Paying the Rent, Driving a Honda, & Drinking at CBC

I got up at 7:20am and snuck downstairs without waking a soul. Before doing anything, I checked the temperature. It was exactly 0 degrees! A side benefit of the bitter cold was clear skies. We haven’t had that much sunshine of late. It was nice to see. We had only Landon & Rocky. The other two were with their daddy until Wednesday. The two kids began to stir while I completed my inside workout. I headed back upstairs to fetch and change Landon. Downstairs, I made the two boys waffles. Rocky ended up eating four of them. He’s a much bigger eater than I ever imagined. Mindy got up so that I could walk Ykraps. It was incredibly cold, especially walking back towards the west where a light NW wind originated. I carried on with coffee and internet for an hour or so afterwards. By 9:30am I dressed for my run. I wore the same thing I always wear in cold temps – nothing extra. I was perfectly comfortable, save for my face getting a little cold at the run’s outset. A quarter mile or so into the run, I was nice and toasty. While I ran, Mindy took Landon & Rocky to Grandma Sharon’s so that we could finish some Xmas shopping later in the afternoon. She decided to do some shopping even before returning. Made sense. It would be at least 1.5 hours before I would be ready to leave the house anyhow. After completing my run and playing on the PC, I took a quick shower. It was about 11am. I phoned Mindy to measure her ETR. She said about 30 minutes. I used that time to wrap her remaining unwrapped gifts. I was stressing over her arriving home while in mid-wrap. That never materialized. She got home around 11:35am. We wasted little time prepping for an afternoon out. First on our list was taking care of daughter Ashley’s December rent, which only became a crisis late last evening. Her mother & I agreed that we’d each pay half. Because it was late, they would only accept a money order. I understood the apartment complex’s policy but I was still aggravated, mostly with Ashley. We stopped at my bank to get a cashier’s check to cover the rent. That cost me an extra $5. We then drove to Grove City and eventually to her rental office. The young lady working at the office thought it was a nice gesture paying her rent. I didn’t discuss the details. We moved on. We decided to stop by Ash’s apartment after seeing her car in the parking lot. As usual, no one answered the door. That pissed me off. We pay your rent, the least you can do is answer your door. Good grief! The whole event jaded my otherwise good mood. From there, we drove back towards the west stopping first at the Georgesville Bob Evan’s to pick up a gift certificate for dad. Afterwards we drove across the street to Hugh White Honda where Mindy test drove the Honda Pilot. Tony was more than happy to accommodate us at a moments notice. I road shotgun and battled nausea the entire time. I never do well riding as a passenger. We were gone with the Pilot for about 45 minutes. We stopped at the Georgesville Lowe’s parking lot so that Mindy could look it over good and sit in all the various seating arrangements without the interruption of a salesperson. I like doing that too. I coached Mindy on our almost certain interaction with Tony after returning the car. I asked that she not seem too excited about it and to remember that we drove the Toyota and Nissan equivalent. All of this, of course, in an effort to get ourselves an even better deal than he’s already offered up. As expected, Tony came right out. He focused his attention on Mindy instead of me. Smart move on his part. She told him that she liked the Honda but he’d have to do better with the numbers. I thought she did remarkably well. He bit. He went through the whole “let me talk to my sales manager” thing - a couple of times, in fact.. He reluctantly returned and said he could give us another $500 off but that was it. I countered with my own offer. His $500 off plus the few dealer installed options we needed (cross bars for the roof rack, trailer light wiring package, and stainless steel side steps). They totaled another $1000. He countered that there was no way possible but left again to discuss with his boss. If not, no deal then. Thanks just the same. His manager returned with him and agreed to split the cost of the three dealer installed options we wanted. The deal then would bring the cost back to his original offer, but with $1000 worth of additional options. We were satisfied. That said, we seemed to have a deal in principal, but like any wise customer, I told him we’d sleep on it and get back to him. We left for home. Both of us were extremely hungry. We carried in Jacob’s hockey table that’s been riding around in my Trooper for a week now. Mindy began wrapping some of the kids gifts while I warmed some Xmas party leftovers (ham and meatballs). While she wrapped gifts, I ran the numbers from our car deal and showed her to a penny what her monthly payments would be. Told her to think about it hard, plus to remember that the insurance would go up considerably. Mindy left to fetch Rocky & Landon from Grandma Sharon’s at 4pm. I spent about 30 minutes napping on the sofa. I was really tired. I walked Ykraps around 5:30pm – close to his usual evening walk time. We had plans to meet Julie, Katie, Joe, and Camilla at CBC around 7:30pm. We were expecting Kara, our new baby sitter, at 7pm. That time came around fast. By then, we had the kids in their pj’s. The kids seemed unfazed by Kara’s presence. Any worry that they might throw a fit was unfounded. Landon might’ve whimpered just a little as we exited. We arrived at CBC by 7:30pm. They place was almost empty, but that was fine by us. Jamie was working the bar. We’d never met her before but she seemed really nice. She said our friend and usual bartender, Kevin was in Brazil for Xmas spending it with his wife’s family. Julie & Katie arrived about ten minutes after us. We sat around the bar, us sipping beers, and those two sipping wine. They ordered some spinach dip to share while waiting for Joe & Camilla. Out of the blue, the bartender, Jamie, asked Julie if she still liked the A’s. We all stopped momentarily to grasp the magnitude of the question. This was Jamie Young, Julie’s childhood friend. It was a very cute encounter. Joe & Camilla arrived after another 30 minutes. They were at brother Todd’s having pizza after working on a Xmas project all day long. We asked to be seated at a table in the restaurant section. We were seated at a round table, which was my preference all along. That way it’s easy to interact with everyone. Because we were the only patrons in the restaurant, we made lots of noise and had lots of fun. We each ordered appetizers in lieu of a full blown meal. Glad I did. I had hot wings. Mindy had calamari. Joe & Camilla shared the spinach dip. Can’t recall what Katie and Julie shared. Through the evening, Mindy had just the one beer – house porter. I had three IPAs. They were good. We left for home around 10pm. Kara had the kids already asleep in bed, but that’s what we expected. She said they were in bed promptly at 8pm. We paid her well. Mindy asked if she would consider being on an every other Friday rotation. She agreed. That will guarantee Mindy & I some well-deserved alone time out with friends every other week – a blessing. I was excited to see that the Bears were losing 14-3 to the Packers. If the score held up, the Vikings would be division champs. Mindy knew the game was important to me, but found herself unbearably tired and begged off to bed. I stayed up to watch in horror. Somehow the hapless Bears pulled off a comeback, winning in overtime with a 38 yard field goal. I was bummed. Still, we control our own destiny. Win and we’re in. I took momentary solace in that and headed off to bed.