One for the record books...

Yesterday, the Yankees made history by being the only team to ever have THREE grand slams in one game.  One of those grand slams came from my favorite current player, Russell Martin.  :)  The other two came from Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano.  

It was an absolutely amazing game.  Not only did it make history for the grand slams, but it didn't look like we'd even win the game in the beginning.  We were losing 1-7 in the third inning. But then Russell Martin got a home run to start the comeback -- so the game saw him get 2 home runs.  :)  He went 5 for 5 with 6 RBIs and a walk. 

R. Martin celebrating! :)  (Source)

Every Yankees starter got at least one run yesterday.  It was AMAZING.  Proof that all of you should be Yankees fans.  :)  

I'm an old woman...

I'm sorry I've been a bad blogger.  I've had a lot on my plate lately.  I'd say that I will get better, but I probably won't until after this wedding is done with!  

Anyway, onto the real reason for this blog.  Philip thinks I might be an old woman.  First off, the new birth control pill I started this month caused me to have serious hot flashes for a while.  That was not fun!  I had the a/c in my office as low as it would go.  I was told that you could hang meat in my office it was so cold.  However, I was still burning up!

Next up, Philip and I made our own cornhole boxes.  We're having a cookout this weekend and we're going to try them out.  Well, we worked together on the construction part, but the sewing of the bags was left to me.  So, I broke out the sewing machine and got to work... while watching Murder, She Wrote.  Philip is convinced he's marrying an old woman.  ;)  

I found Murder, She Wrote on Netflix last weekend and I just couldn't help watching it.  I only vaguely remembered it and I wanted to see if it was actually any good.  Well, turns out, it is fairly decent.  

However, I would never want to be friends with Jessica Fletcher.  Sooner or later, all of her friends and family are either murdered or accused of murder!  She was like the Jack Bauer of the 80s (how many times can Jack Bauer save the world or how many murders can Jessica Fletcher witness or be near or even solve!?).  

Anyway, I told Philip that he doesn't need to worry unless I decide I need to take up knitting. ;)  I just wish Netflix had Matlock available to watch instantly!  lol

Farewell to a Friend

I've been quiet on the subject of Sam since my last "Auto Update."  That's because she's gone.  I sold her to one of our neighbors.  He is a mechanic so I knew she'd be getting a good home.  

He's already fixed just about everything that was wrong with her (much easier to do when you can do it all for free yourself!).  The a/c is working, the windows are fixed, the gas gauge works, she got an alignment and new tires, her rotors are polished, and she's lookin' sharp.  

I am happy that she's got a good new home (with someone who loves her like I did), but I can't lie.  The night she left, I shed a few tears.  I know that I have an irrational attachment to inanimate objects (especially my car).  I can't help myself.  There are lots of good memories with that car.  Hopefully she will have many good years with her new owner as well.  :)

Movie Reviews

Saturday night, Philip and I went to the drive in.  We saw Cowboys & Aliens and Captain America.  I was really excited because I've wanted to see Cowboys & Aliens for a long time.  I didn't care that much about Captain America but everyone I've talked to has raved about it.  

My thoughts on Cowboys & Aliens: Meh.

My thoughts on Captain America: Meh.

They were both okay but they just weren't all that I had hoped for.  

** POSSIBLE SPOILERS **

Cowboys & Aliens is about cowboys fighting some aliens (coulda got that from the title, right?).  Those of you who know me know that I love a good alien flick.  I'm a sucker.  Well, the aliens in this movie looked funky.  They reminded me of the Locust from Gears of War (wow.  I spend too much time watching Philip play video games!).  And, the movie was cheesey.  It didn't flow very well.  I was unimpressed.  Besides, why are the aliens after the gold??  WTF do they care about gold?  The other alien lady says something about the gold is as rare to them as it is to us.  What kind of explanation is that?  I mean, if there were life on Mars, I doubt we'd start a war over some rare mineral on Mars just because we could.  It just doesn't make sense to me.  

Captain America is about, well, Captain America.  It's about how he got his start.  Honestly, it was pretty decent, but it was a little too cheesey for me.  To be fair, I'm not a Captain America fan.  I did hate that the Cap just got one tiny kiss from Peggy before he has to go off and save the world.  He has to crash in order to save the world.  Right before he crashes into the Arctic, he makes a date with Peggy.  He crashes and then is frozen for 70 years.  So, he missed the date and the love of his life is dead.  What a great, cheerful way to end a movie, guys.  

Oh, well.  They weren't terrible movies, but they certainly weren't fantastic.  And that's my 2¢ worth.  

The Pilot Adventure...

Monday, Philip and I worked out a budget to see how much we could afford to spend on a new Pilot for him.  We knew that we'd probably have to spend more than we wanted to because Philip has terrible credit (he was really dumb with his credit when he was young -- fortunately, the stupid stuff should just be on his credit for another year or two!).  

