kabby.net blog

Total Eclipse of the Car

     My car is very very sad. Ok, I’m very sad, and I’m projecting the emotion onto my car, which is sick. The car, not my emotion-projection. Anyway, a year and a half of terrible misfiring whenever I accelerate from a stop, the Mitsubishi dealer finally figured out what was wrong with my car. Or at least they think so. To help you understand, this is all I know:

October, 1997: Car bought new by original owners. (5-year warranty)
June, 2000: Car bought by us at Mitsubishi dealership (32,000 miles on it, purchase an extra 3-year warranty)
October, 2003: The last remaining warranty expires.
November, 2003: Problem causes spark plugs to fail the first time; on the way home from Champaign on I-57, I get an engine-light while going 65ish. Pull over, dad picks me up with a tow dolly, we tow it to the dealer. Dealer says “Plugs are shot, and we need to replace the ignition coil.” Over $400.
April, 2004: Engine light returns while I’m in Champaign. Dad switches cars with me, tows Eclipse back to Mitsubishi dealer at home. Dealer says, “Plugs are shot, wires are shot, we need to fix the timing.” Under $100.
June, 2004: Engine light returns, reset it at AutoZone.
July, 2004: Engine light returns. Dealer says, “Plugs are shot, wires are arcing. It’s because of your remote start on your car alarm.” Take it to Action Audio, who installed car alarm. Action Audio says, “It’s not our fault. *calls Mitsubishi dealer* Dealer says it’s not our fault either.” Under $50.
-Engine light on continuously, car at 61,000 miles-
April, 2005: Took car into dealership. Dealer says, “It’s not anything electrical. We’ve checked the EGR Valve, Coil, Plugs, Oxygen Sensor, vacuum, and Computer, and they’re all working fine. The car is running rich. The next step is to replace the valves on the engine, and that’ll be $2,200.”

     So, if you count up all the times the dealer or my dad replaced the spark plugs in the past year and a half, you’d get 7. And one set is supposed to last for 30,000 miles.
     Now I am torn between driving the car I love and causing a serious accident as a result of being unable to accelerate… between fixing it and selling it ($4,500?)… between driving one of my parents cars (which I hate) and buying my own car (which I am no longer sure about).
     Do I even want a CRV anymore? I know I can’t afford one outright yet. I could put a decent down payment on one, but I don’t want to have car payments. I did everything I could to be able to afford a car without payments. Should I get the boring, slow Civic? My car isn’t in *that* bad of shape…

Feeling: Blue and sick to my stomach (Wendy’s?)
Listening to: Kelly Clarkson – The Trouble with Love Is

April 28, 2005

Weekend in Review

     I had a very nice weekend. Alan’s parents bought us Biaggi’s for lunch and we all ate my cheesecake. Alan took me shopping, but I wasn’t able to pick anything out for myself for our anniversary. Then we went to Lexi’s play on Sunday and it was pretty good. It was very amusing to see Alex go up on stage and tell his two physics jokes about atoms.
     After her play, Lexi, Scott, Alan, Alex, his friend and me went to Borders (where I again failed to find something for Alan to buy me) and then to Steak & Shake. It was nice. Next time, though, I’m making Alan find me something. It’s much easier to have him pick me out something that I pretty much have to like than to find something myself.
     After I got home I went bowling with the guys as usual. It was fun, I bowled a 139 my first game, which is my highest score in a while. My last game was a 132 or something, too, but the middle was … poor. We bowled 4 games, since there were 5 people there and we didn’t have time to bowl the usual five. Oh well, lunch is just about over, I should go.

Feeling: Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired. (very little sleep last night)
Listening to: Jewel – Standing Still

April 25, 2005

Champaign Visit v201

     Happy 3-Year Anniversary to me and Alan. As my boss so astutely said, “So it’s getting pretty serious, then?” I’m making cheesecake so I have to make this quick.
Friday: Visit Renee at work (Lonestar), drive to Champaign ~7:30, arrive ~10.
Saturday: Alan’s parents in town for lunch (Biaggi’s?), grocery shopping, nice dinner (that asian food place that starts with an “M” and cooks your food in front of you and I can’t think of the name because the Taco Bell I just ate is making my brain fart), then maybe that Martini bar that Alan went to and said is nice (I never can remember the name of that place either).
Sunday: Lexi’s murder mystery theater with food at 1pm. I have to be home in time for bowling with the boyz at 9 or 9:30.

Feeling: Cheesecake AHOY!
Listening to: Anna Nalick – Breathe

April 22, 2005

Post-Wallpaper 1

     So, the long-awaited question, “what does the wall look like without that terrible wallpaper?” has been answered.





     We painted “Crisp Linen” on the walls and “Alumina” on the ceiling and trim. We still have a little bit of touch up to do, we’re rearranging the living room, and replacing the light fixtures, window treatments, doors and carpeting. But other than that…
     Today I went to the CVS after work, and it was nice to pointlessly wander around the store while waiting for my prescription to be filled. Their prices aren’t great, but they have had a helluva lot of coupons lately. After that I finally went to GNC to get more of that multivitamin I’ve been taking. I can’t completely credit my 10+ lbs lost on it, but it certainly did help me not get sick when everyone else was. Total Lean Multi, if you must know. I’ve been taking it for about three months.

