Worst Driving Luck EVER

I used to think I had the worst luck with cars, but not I'm starting to wonder if it's me. Seriously, I'm found myself questioning today if I should even have a driver's license! And I try to be good too. I try reallly hard not to text and drive and I even use my blue-tooth function while talking on the phone. Yet somehow, things like today always happen.

After a morning meeting, I bopped around campus delivering Earth Week kits from one building to the next. As I was driving down the street I hit a pothole (again - click here to see what happen last spring when I hit a pothole) and BOOM! My entire car shook and immediately my car started beeping at me LOW TIRE. I pulled over in the nearest parking lot, got out of my car and assessed the situation. I had not one, but TWO flat tires on my passenger side. What.The.Heck.

Of course I called Andi, because I never know what to do in those situations, but he didn't answer. I text him "Call Me ASAP" but then realized he probably thought something was seriously wrong with the baby so I quickly texted him "about the car" and he called me a few minutes later. He advised me to call Roadside Assistance and see what they said. Obviously two flat times = a tow truck so they arranged for one to come and get my car. I text Andi with the update on the situation and he called back to say he didn't want them to take the car to the dealership they'd arranged. So I found myself sitting in my car for the next hour, calling AAA and Roadside Assistance a million times to cancel the first tow's arrangements and line up a new one. It's times like this I HATE BEING A GIRL because I have no idea what I'm suppose to do. Why can't my husband magically show up and take over? Because he's working? Well, fine then.

Thankfully I have a wonderful co-worker who offered to drive me around today and stopped by my car to pickup all my marketing materials that needed to be delivered. About an hour later, the tow truck finally arrived. Of course it's a man and I cringed as I waited for him to make some snide comment about women and driving or ask me how the heck I popped two tires at once. To my surprise though, he was really nice and just loaded my car up onto the tow bed.

Mr. Tow Truck Man asked me if I wanted a ride down to the service shop with my car and after a bit of hesitation, I decided to go with him. The auto body shop is a few blocks from my house and I thought it might be easier to ride with him vs. waiting for Andi to pick me up or hitching a ride home with my co-worker. So I maneuvered my pregnant body up into his big truck and buckled my seat belt. Thoughts of Adventures In Babysitting danced through my head. I wondered if me and my baby would be kidnapped and killed by his metal hook for a hand, but again I was relieved - Mr. Tow Truck Man was really nice and made small talk the whole way. Also, he had two regular hands. Phew.

We rolled up to the service station down the street from my house and I knew it was going to be bad when the worker said "whoo, damn" when he looked at my car. Now there's the stupid boy remark I was expecting earlier. I told Service Station Worker to contact my husband directly with all questions. I'm sure it'd be millions of dollars to fix my car and I knew I wouldn't make the right decision. Better for Andi to handle it from this point forward.

Andi called me later this afternoon to tell me I need four new tires. Apparently it's something to do with all wheel drive and having the same amount of tread ... who knows. Anyway, $900 later I'm crossing my fingers I have a car to drive tomorrow. And that it'll be out of the shop in time for our drive to Nebraska this weekend.

Fun times. Fuuun times.

Case Closed!

Today I received the most random phone call from my boss.

Boss: "Do you have a black jump drive with a purple ribbon?"

Me: "Uhh, yes. Why?" (as I wondered what my answer should be)

Boss: "Was your jump drive lost or stolen?"

Me: "Uhh, maybe. I haven't seen it for a while. Why?" (now wondering if I'm in trouble)

Boss: "Did your jump drive have confidential or employee information on it?"

Me: "Uhh, no I don't think so." (frantically wondering what was on my jump drive - pictures of Andi and I? Work files? I have no idea. Thanking the lucky stars at this point that I've never made a Paris Hilton sex tape)

---

Turns out, my 4G jump drive had been recovered by the Columbia Heights Police Department as part of over 100 items stolen in car break-ins over the last few months.

Ringing any bells??? If you'll remember, my car was broken into in February! I told you about it here.