Well, he decided that he was going to go up to Honda of Greeley to see if they could offer him any more than what Planet Honda had offered him for his trade-in ($11,000).  The best that they could do was match Planet.  But they promised to work with him to try to get him a better deal.  The problem was, Planet Honda had already given us a quote for a sale Pilot that they had (several thousand off the MSRP).  Honda of Greeley couldn't match their price.  

However, they begged Philip to work with them to try to get the financing where he wanted it.  They threw in a maintenance package and a 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty for the Pilot and then we got down to business.  

They went back and forth with American Honda Finance for a few hours.  I didn't think they were going to be able to make it happen.  However, the manager said he called in a few favors and argued for Philip (he has only ever owned Hondas and he's never been late on a payment).  Somehow, he was able to get us 1.9% financing (just to give you an idea, I've got WAY better credit than Philip and I was still only able to get 7.1% financing at Planet Honda -- because I don't have any auto loans on my credit history).  The 1.9% financing is what they give people with absolutely superb credit.  Not us!

But, Philip was ecstatic!  I drove up after work to sign all of the paperwork.  We transferred all of the stuff out of Philip's car to the new Pilot and then said goodbye to her.  She was a good car.  :)

And now, without further ado, meet Philip's new 2011 Honda Pilot EX-L (her name is Scarlet):

She is Dark Cherry Pearl with Beige leather interior.  The seats all fold down flat and lock (which the dogs love!).  There are about 57 cup holders and electrical outlets.  It's got nooks and crannies everywhere.  It has three rows of seats:

(Source)

It's absolutely fantastic.  Philip's favorite feature is the back-up camera.  What can I say?  He's easily amused!  I am really happy for Philip.  He's getting exactly what he wants.  And, Scarlet is beautiful.  :)

So Much For That Plan

So, you might remember that last week I was saying we were waiting until December to buy Philip a new Honda Pilot so that we could get more for his trade-in (the Civic).  Well, Saturday (also known as the day from hell), we went to the brand new Ikea in Centennial (South Denver).  

After a bunch of hassle, we finally got what we came for (like I said, the day from hell).  Since we were in the area, I asked Philip if he wanted to stop by a different dealership to see if they would give him more for his trade-in than Planet Honda offered (and to see if he even liked the Honda Pilots).  

Philip immediately fell in love with the Pilot.  However, since we just went to Ikea, we had my CR-V instead of Philip's Civic.  They told us that they'd have to see the Civic first, but they were sure they could probably match or beat what Planet Honda offered us.  

So, we drove the hour back home to get his car and the hour back to Kuni Honda.  When we arrived, they told us that they'd called around to the auction companies in the area (they have to wholesale Philip's Civic because he was in an accident where the airbags went off) and the most they could get for it is $5,000 (Planet Honda had offered us $11,000 for it!).  The salesman told us to scoop up the offer from Planet immediately before they changed their mind about it!

I was irritated that we had driven all the way back to Denver for nothing, but I was determined to make the best of it.  We drove to the other side of Denver to go to Planet Honda.  We arrived at about 7:30, but they close at 7pm (on a Saturday! Really?) so we couldn't do anything that day.  We were really bummed.  We were hoping to get a good end of the month deal (it was July 30th).  

However, we refocused ourselves that night.  We knew we didn't want to keep paying on a car that wasn't worth what we owed on it.  So, I emailed Planet Honda and told them that we would be in on Wednesday to discuss buying a Pilot.  

To Be Continued...

The Great Cell Phone Misadventures of 2011: Part III

So, when I left off, the Best Buy guy had just fixed the phones so that we each had the right number and our phones were actually functional again.  I thought it would be smooth sailing from there, but I was wrong.  

The Samsung Nexus is nowhere near as awesome as the Best Buy guy had described.  Not only was it way slower than the Shift, but I couldn't get a bunch of the apps that I liked on the Shift.  And, it didn't have a clock on the desktop!  And, to top all that off, it didn't get service at work or at home.  And the service was spotty in between those places as well.  I couldn't call or text anyone.  I sent Philip a text one morning and he didn't get it until over 14 hours later.  I didn't receive calls or texts from people.  When I actually had service, it would take 2 or 3 tries to get the phone to dial out.  

In other words, the phone was a worthless piece of shit (pardon my French).  

I knew that this phone wasn't going to work, so I planned to take it back yesterday.  I was hoping the same salesperson was in that day so that I could chuck the phone directly at his private parts.  Unfortunately, he had the day off.  

So, I got to deal with a new guy.  I think he knew how close I was to going postal on him, so he gave no arguments and just got me a new phone and transferred everything over.  He actually looked slightly afraid of me.  I think that he could see the crazy look in my eyes.  

(Source)

So, about a half an hour later, I had a new phone.  With one problem, I had to drive all the way home (about an hour) to get the box for the Nexus and bring it all the way back to that Best Buy.  I completely spaced bringing the box for it.  I was pissed, but this one was nobody's fault but my own.  

