LolaGeek

How bad was my week? Last Saturday morning I found out someone in China had tried to charge $500-some on my credit card. Luckily, the credit card company caught it, canceled my account, and sent me a new card. In the meantime, I had no CC for the week. (You can read a little more about this in the coda I added to my eShakti review, because I have a hunch how my number got loose in China.)

Monday was fine, GG and I enjoyed the last day of our four-day weekend by going shopping at Target and the Plymouth Meeting mall, then having PF Chang’s for lunch.

On my way home from work on Tuesday, I drove over what looked like a square black tar patch on the highway. But there was a loud “thud,” and suddenly my “low tire pressure” light came on and my car made a rumbling noise while I drove. I pulled right over and got out to take a look. One of the back tires was completely flattened. And while I had a sense of what to do, and knew where my spare tire was, I didn’t know if I had a jack, or how all that really works. So I called GG. And then I called his dad. And they both came to rescue me :o) His dad brought the big jack he uses to work on cars in his garage at home, and had the spare put on in just a couple minutes. And now I know what changing a tire entails! As we were finishing up, a PennDOT tow truck showed up to make sure everything was ok. (I guess seeing three cars pulled over is a sign that something is wrong.) I rolled home on the spare, and went out first thing Wednesday morning to get a new tire. Amazingly, they did not try to sell me any additional tires or services. The place that I went has a history of being very slow (as in, it could be you and one other person waiting there, and your car takes three hours – true story), but I was actually done in less than an hour. They had the exact tire I needed – one of them. Maybe that’s why they didn’t try to sell me a pair? And my FIL called later in the day to make sure all had gone well with the replacement. He is awesome – a definite bonus to being married to GG.

While getting ready for work on Wednesday, we discovered some cat had left a little present for GG under his drawing table. “Present” meaning “poop.” Luckily it cleaned up pretty easily, and I left the door shut and window open to air out the room. While working from home all day, I kept hearing banging noises like the cats were messing with something. I finally realized that it was the wind blowing the closet door in the room next to me. (At one point I turned around to yell at the cats, and they were actually all sitting together right behind me, obviously behaving.) I stayed home from band practice Wednesday night because after playing last week, my pulled muscle was really killing me (you don’t realize how much you use your abs just for breathing!), so since I was finally just starting to feel better again, I figured I should heed the doctor’s advice and “take it easy.” I used my free evening to catch up with work, since I’d felt behind all week.

Thursday was supposed to be a fun day because a lot of my friends were going to be in the office on the same day, which rarely happens – I call these “perfect storm” days. But, it turned out some people weren’t there, and I was so busy with meetings I could barely leave my desk all day anyway. So it was a dumb day.

Friday I worked from home again, and then GG and I had made plans to go research car stereos for him, and then get dinner. So that was our date night :o) When we got home, I watched Fringe and tried to watch Portlandia, but I fell asleep. Luckily, we record it, so I put on the recorded version, and promptly fell asleep again. Finally, I forced myself to watch it a third time in my half-awake state, just so I could say I’d watched it and go to bed.

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland! Well, three or so inches of a winter wonderland, at least. We went out first thing to clean off our cars and shovel. That was a mistake – shoveling killed my pulled muscle again. I knew it would happen, but I would have felt like a mega slacker if I’d stayed in while leaving GG to do everything himself. He finally forced me to go inside when I told him I was hurting. (I think he just wanted me to get in and get cleaned up so I could make us the blueberry pancakes I’d promised.) I’ve spent the rest of the day watching TV and napping, with random bouts of housework in between. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer, melting any remaining snow and ice on the streets, so I will try to be more productive then.