Apparently, the police officer looked at the documents on my jump drive and pieced together some of them belonging to someone within food service at the University of Minnesota. He contacted our University Client (! = whoa, awkward), who contacted my boss, who contacted me.

I called Columbia Heights Police Officer X who basically asked me to describe the items I'd lost the evening my car was broken into. From the items he recovered, I was able to identify the jump drive, my Oakley sunglasses (now sans lenses) and Oakley eyeglasses. I'm not exactly sure how the story pieces together but somehow Officer X has a guy in custody who's linked to a series of car break-ins. Officer X discovered a storage locker filled with the perp's stolen items. More of my items could be found in the storage locker - Officer X said he only grabbed what he thought he could link back to victims.

So, after a dozen phone calls to various precincts around the city, I was about to link my case/police report to the suspect. Not sure when I'll be able to recover my stuff (albeit a jump drive and sunglasses; of course the valuable stuff such as my camera, GPS and iPods are probably long gone). I have to say though, it feels good to know the case is closed. The person who broke into my car is in custody and will pay for what he's done. Yay for good ole' police work!

7 quick takes: Not so boring weekend

For not having much planned this weekend, Andi and I kept pretty busy. Here's 7 quick takes of our "not so boring" weekend.

ONE: I met Andi at his office on Friday after work so we could drive to happy hour together. Andi's friend Joe got a new job so he was hosting a 'last day of the job I hated' party at Brit's Pub in downtown Minneapolis. I might have told you this before ... I absolutely hate driving in downtown Minneapolis so to avoid an all-out panic attack, Andi and I met first, left my car at his office and drove together. Side note: this is one thing I love about my husband. While he realizes that leaving my car at his office and then having to go get it at some point during the weekend will surely be a pain in the ass, he simply agrees and lets me do it anyway. So, we went to happy hour and had a fun time. As I said in the post before, I was the only girl there and I always have so much fun in those situations. Listening to boys 'gossip' is funny.

On Saturday morning, I got an email from one of Andi's friends who also works at Andi's office. He happened to notice a giant bulge coming out of the side of my front passenger wheel (keep in mind, my car was still parked in Andi's office parking lot at this point). The email said something to the effect of "giant bulge coming out of your tire....very unsafe to drive on ... you should get you car checked out immediately ... should be covered under your lease / car's warranty."

I read the email to Andi in near tears. I can't stand ABSOLUTELY DESPISE calling to question and/or make appointments for stuff like cars and loans and financial stuff. It's not that I can't do it; more that I don't know what to say, nor who to talk to and it makes me feel all stupid and girly. Side note: one of my favorite things about being married is that all responsibilities such as these, in my opinion, have now shifted to Andi. He, however, would disagree. So, I begged and pleaded for Andi to please, please, please call the dealership and make an appointment to get it fixed. In fact, in the heat of the moment I may have said something along the lines of "I'll do whatever you say for a WHOLE WEEK if you just take care of it for me, puuulease!" And so he did. $162 dollars later, I have a brand new tire. Which, by the way, was covered neither by my VW lease nor the car's warranty. Apparently tires are not covered by such policies. And so, friends, do tell me again ... what's the point of having a new car under lease with a 5-year warranty?? Damn you, fine print.

TWO: On Saturday, we went waaay up to the Northern 'burbs to see our friends Rick, Shelley and their new baby Paige. What a little cutie. How quickly you forget just how itsy bitsy newborns are. My favorite part of our visit: when I came up from downstairs and saw Andi holding her, looking all loving with her tiny little hands and her pretty pink blanket. "Looks good on ya," I said. He smiled and handed the baby to me. Shucks. No baby for us ... yet.

THREE: Saturday night we had 2 birthday parties to attend: a suprise party for Andi's uncle Greg and another other for Andi's friend Kevin. We had a great time at both; TONS of yummy food and lots of catching up with the family and friends. A few pics from Greg's 50th:

The "big event" planners ...
Andi's Mom Janie and Aunts Judy and Barb

The Big Birthday Boy

(Greg said he felt like a little kid blowing out his candles)

Our family

Lindsay, Janie, Jim, Andi and I

After's Greg's party, we hopped over to St. Louis Park to celebrate Kevin's birthday. Andi brought Kevin a gigantic bottle of Jagermeister for his birthday so we had a few Red Bull Jager shots and had fun catching up with Kevin and Kendall.

