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Monday, November 30, 2009

2009 year end report

Wow! 2009 came and went so fast that my head is still shaking like a dashboard bobble doll.

The last couple of months I've not been very active with my blog. I've just had a lot on the proverbial plate and haven't really had an urge to write about things until they had gotten further along.

Where to start? My ex violated our parenting plan and moved them out of the school district. A big No No. Matter of fact she moved them so far out that it now is 40 miles one way to pick them up.

Moving is just one of the many violations. I won't go into them, but if you're divorced then I'm sure that you know all the ins and outs.

Skipping ahead. My kids are now sick of the mom and her BS. They tell me and her that they want to live with dad. Initially that goes interesting with their mom. She loses her temper with my son and proceeds to yell at him that "there are still plenty of moving boxes for you to start packing your shit into".

Real nice yeah?

So after much discussion with an attorney it's pretty much been placed on the back burner on a low simmer. The former Mrs. is now raising a stink about it and doing everything she can to continue to push the boundaries of the spirit of the parenting plan.

My attorney has a plan, and the more I think about it I wonder if its a good idea. He states that a court doesn't care what the kids want. They will side with mom for the reason that this is where they currently are and custody doesn't need to change just because mom is having a bit of bad luck.

Bad Luck my arse!! She is flat out making stupid mistakes and my kids are paying for it. I've gone to far with this one.

Back to the topic at hand. The end of the year review.

Well it's been a roller coaster year. Reconciling with the folks (mom is narcissist and we cut them off for a almost 2 years) refinanced our condo for a lower interest rate and got out from our PMI. Joined up with a great group of folks, the Seattle Steamrats, a local steampunk group. Sold my previous ride (see the Bronze Bitch files) and purchased a new one (see the end of the road).

The holidays almost went over without a hitch.

On Christmas morning the parents and grandparents came to our place for the morning. The festivities started on the front landing of our condo when my grandfather fell. So we finally got him off the ground and in the house and kept an eye on him for about 2 hours and finally had to call paramedics. He hasn't come home from the hospital and won't be. Grandma can't take care of him and the fall triggered some other things. He will be headed to a live in home once he's able to leave the hospital.

Lastly, there are the car repairs. Jake (the new to me Porsche 944) needed a few things when I bought him that I was aware of. A clutch and engine mounts. Well then 3 weeks later came the unexpected: Jake hemorrhaged fluids all over my parking space at the condo. Damn. So after 2 weeks in the shop it will be ready tonite. The first issue was the valve cover gasket and all the pulley and crank seals that were leaking. They found the waterpump leaking.

Once it was back together and the system was re-pressurized it burst a hose and the radiator. Fortunately the shop is only charging for the parts and not the labour since they had it way longer than they or I intended. So the Jake has now cost $6k in repairs alone. Last nite I asked my father in law if he would discuss the purchase price. I don't think he realised that it was going to take so much work. We'll see where that goes.

So now you're wondering, Jake? Where did that name come from? Well I'm glad you asked. Ever see the movie Sixteen Candles? A John Hughes film. One the secondary characters is named Jake Ryan. He drives a red Porsche 944. I name all my cars and this just seemed logical.

Let's see where was I? Been a few days since I could write on here. The pc has had some issues. My wife's work broke our internet connection on the pc. Her office is moving next week and there is no room for the Paisley at the new place so she has to work from home for two days next week. Well when she tried to login to the VPN is crashed our connection. Thankfully there is the restore option.

We have talked to so many peeps that work in tech support that are totally stumped that all their suggestions are not working. Well good on my lovely Paisley for suggesting that we just do the system restore. So finally tonite after going through many of the pc voodoo rituals and did the restore and BAM!! we have a connection again.

The weird twist is that this whole time according to a Communist-Cast our modem was working every time they pinged it, but every time we tried to get on we were getting an error message stating the server could not be found.

Well I'm rambling again. On to the new year. I have two resolutions. Make myself more available to help friends and family out and revamp my blog.

Page layout is the mission and more post's. There will be a Cruisin' With Jake segment to show off weekend outings and to report on how he's holding up now that we've sunk $6k into the lil bastard to get him healthy.

So Happy New Year and look for most postings and a spiffier looking page.

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