The week that was

Let me start off with a week ago Friday (4/10/09), Brenda was on her way home from seeing a patient, had just merged onto the Turnpike and hit a storage container that somebody had not secured properly. She was blocked in by the guy backing up on the right to pick up the container, and traffic on the left, her only option was to hit. Brenda is fine, her car sustained about $2500 worth of damage, and the guy who dropped the container will have to pay.

The following day, we went to Enterprise to rent a car. We didn't care what they put us in. The did not have the Genesis to rent (I don't think anyone does), so they put us in a Dodge Journey. Quite frankly, I don't like this car at all. I really am not sure what Dodge is thinking with the cars they are putting out. I mean fine, you get some of the "cool" factor with the Charger, Challenger, and somewhat the Magnum, but really most of their cars just suck. Last year in Chicago, we rented a Grand Caravan, on the inside it was mainly plastic, and the back hatch would not shut (we had to secure it with a rope). I rented a Magnum in D.C. last year and it just felt cramped. For this Journey, the set-up is weird in the sense that the A/C controls are pretty prominent to look at, but the radio controls (which would be used more often) are really far down, somewhat blocked by the gear shift, and not at all convenient to change unless you are stopped at a light for an extended time. On top of all this, the gas mileage on this car sucks (the web site says 25 mpg, I think that is false), I think it is worse than on my 7 year old Explorer. All in all, I wish Dodge luck in their bankruptcy.

Brenda stayed home last week which was nice for me and the kids. I just still hope and pray Barbara gets better soon. I think Brenda needed that time at home, but by the same token, I think she wanted to be with her Mom as well, and I don't blame her one bit. We only have two more Tuesdays until Brenda's semester is over, and at least that will take one thing off her plate temporarily.

I had one of the best weekends I have had in a while. Brenda gave me the opportunity to go out and ride with Joe and a couple of other people in a memorial/charity poker run. The weather was great on Saturday, and it was just nice to get out on the bike. At the end of the run I ended up with 3 Queens. We hung out for a little bit, but one of the guys we were riding with had to get to work, and we all decided to take off. Joe and I spoke with one of the organizers of the run, because we had no idea how long it would take them to figure out who won the run. Considering it was a biker thing, we figured it would probably be 10 or 11 at night, and there was no way we were hanging out. I asked how much the winner of the run would get and he said it would be 30% of whatever was raised, with the rest of the money going to the kids. So, I did what I thought was right and told the guy that if I won with my 3 Queens to just give it back to the family. It turns out about an hour later, Joe got a call and I had come in second. I would have won $120. Oh well, I hope that little bit helps the family.

The $120 could have gone towards my new iPod fund. Last Wednesday, I was at the gym and accidentally dropped my iPod in the toilet. After storing it in rice for two days, then opening it up and drying it over the weekend, it is 100% dead. I need to find a way to get a new iPod, doing cardio with nothing to listen to really sucks.

Yesterday, the kids and I had brunch with Johnny and Liz at the Olympia Flame diner and then went skating at Glacier. Overall, we all had a great day. Lizzie was a little trying in the morning before we headed out to do everything, but everything was fine after that. My skating is improving little by little, I've started to take 1/2 hour lessons during the public skate at Incredible Ice on Wednesday evenings, we'll see how it goes this week.