RV is now fixed?

So MacFIL has come and gone. He and Mr. Mac spent yesterday replacing things on The Behemoth. Now we have to try her out on a veyr short, local trip. We're thinking of going to Del Valle next weekend as MacMadame had a Tri Clinic there on Saturday and an Open Water Swim on Sunday, both there.

Will The Behemoth make it one piece? Stay tuned!

Hate a Local Business Week

My company has a program, "Love a Local Business". I love this program because it let's me recognized comapnies that have gone out of their way to give me good services. Too bad that this week, it seems like all my local and no-so-local businesses all seem out to screw me.

First, we have Julian Roberts, Tax Accountant and Lawyer. DO NOT USE THIS MAN. I gave him my receipts to do my taxes back in the first week of Dec. It's almost 3 months later and HE STILL HASN'T FINISHED MY TAXES. Not only that, but every time I call the office, no one has any idea who I am, they promise to find to find out what's going on and call me back and they never do. So then I have to call again. Plus, the bookkeeper they farmed my stuff out to keeps finding "one more thing" to do. I swear she's dragging this job out on purpose so she can bill more. In the meantime, the Franchise Tax Board is garnishing both my and Mr. Mac's paychecks even though we clearly don't owe them money but they can get away with it because we haven't filed.

Then, to tied us over until we get this tax stuff straightened out, I sold some of my stock. I selected the option to have a check mailed to me. I ALWAYS check this option. It's free and the least work. But every time, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney does not send me a check but deposits the money into my account. So I sold the stock Thurs. morning and it's already Monday and I don't have my check. I will have to call tomorrow and make them send me a check. And I won't get my money until more than a week after I sold my stock even though they had the money pretty much immediately.

Next, is AT&T uVerse. I set up to record the Olympics. I had no indication that they would not record. But twice now, I've come home to find that nothing is recording. Last Monday it was because of conflicts, but we canceled some stuff and checked and it was supposed to record and nothing else is recording. So it just didn't record. (This also happened to 4CCs. Just didn't record.) What kind of a dumb-ass system doesn't tell about potential conflicts in your recordings and allow you to manage them so what yo want to get recorded gets recorded?

And let's not talk about their sucky network that doesn't allow shows to playback without stuttering and which takes 10 minutes to load a page sometimes.

It's not just businesses. Everything else is going wrong too. I lost my Garmin multisport computer -- just $280 down the drain, that's all. And yesterday I did a really big workout and my bike computer didn't record it properly so I don't have any idea how I did.

I wonder what else can go wrong this week.

The Grounding

MacBoy and Mini-Mac BOTH got grounded within days of each other.

Mini-Mac was just a fight over her room. But MacBoy really screwed up. He took his car out for a drive even though  he's had no lessons and only has a learner's permit. Then he got caught and drove the car over a curb and burst three tires and dented three rims.

It's going to cost him $1300 to fix his car and he's grounded until the end of the year.

RIP Chase

One of our chinchillas died today. It's very strange because he hadn't been acting weird or anything and we have no idea what caused it. He was just laying on the bottom of his cage stiff as a board looking like he was trying to run, only on his back.

It's not a good memory for our Thanksgiving, that's for sure.

Everyone is very upset as he was the Good chinchilla -- the friendly one with lots of energy. Ariel, aka Ms. Crankypants, is still going strong. She's finally gotten used to us and actually lets us pet her. A bit. On the head only. She still fights when we try to get her out of the cage, but it's still progress even if slow.

On a good note, our dining room table is actually cleared off so we can start eating off it again. It's only been about 3 years since my business took it over.

Damn economy

Mr. Mac got a raise. Good. But he also has to do an involuntary furlough day once a week for the indefinite future. Bad.

MacBoy is licensed

MacBoy got his learner's permit. So the roads of Northern California are no longer safe!

(Heh, he'll be so happy to read that.)

We're going to Vegas

Okay, Mr. Mac and MacBoy are going. It's for MacBoy's birthday. He wants to drive to Vegas, see "Love" at the MGM Grand, and drive home. MacMadame said it was okay if a parent went and she's busy the two weekends he wants to go. Plus he doesn't want his punk kid sister to go so someone has to stay home with her.

But no she has to go to the SJ Rock 'n Roll Marathon and she's not happy about that.

San Diego Trip - Oct!

MacMadame is going to San Diego for the weekend in October. It's kind of a long story... she was going to this event on Sat. but it was canceled but now there is a different event on Sunday that is even better in one way.

But a lot of the details are up in the air... if she pulls it all together, she's going to meet Chrissie Wellington!

New car!

I got my new car! It's a Toyota RAV4 and it's purty. It's "Pacific Blue" with a gray interior. Limited trim with a back-up camera, leather seats (heated!), dual climate control, hands-free bluetooth, etc., etc.

I actually wanted the Sports trim, but it didn't come in leather.

The car is really for Herbie, my bike. She's tired of being knocked into the bike rack every time I take her some place.

School starting up

Mini-Mac and her friends are so excited that school is starting that they can hardly contain themselves. They keep posting things like "two more days" as their FaceBook status and squeeing about seeing each other again.

MacMadame is more in "where the heck did the summer go?" mode. It seems like they just got out of school a few weeks ago. Not that I'm not happy to have Mini-Mac back in school. But I wanted to get more done this summer.

MacBoy still not in college

So MacBoy's college plans hit a snag. He completed all the requirements to get in. But then he couldn't find any classes he wanted to take that weren't already full. So now he's going to wait until the Spring semester to start.

