First Half the Weekend

Last night I stayed up late marking a quilt. There’s going to be a shop hop in southern Indiana and my friend, Betty from The Village Mercantile in Boonville, IN, is participating. She’s also vending at the MQS Show next week. She asked me to quilt her top for the shop hop so she sent it to me last week and I’m supposed to bring it to her next week at the MQS Show. Betty’s quilt is going to have lots and lots of feathers and there was lots and lots of marking. I’ll hopefully start quilting it tomorrow but it’s going to take at least two full days, maybe three, to get it done. Not going to be easy to get it done so I can deliver it on Thursday but if I have to, I can put off going to the quilt show til Friday instead of Thursday as planned.

Today we went to Joplin, did the car deal without too much hassle. I requested that we stop at the Honda dealer before going to the Toyota dealer. The only Pilots they had that were light colored on the outside had leather seats. We went ahead and drove one just to get a feel for the vehicle. They seem so much bigger than the Highlander, although they probably aren’t that much bigger. We still went with the Highlander but Vince decided he liked the leather seats. We got to the Toyota dealer and they had the car out that we thought we wanted but then Vince asked to look at the one with the leather seats. We were lucky in that they had three Highlanders. One was 2 wheel drive so we didn’t want that. One was the 4 wheel drive with the cloth seats that we thought we were getting. The other one was the 4 wheel drive with the leather seats and both of them were the silver that I wanted. The one with cloth seats had Bridgestone tires and I swore I’d never buy a vehicle with Bridgestone tires after the trouble I had with my CRV tires but the one with leather seats has Michelin tires. I always ask for Michelins because I had some on my van that lasted almost 70,000 miles but Vince always goes with a cheaper tire. Anyway, we ended up getting the one with the leather seats but we added the protective finish (you know . . one of those gimmicks they sell you) so you don’t have to wax for five years and if a stain gets on the floor or the seats, they’ll replace it. They have to apply it so we’ll pick the car up Monday. What’s another trip to Joplin?

It will be so nice to have two vehicles again. Vince still hasn’t decided if he’s going to replace the engine in the truck but he told the mechanic that he would let him know on Monday. The engine, with installation, will be a bit over $4,000 and the truck probably isn’t worth $4,000 but we need a truck. I’ve never understood how a family survives without a truck. How do you haul stuff to the recycle center on Wednesday? I don’t want to put that stuff in my car. How do you bring home mulch for the flower beds? I don’t want that stuff in my car. So, the debate is: If he goes out and buys an old truck for less than $4,000, there’s no telling what’s wrong with it that we don’t know about. If he spends $4,000 on the S-10, then at least we know its history (which is not a good thing!) and the new engine comes with a three year parts and labor warranty. Another good thing is that if he keeps the S-10, I don’t have to dig a hole to bury it in the back yard!

I know what’s going to happen. He’s going to fix the truck and the Highlander is going to sit in the garage and never get driven. Three years from now, it will have 100 miles on it. But keeping the truck puts us back in the position of having three vehicles to pay insurance on. Don’t you think the liability part of insurance should go with the driver and not with the vehicle? Oh well, at least getting the Highlander means that whatever happens, I won’t be stuck without my vehicle again.

And, Chad made a cake! I think one of the few things I’ve passed along to Chad is my love to cook. He’s actually a much better cook than I am. I can follow a recipe but Chad is much more creative than I am. He prefers to cook without a recipe and comes up with great concoctions. Anyway, the cake he made is a Lemon Pistachio Crunch Cake and all I can say is . . I shouldn’t have eaten the whole thing! No, I didn’t really eat the whole thing but it’s rich and it’s heavy and I seriously need to lose weight!

He made the lemon curd and the pistachio crunch candy last night and then made the cake while we were gone.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the PIG. Speck was dancing around Chad’s feet while Chad was holding the cake. He would have done most anything for a bite of cake.