What A Weird Weekend...

Well, it has been strange at work because the wife of one of our engineers suddenly passed away on the 18th, so the shop was just full of depression the next day. What made it strange was that people wanted to wish me a happy birthday when stopping by my cubicle, but they did so kinda under their breath.

After work, we decided to go geocaching and then out to dinner, so we headed out to the touristy, John's Pass area and started hunting. We had some success, both at John's Pass and nearby Treasure Island. That is, until the 'check engine' light on the car came on. We ended up taking the car home instead of looking for a place to eat at John's Pass.

The next morning (Saturday), we took the car to the dealer and they said it would have to stay for the whole day. Since the dealership had no transportation, we had to take the municipal bus system to get home. With the assistance of Katrina by phone, we were able to follow the route she described and made it home safely (there were some strange people on that bus - including the people that were riding with us). The funny thing is, it took 1 and 3/4 hours to get home, when we normally make the drive in 20-25 minutes.

When we came back to pick up the car, the service writer told us that the EGR valve was clogged with carbon and had to be replaced. Thankfully, we bought a premium extended warranty for the Magnum, so the only thing we had to pay for was the oil change and tire rotation (and not the extra $330 for the new valve). When we left the dealership, I talked to Luann on the phone and told her to tromp on the gas when the traffic light turned green, and man, a ton of carbon smoke came blasting out of the exhaust pipe. I told her that she needs to do an 'Italian Tune-Up' like that every so often so the engine doen't get carbon fouled as easily.

On Sunday morning, Katrina surprised us with the announcement that she had a 'shoebox diorama' due on Monday morning and the topic was US colonial-times clothing. We ended up running all over town to get the supplies, then helped her with the planning and layout of the project. It came out alright, but talk about stress...

So my 44th birthday has come and gone, albeit gasping, wheezing and struggling. I hope the rest of the family has had better luck with their birthdays this month: Jody, Treesie, Jennifer and Kim. Happy birthday you-all, looks like we're all one year older...