In the meantime, he's going to keep looking for a job.

New iPhone!

I replaced my iPhone today. They wanted me to spend $500 on it! But we finagled something and I got it for the normal "upgrade" price. But now Mr. Mac can't upgrade his for another two years. Poor baby.

Mini-Mac is back from camp

Mini-Mac had a good time at camp. She informed me she got married four times and divorced three and remarried one. Or something like that. She and her friends would do that in pre-school but the boys were marrying the girls. Okay, one boy married two girls, so it was still not mainstream. But apparently the in thing with the tweeners these days is to marry other girls. I'm not sure what to make of that. It probably explains Zac Efrom and Dave Archulleta though.

Someone stole my iPhone

I left my iPhone in the bathroom at the "Not-so" Great Mall. I discovered it right away and ran back and it was already gone. I am majorly pissed about this.

I bet I can't use the built-in GPS to get it back, either.

Tahoe Vacation

Only two more weeks before we go to Tahoe! We're taking the RV and staying at some Casino RV Park in Nevada. That cracks me up.

DVS Camping Trip

We just got back from the annual DVS camping trip. We took our RV, which was interesting. First of all, the RV reminds MacMadame very much of MacMIL and, as we were cleaning it and stocking it and packing it, she kept thinking of Greta and how much she would have enjoyed all the trips we have planned this summer.

Mr. Mac said it made him think of his mom too.

Anyway, we chose to have an RV spot instead of parking in the group parking lot for our site. This turned out not to be such a great idea because the only spot that fit the Behemoth (what we call our RV) was very far away from the group camp site and schlepping things back and forth the first day to get the kids set up in their tents and such was a PITA. Also, we didn't get to use a lot of the stuff we brought because it was just too much trouble to go get it.

It was nice to go hide out in it when the group thing got to be too much. MacMadame needed a big nap after her 2.5 bike ride all over the hills of Livermore and it was nice to nap in the air conditioned RV instead of in a hot tent. But, by slinking away, we missed more of the group feeling too. So it was a double-edged sword.

Next year, we're parking in the group lot!

Our next trip is to the Lake Donner area. MacMadame is doing a triathlon there in July. Then we had planned to do another weekend at Del Valle in Aug. but that probably won't happen. So it's Bike MS: Waves to Wine in Sept. and Santa Cruz in either Aug. or Oct.

MacMadame would like to go down to San Diego at some point, but Mr. Mac is leery of driving that far. Hopefully, as he gets more used to driving the Behemoth, we can branch out a bit in our trips. MacMadame still has "see the Grand Canyon" on her list of things to do before she dies and that would make a great RV trip.

DVS Open House

We had our last Open House of the year at DVS today. It was PACKED! A lot of the families seemed truly interested too. I'm hoping we'll meet our enrollment goal of 40 students next year. There are four interviews set up for next week, so it looks hopeful.

We're Getting an RV!

MacFIL is giving us his RV because he can't drive his trailer and his RV at the same time. I'm so excited! I already have three different camping trips planned out. Mr. Mac thinks I'm crazy so maybe I won't be able to convince him to go on all of them. But that won't stop me from trying.

Plus we can do more vacations because we won't have to pay for a hotel.

I want us to camp when I do my triathlon next weekend. And now I want to go to the Avia Wildflower triathlon and scream for one of my friends... it's also a music and camping festival. That's the one Mr. Mac rolled his eyes over. Then we have the school's annual camping trip at the end of May.

That's probably enough for now. But I'm hoping we can take at trip to San Diego at some point and maybe even the Grand Canyon.

Family Biking

Mini-Mac and I have a new hobby. We go bike riding every weekend.

It's kind of fun for me because I get to be the coach and not the student. But Mini-Mac needs a LOT of work! She won't ride her real bike with the gears because she's afraid of it. She also won't follow me when we go through intersections ... she switches to the cross-walk, which is not really safe. But it feels safe.

Our bike rides all involve stops at Subway though. I'm going to have to figure out what to eat there. I tried to substitute a picnic at a small park on the trail we road on this time, but was unsuccessful. We did stop there though. Some Indian families were there beating on drums and throwing colored dust at each other. I think it's part of some sort of festival, but what festival, I do not know.

Earlier today, Mr. Mac, Mini-Mac and I went to go watch a train. It was supposed to be a steam train, but it wasn't. Mr. Mac was very disappointed. Mini-Mac was bored. I was in between.

Karma hates me

I've been rather gleeful that Mr. Mac has sleep apnea and needs a CPAP machine. I'm not gleeful because I want him to have problems, but because

(a) I like being right and I was convinced he had sleep apnea,

(b) I was worried he'd have a heart attack in his sleep due to sleep apnea and really wanted him on the machine to prevent that,

and

(c) I've shared a hotel room with someone who had a CPAP and found the noise very restful so I figured I'd get a better night's sleep with him on the machine vs. him snoring.

So yesterday Mr. Mac comes home with his brand-spanking-new CPAP machine and I go to bed and I can't get to sleep. That thing is SO noisy and it makes a noise like wind whisling through the trees crossed with a car reving it's engine. Both are noise that startle me and keep me from sleeping.

But I think I'll be able to get used to it because, unlike snoring, it's at least a regular sounds. If not, well, at least I don't have to worry Mr. Mac is going to die in his sleep from sleep apnea.