The best laid plans...

... can still go south on the turn of a dime. Financially, it has suddenly proven impossible for David to move out and either of us to have any grocery money for the latter half of the month, thanks to an unexpected bit of car repair Hamster needed. I finally got my Washington state drivers licence*, only to come out and have my battery be utterly and completely dead. Luckily, there was a Goodyear car repair place in the same mini mall area, so they were able to fix it. Turns out apparently one of the terminal cables had an end on it that wouldn't tighten, so some bright person at one of the last two places to look at my car put a bolt between the battery terminal and the cable end, thinking the metal would conduct it just fine. I could kick myself for not noticing that.. it's not like I haven't had my car hood open since then. Instead I've been shorting out my car for Lord knows how long. On the up side, since paying nearly $200 to have a battery put in (another kicking myself situation), the Check Engine light has stopped coming on. I can, for what it's worth, replace the battery. It just wasn't acting as though the battery was going dead. Chalk up another mark in my expensive automotive repair education.

So, David's moving out has been put off by a month. We'll try to aim for August 1st instead. Neither of us want it to go any longer than that, as we would then have to get the kids used to a new schedule at the same time school is going again, rather than giving them a chance to get to something of a comfort level with the custody arrangements before moving to a new grade and going back to school. I'm keeping a good thought and hoping that this will be an end to the waiting.

*Oh, and to add injury to insult, my picture for the driver's license literally looks like I'm 40 lbs heavier than I am AND that I've suffered brain damage. I am not exaggerating. I do not even know how that happened. When I move in October, I'm so going to be the first person down at the drivers license office to get it retaken. Ye Gods.

Father's Day

So yesterday we decided that we were going to get David a Father's Day present, especially since today is his birthday as well. I polled the children and asked what they wanted to get him. Given that they are 7 and 6, I was expecting all sorts of suggestions of toys and games... and since David is merely a larger size of kid, those would be appropriate as well. You can imagine my surprise, then, when they both suggested a watch. He has a watch that he got in Basic, but it has arguably seen better days. Works fine, but scratched up and the band is a bit on the fuzzy side (it was a velcro band to start with, and it's only gotten fuzzier with wear. So we went to the store, I managed to prevent them from heading straight to the real jewelry counter, and we ended up getting him a fairly nice basic sporty watch, with a real band this time that actually fits him. The kids were very pleased with themselves, and he apparently likes it too. :)

Happy Father's Day/34th Birthday, babe. May the next year bring us both good things in life.