FOUR: Yesterday (Sunday) was a gorgeous, sunny day in St. Paul. After church, Andi and I picked up Chloe and headed to Fort Snelling State Park which is about a 10 minute drive from our house. We'd never been there before - a huge park with lots of walking trails, a beach (wha? in Minnesota! Ok, it's on the river and well, who the hell would want to swim in the Mississippi ... but it's still a beach) and a cute little tabernacle with picnic tables, a playground, etc. Just a few weeks earlier, most of this area was underwater when the Mississippi was floading in areas of St. Paul. Parts were a little muddy and a little swampy smelling but overall a really great park area.

So we walked around the trails for an hour or so and Chloe was so happy to be outside. At one point, she started rolling in the mud like a little piggy. I'd never seen her do that before! She was covered in mud and dirt ... but I let her play and gave her a pretty thorough bath when we got home.

Chloe rolling in the mud

My little muddy puppy

We went to pickup my car after the park and I felt a little embarrassed - like one of the parents with super dirty, dishelved kids. "Don't judge, people! She usually all clean and pretty!"

FIVE: I used my new lawn blower on Sunday. Last year, I threw a pretty gigantic fit when this thing showed up from Amazon on my doorstep in oh, like October (read: October = snow in Minnesota). I told Andi he had a serious addiction to spending and he needed to stop throwing money away on crap like lawn blowers. (For those of you who haven't seen our yard, it's about the size of a kiddle swimming pool. You could likely give it a big pheeew and blow about the leaves from our yard). What's more, Andi doesn't do the yard work - I do - so had no idea why he thought we needed one. But, complaining aside and six months later, we have a new lawn blower so I was determined to test it out. I assembled the blower all by myself the last week and was very proud of myself in doing so. And yesterday, I gave our yard a good blow, er uh, suck actually.

I have to admit, the lawn blower/sucker is actually pretty awesome. It mulched up all the leaves into teeny, tiny pieces. Just don't tell Andi I said so. :)

Also, my spring flowers are finally blooming!

SIX: Last week I made the Pioneer Woman's Baked Lemon Pasta. It was delicous and really easy to make. After dinner, Andi and I made a few cocktails and headed on a long walk to Lindsay's house to visit her and her new boyfriend Chad. About half way there (she lives a couple miles away) my stomach started to gurgle and something just didn't feel right. Which, by the way, almost never happens to me w/o the assistance of 17 glasses of prune juice. The farther we walked, the more I thought I was literally going to die. At one point, I gripped Andi's shoulder with panic - we were smack dab in the middle of residential neighborhoods and not anywhere near a bathroom. We finally made it to Lindsay's and I bee-lined into the bathroom where I stayed for much of our visit. Poor Chad - I'm a wee bit embarrassed to see him at the next family function. I imagine our greeting will be something like "Hi, nice to see you again. Sorry the second time I met you I spent most of the time in your girlfriend's bathroom. It, ur, must have been the Baked Lemon Pasta."

Was it really the Baked Lemon Pasta? I can't be sure. Maybe I'd recommend going light on the heavy cream or advise against taking a long walk afterwards. :)

SEVEN: Just in time for summer, I have a tasty new cocktail to share with you: The Cucumber Martini. It's probably nothing new, but it's new to me and very refreshing. Here's how to make it:

What You'll Need:
2 martini glasses
1 cucumber
Hendrick's Gin (or similar)

1. Take 2 martini glasses and fill with ice water. Chill by setting aside
2. Add 4oz. of gin to a shaker and fill with ice. Allow to chill for 30 sec. or so
3. Dump ice water currently in martini glasses in sink
4. Pour (booze, without ice) into each martini glass, 2 oz. each
5. Slice cucumber and place a few slices in each glass

Toast with your honey and enjoy!

