Crafters March 25 through March 31

CJ, I'm so sorry about the water heater problem. Nothing seems to ever be easy on home maintenance. I'm glad you have an idea of what you want and are doing reserch. The salesperson will ask how much you want to pay. Make what you think is a ridiculously low offer and see what happens. You never know. Like Ginny said, they will try to push you but I've also had the experience where they even called me at home to take more off the price

Ginny, how sweet to be able to watch the baby toddling. I love watching little ones walk.

Good thing i emailed the general manager about my battery because the woman at the service desk insisted I owed her $23 more dollars. I explained that the gen manager told me that since they no longer sell that brand of battery it would be an even trade. So she did call someone else over and I did get the even trade plus the warranty starts over again for another 40 months. I don't expect to have that car for 40 more months though.And as I mentioned, the problem might not even be the battery. I has been acting like this almost since I got this battery two years ago though so it's probably two things...the battery and something else...alternator or a short. They don't even test it to make sure it's bad.

Ginny, the GW here has a loading dock of sorts...mostly it's like a little porch. You drive up to it and it has one of those rubber hoses that you drive over and a bell rings inside and someone comes out the door to help with unloading the things you're donating. After the first two he thought he was done'Dh was handing them to him and told him no there are several more...a lot more. Yes we decided to go yesterday after all instead of waiting until today.It was beautiful weather yesterday except for the wind which was strong even in town. Now today is even better. No wind and will get to over 60 again

I didn't do any crocheting after I got home. I was too busy.

Now I'm going to go spend time in the Word also. Slept in late and am just getting up

Yes we did get the battery and it's now in the car so we'll see what happens...if the car's alternator can keep it charged. If it needs work we're not going to do it since the car is 20 years old and wouldn't be worth spending more money on it.

We're having a beautiful day today..in high 60's but Friday and SAt they say 3-4 inches of snow. People are unhappy. REally?? It happens like this every single year so I don't know why they're surprised

I've been doing some decluttering again today...trying to keep up with CJ. I started a new bag for donation. Ginny, the SA here is on the ohter side of town further than GW and they're very fussy about what they take so I'm not going to drag everything over there just for them to tell me they aren't taking clothing...or whatever.... that day. I'd love to help them but it's difficult. I did find out that the store that sells donated things and gives the money to the rescue mission is practically next door to GW but again...they sometimes don't accept any more clothing and that's MOSTLY  what I had although I did have some knicknacks in one of the bags too and I'm not actually sure of what else was in them. Also donated a desk lamp that my former boss gave me. It was flourescent and It doesn't seem like you can get bulbs for it anymore but I didn't want it anyway.

Ok I'm going to get back to work

Good morning!

Well, worked this am- and it was cold this morning here. 27 degrees. Got to work and thought I was doing two driver evaluations....instead another driver could not get in till late, so I drove her bus and then did one evaluation. Both buses were freezing.....so I am home now, complete with fuzzy slippers and a quilt on me, trying to get warm. Got a few minutes of embroidery in last night. Hope that maybe I can work on the falling charms quilt a bit today.
Ginny

Hello Crafters - Hope you are all doing well today

Ginny - I'm glad you were able to get home and out of the cold, hope you aren't getting any bad weather this weekend from the front that is coming. It looks like just rain for me.

Ruth - Hope you don't get too much snow, I guess that is pretty common for where you live, even though it's almost April.

I did buy a car today. It's a Kia Optima. It has some nice safety features, but didn't have all the fancy new upgrades that I don't really like. I just wanted a simple car and this one seems to be the most like my other cars - just updated. I was at the dealership for about 3 hours, there just isn't a way to speed that process up, but I'm happy with the deal I got. I do hate to have a car loan again, but I'm planning to pay it off in 3 years, or less. And I guess it won't hurt my credit score to see that I'm paying off a loan, since I haven't had one for close to 10 years.

