Thursday, September 18, 2008

Car update and General Junk (Salute Please)

Well, the car saga continues, it has been back in the shop since last Thursday and I have not heard from them since Monday. Ya'll pray they blew it up and have to give me a new or newish car for free. :) I hope to hear from them today, but am really enjoying driving their new A3 Turbo. I am trying not to enjou it too much, as I WILL have to give it back. CRAP! I will keep you posted.

Had a pretty good weekend, I dealt on Friday nigth till about 3:30 AM and only made $200 because the players were CHEAP!!! 1st place was $2700 and the jerk tipped me $70. I was stunned. Scott was pretty pissed too, but there wasn't anything he could do at that point. Well it was $200 I did not have and I thank God for it especially after the Audi expenses lately.

Saturday I did nothing but watch football all day and sadly the GT Jackets got beaten by VT. It took a couple of adult beverages to drown my sorrow. Donna Gamechickens got beaten as well, so she joined me in the beverage drowning, er downing. Something.

Sunday was my little buddy Ryker T.'s 2nd birthday, but most of you know that. We had a great time at J,K and Ryker's house. The boy hauled in a ton of loot again. Donna picked out his Wonder Pets Fly Boat and he really liked it, so Well Done, Baby! Stayed around and hung out with the Fam for a while and then motored my way home. I love that kid!

Otherwise things are going well, we are getting ready to be really busy at work. We are about 2-3 weeks away from starting phase 2 on the church. Lockheed is in full swing. we priced and bid a law office for about $250,000 that we have basically been awarded. Also we have a couple of other small jobs to work on over the next month or two. THANK YOU LORD!! Other than that we are just living and enjoying what we do and what God has blessed us with so, we'll keep at it.

All for now, CIAO'!!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Car Trouble!! UUUGGGHHHH!!!

Well, after 10 years of no problems with the Audi, it decided to be a pain in the butt the last couple of weeks. I went to get my emissions done and it failed due to a "secondary air intake" problem. I (not getting much of the car gene from my dad) had no idea what that was, but figured(rightly so) that it was not cheap. So I take it to Audi and they give me a loaner. The next day they call and tell me it is fixed, so I drop off the loaner and pay them $250 for a little bit of work and an oil change. WHEW!! Not near what I thought.

The next morning I crank it up and, guess what, the check engine light is back on!! CRAP!! I take it back to Audi, this time they did not send me to the rental place, but give a 2008 S3 turbo as a loaner (tricky bastages, putting me in a new Audi). It was really sweet and pretty damn fast for a 4 door hatchback. They know what they are doing. So this past weekend goes by and I get a call Monday afternoon about 3:00 telling me the car is ready. Damages? $1005.54!! HOLY CRAP!! The tech told me WORST CASE would be around a grand. Guess What? It was worst case! I am now the proud owner of a brand new, Audi installed, $1000, secondary air injection system!! YEEHAA!! Apparently it uses valves and various other parts to push air into the fuel system, during start up and under load, to "reduce emissions". What a bunch of CRAP!! Anyway, according to the emissions guy, I needed to drive it about 2 weeks to reset all the sensors, chips, and computer stuff. So I still could not get my tag.

Guess What? I crank it up the next day and THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT IS ON AGAIN!!! AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! I just dropped it off again and they sent me back to the rent a car place, I guess I did not rate another Audi loaner since I did not buy the S3 on the spot. I tried to trade them even, but they said no!! Imagine that. So here I am waiting to hear from them about what the problem is this time. This one should be on their dime, as they said they ran a full diagnostic and everything was "good to go". I guess I cannot complain too much as I haven't had a car payment for 5 years, but it is still aggravating. Donna's car will be paid off in March and we will hopefully be able to go a couple years without a car payment and then I will get something new again, probably another Audi. MAN it has been a good car.

CYA Sunday at Ryker T.'s Birthday! 2 years old already! Wow my little buddy is growing up fast!!