The nerve

What started out as a wonderful day yesterday, ended with me wondering what nerve somepeople have.

Yesterday afternoon I went to my friend Val's church to volunteer for Kids Against Hunger. We worked together in an assembly line with dozens of others packing meals for malnourished children in Haiti. In an hour's time, our group packed neary 24,000 meals. What a moving experience - I left feeling great knowing we'd helped those less fortunate.

Afterwards, I raced downtown to pick up my friend Ellie. We then headed to Uptown Minneapolis to watch the last portion of the pond hockey championships Andi's company was producing. The event was fantastic! Hundreds of spectators turned out and everyone was gushing about Andi's level of execution. I was so proud of him!

Following the event, Ellie and I headed back to my car to get ready for the event after party. We were bundled up in snow/outdoor gear and wanted to freshen up for the party. As we approached my car, I noticed the back seat was laying flat in my car. We both looked at each other puzzled and wondered if it was like that before. Seemed strange, but I didn't think much of it. We got into my car and I reached for my GPS which was sitting in the center part of the car. I'm not such a great downtown Minneapolis driver so we used the GPS earlier to naviagate from downtown to uptown. I noticed the GPS wasn't there and asked Ellie if it was under her feet or on her seat. We both got out of the vehicle and searched around. Then I noticed my Oakley sunglasses (my very favorite pair) were missing too. Now things felt fishy. I popped the trunk to see if anything was missing from there (remember - my back seat was laying down when I got to the car and you can access my car's trunk from the back seat laying down.  Nothing was missing except a silver briefcase of Andi's he'd had engraved with his company's name.

Now I knew something was wrong. My car had been broken into while we were at the championship - just across the street!! Panicking and feeling violated, I wanted to call Andi but couldn't bother him because he was wrapping up his event. Ellie called her boyfriend Derrick (also working the event) who told us to find the park police and file a police report. Luckily, they were sitting across the street at the event site. I explained the situation to the policeman and he wrote a report. "I know you know," he said, "but I'm going to tell you anyway. Never leave items out in plain site. You're asking for someone to break in." I know this. And how stupid for me to leave the GPS sitting out. Lesson learned. Now I want my stuff back.

I always keep a bunch of stuff in my car. Throughout the night I remembered more and more things stolen from my vehicle:

My very favorite pair of Oakley sunglasses - $200
Andi's GPS + charger - $250
Blackberry phone charger - $25
Work's iPod 32G Touch - $269
My iPod 32G (classic style) - $225
Oakley perscription eyeglasses - $200
My brand new Canon Camera (just got for Christmas) + case - $250
Chico reusable bag - $5
Andi's Oakley sling bag - $150
Andi's stainless steel briefcase - $150
Jeans, my favorite pair - $100
Long sleeve shirt - $10
New purple Scarf - $20
Heels - $30
Makeup - $30
Hairspray - $20
My sense of security - Priceless

Total = $1,937 in stolen goods

.... and that's just the items I can pinpoint that are gone. A few things that fry my nerves:

ONE: I'm just sick that my brand new camera is gone. It was my Christmas present from Andi. And I almost didn't bring it with yesterday - it was on the charger and I grabbed it at the last minute.

TWO: I now have to go out and buy all new makeup and brushes. How annoying is that?

THREE: My wallet and brand new Oakley sunglasses were missed by the little perps, and I'm so relieved. I got the shades from Andi for my birthday last week and they were stuffed in the driver's side door. I'd shoved my wallet underneath my driver's seat between the seat and driver's door. I am SO lucky they missed it.

FOUR: I'm so mad at myself for having such a small town mentality. How stupid am I for leaving that GPS out in the open. It was a crime of opportunity and I played right in. How frustrating!

I can't help but think - why do things like this happen? I suppose God has a plan and I should learn from this life lesson. To all of you out there - be careful and guard your things! What a crappy ending to a great day.