I ended up trading in a car, the one with less mileage. I know most people would say that was crazy, but the car I traded is the one with the water leaking problems and I was just tired of dealing with it. Even though I was putting on the car cover, I found some water in the tire well again. This car also was more difficult to get in and out of. It was my father's and he left it to me when he died. I remember him telling me he didn't like the car and would have gotten rid of it if he was still driving, so I don't feel as bad trading it in. Now I'll just have to take care of my older car and use it as a backup car.

I was nervous driving home, but the car drove well and the visibility out the front is very good. The back window is a bit more narrow, but I'll adjust. I'm glad to have that all off my mind. Now if I can get the water heater fixed tomorrow, I'll be happy. Then I can get back to my decluttering. I only have a few more things to do and then I can work on something else. All these new car and water heater distractions have been irritating

Hope everyone else is doing well too and getting in some crafting. Take care!

CJ- congrats on the new car!!! Wow....what color did you get? I have seen a lot of Kia Optimas on the road and the reviews they get are pretty good. Bet you are glad this decision is over with and now you can move on and enjoy some trouble free years of car ownership. Some cars are just not as good as others, and only you know the issues that you have with the car you traded in. Sounds like you did this trade in with good logic and also in line with your Dad’t thinking. Plus if the car was more difficult to get in and out of, well then I do not blame you for trading it. Enjoy it in good health and may it take you to LOTS of quilt shows and Amish markets!!! Hope that water heater is a simple electrical problem - nothing too complicated.

Ruth, who is the dragon wing shawl for and what color (s) are you using? I had to look up the pattern online, they are very pretty and some make them in multi colors...very dramatic too. Is it a difficult pattern? Do I dare ask how many different projects you actually have in progress? (Think I only have 2 quilts in progress, and a few smaller projects too). I have no idea how you keep track of all you are working on! Good thing you got your bloodwork done and errands run yesterday with that much snow on the way. It seemed as though you were melting this years accumulation a bit.....guess you will have snow around for awhile yet.

Interesting day- in the mail was a summons from EZ pass telling me that I was in New Jersey on 3/19 and ran a toll booth. Included in that was a very poor picture of a Toyota Rav 4 with a borderline illegible plate. The only part I could make out in the picture was the last number....the rest of the plate was a blurr. Of course, this was not me, we do not own a toyota rav 4, and I was not in Newark NJ that day at 11:53 pm! (Ginny was home sleeping, for sure). Called NJ Ez Pass, and told them that this was in no way me. She told me that I had to get a registration abstract from NY state, which would list all vehicles registered to me.She was not very helpful and you could tell, she thought I was lying. Like a jerk, I figured I could get the abstract for free, as I know there is a lot with DMV I can do online. Wrong....I called Albany, and found a super nice and helpful woman who explained a lot to me. in 2008, I used to have a car with that plate #- but we surrendered the plate to the state when we sold the car. And NY never reuses a plate #- so there was no way this was my car or license plate. She also said that both Pa and NJ use the same plate numbering system so that this could be a plate from one of those states and the picture from EZ pass is so blurry you could not tell which one. She told me the best thing to do was get an abstract of that plate alone, which is proof that I surrendered the plate 11 years ago. Unfortunately, I had to pay $15 for that. Next call was back to NJ- to tell them that I had proof that this was NOT me or my vehicle....and the woman got a bit snotty. I asked to speak with her supervisor....who after saying hello hung up on me. (I was pleasant the whole time). Next call, back to NJ- got a really nice woman who I explained what was going on....she actually looked at the picture of “my” license plate, showed it to her supervisor and they both agreed that they could not read the plate at all- so they reversed the ticket. (Which was $52!). I called NJ a third time to beg them to refund me the $15.....because one snotty employee would not really look at the blurry picture and see that perhaps I was not lying. Got a semi nice supervisor, who reiterated that I would not be able to get my $15 refunded.....so I asked her at the very least to figure out who the first person was that I spoke with and gently inform her that perhaps she could have looked at the ticket also and done the same thing- realized that that this was a very blurry ticket and really not readable. Total of 2 hours on the phone.....what a day.

Hi to Phyl, Sue and Betty! Meg, you are missed and loved.
Ginny