Sunday, February 19, 2006

A Married Sunday Afternoon Part Deux

i apologize for not posting. i've been in Philadelphia for the last week and a half for training and can't access the internet for anything non-government related. actually, i can't really access it for government related stuff either. i think it's a conspiracy.....
ok, today's fiasco all started on about wednesday when michael mentioned that he had drained the battery on the new hyundai. which he does quite often. he told me that he had tried to jump it, but that he was unable to do it by himself and needed a second pair of hands. ignoring the fact that there are several other people in wisconsin, we eventually agreed to just wait until i got home. i asked him if he would call a car person, ahem, a professional car person and ask if leaving a dead battery out in the cold for a week and a half was bad for it. i was assured by him, my mom, and a co-worker that that was ridiculous and there was no need to worry.
fast forward to today. day two of my three day trip back to milwaukee.
at about 2:00 this afternoon, michael and i wandered outdoors in subzero weather to attempt to jump the car. as soon as you touch the black cable to anything, whether it be something metal or the actual negative post (which i found out was not the appropriate way to jump a car), the car alarm goes off. if you follow the manual, you do not connect the black cable at all, thus leaving an open circuit. i'm no engineer, but i'm pretty sure that's not going to jump the car.
so we called the tow truck.
the gentleman arrived and concluded the battery was completed dead and that we needed a new one. and then assured us we could replace the battery ourselved. in subzero weather. so we dismissed him and went to advanced auto parts to purchase a new car battery.
$64 later we came home with our battery. we managed to remove the two nuts the tow truck driver pointed out to us after a bit of elbow grease. the battery wouldn't budge. at this point we noticed a small bolt towards the bottom, and very well covered with sharp metal pieces, that needed to be removed.
we tried a wrench. we tried a pliers. we tried one of those things you put on the end of a screw driver that should cover the bolt all the way around. we tried everything we had.
after about an hour we concluded that we needed a bigger hex driver (note the technical terminology which i'm almost positive is wrong). so off to home depot.
they don't make hex drivers any bigger, so we bought a full ratchet set. at this point, i'm beginning to feel like tim the tool man taylor.
neither the 7/16 or the 1/2 socket things fit on this damn bolt. so maybe, given that the car is foreign, the socket thingy we need is in metric instead of english or whatever system we use here in the usa....
we called advanced auto parts. the first guy says that there aren't any metric socket thingys. so i give up and call hyundai roadside assistance again. they say that because of the storm (which i think was something like 5 days ago), they are now running about 8 hours behind. so i decide to try AAA instead. they say they can get me someone in 3 hours. yea!
so we decide to call advanced auto parts to see if they will install the battery in the morning if we have the car towed there. they say yes and then rob the nice advanced auto parts man tells us that there is in fact a metric socket thingy. so off to advanced auto parts we go.
while looking at a row full of socket thingys, i ask rob if he thinks that leaving a battery not charged in the cold for 7 days is bad for it. he says definitely and it will probably ruin the battery. at least we know now that this entire situation is mike's fault. and mom. and my co-worker.
we find a 12mm socket thingy and buy it. and drive home.
we get all the way home and i find that i have NO idea where the 12mm socket thingy is. so we call advanced auto parts and find out that i dropped the socket thingy in the parking lot. now part of this entire mess is my fault. damn. grrr..... so back we go. again.
we get back and try to get the stupid bolt off. while mike is accomplishing the goal we at this point began upwards of 6 hours ago, the tow truck man calls and is lost. i give him directions because i'm not sure at this point that the car is going to start even with a new battery.
mike attaches the new battery. the alarm goes off again.
the tow truck man arrives (only after mike drives to a nearby gas station to retrieve him) and alleges that he can start the car. we laugh at him.
he attaches the battery and the alarm goes off. he promptly takes the car key, pushes a little button, the alarm stops, and then mike goes in and starts the car right up. as if there had never been a problem. damn.
so, we found out that the car has an alarm. an alarm which can be turned off using the top button of the remote. and that that alarm disables the starter, which in turn makes the car not start. and it only took us 6 hours, 3 trips to advanced auto parts, 2 tow truck drivers, 2 car batteries, and a trip to home depot to learn that.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

I would have been dumped

So, on Thursday I was driving home from Madison to Milwaukee. I happened upon a large Chevy truck, with all the fixins. Bigger wheels, tinted windows, custom paint, the works. The guy must have been cool. Anyways, I could see from a distance that there was something written in window paint on his back window. As I approached, I realized it said,

"Happy 11 months, my prince!"

Complete with a hand drawn rose underneath.

I can't think of one person that I dated that would have allowed me to do such a thing without kicking me to the curb.
I laughed. Hard. And I'm a girl.

Tag, You're It!

Ok, so Scott tagged me. This is a totally new concept to me, but I'll play along!

Four Jobs I’ve had in My Life
Internal Revenue Agent for the IRS
Becky's B*$%c at KPMG
Resident Assistant
Day Camp Counselor at various camps

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over, and Have:
Old School
Bridget Jones's Diary
Anything Julia Roberts
Billy Madison

Four Places I Have Lived:
Brookfield, WI
Denver, CO
Iowa City, IA
Dubuque, IA

Four TV Shows I Love To Watch:
Grey's Anatomy
ER
Survivor
Las Vegas

Four Places I Have Been On Vacation:
Negril, Jamaica
Las Vegas, NV
New York City, NY
Prescott, AZ

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
MSN.com
IRS.gov
the DU webmail page
yahoo.com

Four Favorite Foods:
Chinese donuts
crab wontons
scallops in saffron cream
anything breakfast, especially with chocolate chips

Four Places I Would Like to Visit:
Australia
Europe
Alaska
New York City (I'm going next weekend!)

Four People I Am Tagging With This Meme:
Gwen
Megs
Erin
Jess