However, yesterday was my birthday so I still wasn't pleased about having to drive all over the Denver Metro area just to get a frickin' functioning phone!   AHHHHHHHHH!  But, thankfully, my new HTC Evo 4G is working spectacularly.  

I told Philip that if I start to have problems with this one, I'm just going back to my old LG Rumor.  It may not be super awesome, but at least it works!

The Great Cell Phone Misadventures of 2011: Part II

Philip and I left the Best Buy.  I was still pissed off completely over the huge mess that this simple phone purchase had become.  But, of course, Philip can always cheer me up.  He decided that we should grill some chicken and have baked potatoes and corn on the cob for dinner (even though it was 9:30pm).  It sounded delicious and I was starving.  

However, that meant we would need to stop by Target for a few things before going home.  I tried to use Philip's phone to see if my neighbor needed anything from Target (my numbers weren't in my phone yet -- the Nexus doesn't use SD cards and that's where all of my information was stored, so I had to go home and transfer everything using the computer).  

However, Philip's phone kept giving me an error message.  It wouldn't let me call out or send text messages.  So, I just got the number from Philip's phone and sent a message using my phone.  It sent, but something was off.  The photo next to the text message was not mine.  It was Philip's.  

So, I went into the phone information and, sure enough, my phone had Philip's phone number.  They had put Philip's number onto my new phone, which meant that Philip's phone didn't work either.  

I was seriously ticked that they messed up our phones, but I took a few deep breaths and called back Best Buy (while Philip went into Target to pick up what we needed).  The guy who had helped us had already left for the night so I talked to his manager.  He called Sprint while still on the phone with me and attempted to fix things.  Then he told me to shut down both of the phones and restart them.  He said if they weren't fixed right away, to update the profile.  

So, I did all that.  And then NEITHER of our phones worked.  This is a photo of about how well that went over for me:

(Source)

So, not only did they NOT fix our phones, I couldn't call them back to bitch them out about it! So, we drove home and I went to my neighbor's house to use her phone to call back Best Buy. Somehow, I didn't flip the hell out on the guy.  He was eventually able to get the phones working again.  

I was absolutely exhausted and I'm sure my blood pressure was much higher than normal after dealing with all of this (along with the other crappy stuff to happen that day -- details soon, I promise!).  But, at least I had a new, awesome phone.

Not!  Yep, that's right.  This series of misadventures still isn't over!  GAH!

The Great Cell Phone Misadventures of 2011

At the end of June, I told you all about my new phone.  It was an HTC Evo Shift.  I really liked the phone (it did everything!) but the batter wouldn't last longer than 8 hours (and that was when I wasn't using it at all) and the alarm only worked when it felt like it.  So, on the last day I could return it, I did so.  I just exchanged it for a new Evo Shift.  

The exchange took place on Saturday, July 23rd.  On Monday July 25th, I woke up at 8:30am because my STUPID PHONE alarm did not go off (I am supposed to be at work at 8am!).  I was pissed!  I quickly jumped out of bed and shot off a text to my boss explaining that I was running late.  As I ran into the bathroom, the phone slipped from my hand and fell.  It shouldn't have been an issue.  My phone was in its super expensive, supposedly awesome case AND the phone only fell about 5 inches from my hand to the bathroom counter.  

However, that was enough to break the stupid effing phone.  The screen no longer worked on it.  I was so pissed.  It was not a good day.  

Anyway, last Saturday, July 30th, I finally had time to return the phone to Best Buy to exchange it AGAIN.  I explained to the guy what had happened and he told me he would replace the phone no problem but recommended that I try a different phone because the Shifts are not good phones.  Duh!  Figured that out!  I asked him if my Buy Back Program would transfer if I got a different kind of phone.  He couldn't find any record that I had bought the Buy Back Program for it or that it had insurance on it.  The last Best Buy had never transferred the insurance plan or the Buy Back Program to phone #2!  

By this point, I was FUMING.  If I hadn't asked about it, I would have gone to Best Buy in 2 years and not gotten anything for my phone despite paying extra for them to buy back my Phone at the end of my contract.  He assured me that he would fix all of it and make sure it all applied to my new phone.  He recommended the Samsung Nexus.  I wanted to just go with the regular Evo 4G but he told me that if we went with the Nexus, we would get $100 back.  So, I went with the Nexus.

It takes over an hour to get everything sorted out (not a happy camper) and then when it comes time to check out, he tells me that I owe money.  I asked what happened to getting $100 back and he said that he had thought I was a new customer but since I was an existing customer, that credit didn't apply to me.  I swear I was ready to spit venom into the guys face just like the Dilophosaurus in Jurassic Park.  

(Source)

It was not going to be pretty.  But, I took a few deep breaths and just left.  I didn't want to have to deal with anymore.  So long as I had a working phone, everything would be just fine.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case...