Wednesday, when Welsh Girl got back from Houston, her car was running a little rough. Thursday, I drove it for a bit and fixed the problem by putting 3 quarts of oil in it. Problem is that she had an oil change on Tuesday in H-Town... It wasn't leaking out all that oil. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that when you take off the oil cap or pull the dipstick, you can see the smoke coming out of the crank case? So not only is it burning oil but it's burning it at a pretty phenomenal rate! Needless to say, we're not driving her car right now.

Strictly busing is not an option for her right now. Her job frequently requires her to to do company training off site and transporting training materials and records. Further, she's trying to find a better job and that can be a challenge if you're not used to working with what's available on bus routes. To sum up, she needs a car. She also still makes the pay of a college student.

This weekend her parents came down for a wedding and we sat and had a chat with them. We have enough for a small down payment and they have pull with a car dealer in their area. Welsh Girl's soon to be retired car was the first of six cars they've bought from this dealer (and Jeebus willing ours will be the seventh) so they've gotten good deals on the last two they bought. So we're going to go with them to they place. They've got the influence and we've got the down payment and we should be driving back Sunday night with a brand new car. It's only a Kia, but a car, as much as others would say otherwise (Mr. Blixco, I'm looking in your direction), is merely a tool so any car, provided it does the job of transporting in a speedy and efficient manner is good enough for government work. My only desires from it are cruise control, a CD player and a less than stupid color. Of course, that puts the wedding plans back a bit, but somehow we'll manage. Besides, the wedding is time sensitive, not location or condition sensitive. We're getting married May 5, 2007. Any other plans, venues or whatnot are merely window dressing.

On a related note, we're planning another trip to McDonald Observatory on the weekend of October 20th. If we're there the night before the full moon, the sky we will see will qualify as the official "majesty of heaven" I've been talking about all these years. With a new car, there will be less fretting about the trip and therefore more fun having and such.

Last night, we had our first real discussion of money. Actually, it arose from a bit of a crisis. I was operating on old information and Welsh Girl overextended a little, leaving us both in the lurch for a couple hours. After some juggling and creative accounting, it looks like it'll be OK and we'll only be really cash poor for about a week and or so after the car purchase. I guess, in the greater scheme of things, that's not too bad under the circumstances.

It certainly doesn't help that I'm basically paying rent on two places at the moment. Yeah, I talked to my apartment manager. Breaking my lease would probably cost me more than finishing it out. Breaking it would cost a re-letting fee (80% of a month's rent) and I'd have to pay rent for as long as they haven't rented the unit out to anyone (up to the end my my original lease). Well, I chose this place because it was cheap and, well, it's hardly a place people are fighting to get into. I was also subtly hinted at that it would be the last one they'd try to move. So I'm probably going to just finish out the lease (November). Of course, I'll have been totally moved by that point, but the alternative, not that someone else's finances are getting intermingled with mine, is unacceptable.

The move is about to commence. It looks like, for the second time, my mother's husband might be helping me. It's his own fault for owning a truck with a trailer. Now all I need is a friend (preferably three or more) to help me with the awkward lifting (couches, bed and such). Parties who will remain nameless (Stacky and Clock, I'm looking in your direction) have perhaps convinced me that book shelves from <shudder> Ikea </shudder> might not be as bad as I think. They're decent looking, cheap and can hold books. But that is where I draw the line. I'm too old to have my apartment look like a college student's first apartment.

I could talk about boring stuff with my job, including why I want to put Monterrey to the torch (the one in Mexico, not the Steinbeckian tourist trap which I want to burn down for completely different reasons), but that would be boring. I could tell you more about the book I'm reading, but you wouldn't really care. I guess I'm about done for now. Time to go back to acting like I work, I guess...

That is all.