Feeling: Accomplished
Listening to: Taking Back Sunday – A Decade Under the Influence

April 12, 2005

Party Pics (Minus Virus)

     If you’re not old enough to remember the “party pics” virus, man, I’m not going to explain it to you. But anyway, here are the pictures from Vicki’s Birthday party.










And last, but not least, a picture of my favorite boyfriend:

     Pictures from the newly painted walls have been taken but not revised yet. They will be up by tomorrow. As for now, it’s really late and I have to get some sleep.

Feeling: Tiiiiiiiiiired. Still happy about the nice weekend though. Need to picnic more often.
Listening to: My fish being depressed

1 comment April 11, 2005

Selling Yourself

     In Marketing, you indirectly learn how to sell yourself, because it’s hard to be able to sell other things (that you don’t understand as well as yourself) if you can’t sell yourself. So, I guess “Human For Sale” will be able to tell me how good of a marketer I am. What would I be worth if I were to sell myself on the black market? I am worth $1,718,018.00 on HumanForSale.com
     That’s a respectable score, I think. But I really don’t know how well others are scoring. So, comment with your scores if you feel you can.

Feeling: Worth almost two million bucks
Listening to: Shinedown – 45

April 9, 2005

Champaign Visit v200

     I’ll be in Champaign this weekend, and everybody seems to be doing everything. So, here’s the roundup.
Friday - get to Champaign ~10:30.
Saturday - Vicki’s birthday. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY VICKI) She’ll probably have a party. Sara is having a party for Josh coming back from war (God, that sounds weird) at something like 9:30.
Sunday - Some comedian appearing somewhere that no one knows at 4pm. Something with the improv people before or after. Get home around 9 for bowling at 9 or 9:30 (very important, bowling is so much fun).
Oh, and somewhere in here, I’ll be spending time with the lovely Alan.
     This week went by really quickly; it does not seem like Friday. It’s positively beautiful outside. I don’t know how I ever got by without a sunroof in my car.

Feeling: It smells like summer
Listening to: Bowling for Soup – 1985

April 8, 2005

Foyer Wallpaper Progress

Before:

During:

(After pictures come up after we paint. We haven’t done that yet.)

     So, we put a lot of work into the foyer and we are working on the living room / hallway wallpaper now. The hallway’s is particularly resilient, as the glue is trying to be badass and stay with the wall. Elbow grease, etc, is required. Bah.
     I just got back from my second weekly bowling trip with Tony

and Mike


I had a lot of fun, except my hand hurts. I guess it’s better than last time (when my butt hurt). I’m sure I’ll see the guys next weekend.
     Well, that’s about all I feel like talking about.

Feeling: My phone would be better than pets if the battery didn’t die after a day and a half.
Listening to: Avril Lavigne – Fall to Pieces

1 comment March 28, 2005

New Phone… Tomorrow…

     So I ordered a new phone to go with our new Cingular plan (since T-Mobile didn’t want to give us a deal on new phones if we renewed). It’s a Motorola V551 (free), and it has pretty much all the features of the Razr, except battery life and body style. Oh, and it’s $300 cheaper. Ordered from letstalk.com again, because Amazon still doesn’t do family plans.
     They already un-activated my T-Mobile SIM card (since we ported our numbers), so my phone doesn’t work, but I won’t have my phone until tomorrow. After work. Which is a long time from now. … Really long time from now. We requested from T-Mobile that our phones be unlocked, and they obliged. Apparently they will do that for free if you have been with them for 90 days. That’s pretty neat. This way we can use our old T-Mobile phones with our new Cingular account.
     We are FINALLY remodeling the inside of our house. It’s only been, what, 20 years? Wallpaper is going DOWN this weekend. DOWN to the GROUND. Bam. I should take “before” pictures.

Feeling: Cold. Miss Cell Phone.
Listening to: Dashboard Confessional – Saints & Sailors

1 comment March 17, 2005

Champaign Visit, vTooManyToCount.0

     I have no real plans this weekend. Alan has no serious work to do this weekend. I am leaving around 8pm Friday (and ditching some cool people to go) and I’m bringing Nicole again. Oh, I guess this is news. Nicole is going to Champaign because she’s going to Dirk’s wedding! Dirk! Married to a woman! Ok, for those of you who don’t remember Dirk, I dated him my freshman year of college, he was a 5ner, and I have my reasons for being fairly certain that he is primarily attracted to men. Who knows what’s going on with that now; I haven’t talked to him in years. I don’t know what time I’m leaving on Sunday, but my guess is early evening.
     Stewie, who was wounded after violently swimming through a plastic plant, is now almost completely healed. Huzzah. I think even he’s surprised he healed so quickly. He’s such a stinker/daredevil/bitter fish. I don’t think he hates me as much as he used to, though.

Feeling: I need to go pack.
Listening to: O Mio Babbino Caro (thank you Becky!)

2 comments March 4, 2005