, the room has seemed more and more claustrophobic. We had planned on putting one of the bookcases in our room, but after some measurements today, realized that wasn't going to happen. So instead we decided to just get rid of enough stuff to completly empty one of the cases. We did it. We have tons of stuff going to Goodwill, some things I'm giving away on my Disney list and more stuff that went into the trash. We now have one empty bookcase in the living room. I get a smile on my face just looking at it. The plan is to move it into the playroom since we wanted to put another one in there anyway. Now we just don't have to purchase one. We couldn't do that tonight though because Tabitha's "tiny town" has taken over all of the playroom. It's impressive, but at the same time, I cringe at the mess every time I walk in there. Right now I'm just avoiding going in there, lol. I'm giving her another week and then it has to go. Right now I plan on cleaning out my pantry, quietly so Chris doesn't realize I'm working :) I need to make room for baby's stuff, plus the pantry just really needs to be cleaned out.

We finally took care of the last of our returns today. While perusing the toys at Target, we saw a couple more Little People castle sets. We got the castle a few months ago and I've been on the lookout for the accessories for quite a while and never found them. We finally see them today and they're on clearance. Score! They only had 2 of the 3 and I only bought one of them, but I'm sure I'll get the other one soon and I'll check other Targets for the elusive third set. Tabitha also fell in love with a winter Fairytopia Barbie that was on clearance so I let her get that as well.

Good news on the car front. I guess I'll tell the whole story now that I'm calmed down and it's all going to work out. Friday while we were driving to my in-laws' we started hearing a grinding/ rubbing noise coming from the front passenger tire. We went straight to the mechanic because it seemed to be brakes related and we just had those taken care of 6 weeks ago so they were still under warranty. They called us later and said it was the rotors which didn't make sense to me because nothing was mentioned during the inspection when we had the brakes done. It was going to cost more than I liked but we gave the go ahead figuring there was nothing else to do. We went to pick up the car two hours later and it was making the exact same noise. After lots of talking and looking they told us it was the bearings but she couldn't give us a quote until the next day since they were now technically closed. Well, there was no way I was paying for the rotors considering that it didn't solve the problem and we never would have consented to them being done otherwise. She argued with us saying they needed to be replaced anyway and finally just asked if we wanted them to put the old rotors back in. Chris said to go ahead and do that because we weren't paying for them. At this point we took the car home and the plan was to get the quote from her and today we'd take it to a different mechanic (same company) and get the bearings done where we usual go. Instead, Chris really didn't like the sound or the way the car was driving and was afraid to take it down to the other mechanic as it is a bit of a drive. I didn't want to go back to the same place but I ended up deferring to him as long as he handled everything and I didn't have to do anything. They weren't planning on just replacing the bearings, but doing a full inspection with a different technician so that sounded good. When they are finally done with the inspection and we get the phone call she was rather apologetic. Apparently, though our rotors could stand replacing, they are not dire like she originally made it out to be to us because she was looking at a 2003 model and we have a 2001. She apologized profusely for her error which was good of her to do. She then went on to tell us that it's not the bearings at all, but our rim is cracked. Something that is rather simple. She told us not to buy it from her because she has to mark it up, but if we went to a dealer and purchased the rim, she would install it for us for free. She also gave us a free oil change. So tomorrow we go get the rim and they'll put it on the car. We told her we were also going to get two tires replaced since that's something we were planning on doing anyway, and she said she'd cut us a deal on those as well. So she is more than making up for everything and earned back our trust and also our business. I'm very pleased with how it all turned out.

Replies: 1 Comment

Glad your car problem are going to get worked out.. and that she apoligized for her mistake.. What castle set did you find?? Alex got the castle for Christmas and we have the Watchful woodsman and saw night at the ball.. but thats it

Posted by Valerie @ 01/03/2005 07:18 AM PST

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