Sox and I made a pact though. We decided that each day we would choose three items from the list to do. On the weekend we got quite a few items done and that felt great. It gave us momentum. Actually, it gave me hope that we can get through the list.

Things I did in the past few days:

• child locks on kitchen cupboards that needed it
• tightened loose knobs
• anchored nearly all kids furniture to the walls
• changed freezer door direction
• fixed a broken toilet paper holder
• fixed cupboard next to dishwasher so my daughter can’t open it
• took useless mirror off bathroom door
• hung hooks for towel on bathroom door
• hung hooks on bedroom door

Tonight I plan to anchor a bookcase in our kitchen, fix a gate that Yoshi had chewed, and affix the cable cord to the baseboard. The last one is the hardest since I need to do that one before the kids get to sleep. I already did one thing too: got the jogging stroller wheel fixed (hopefully).

First I need to stop at the hardware store for some supplies.

Shock number 2 was the discovery that there were no longer any express lines.

I was wanting to pay cash and wasn’t sure if the self check lines could handle that. I was about to ask someone when I saw the slot for inserting cash. Cool. I proceeded with my transaction and paid for my items without a problem.

Then it struck me. There was approximately 6-8 machines and one clerk running around trying to help everyone. They are really relying on honest people to use them. For instance, the avocados I bought were organic and on sale, making them cheaper than non-organic. They were smaller though. What if I had keyed in 1 avocado and non organic?

I know those systems use weight to verify you are actually buying what you say you are buying, but it wouldn’t be hard to fake them out. I know that doing so is technically shoplifting and could land you in a lot of hot water, but I was through the self-serve checkout machine in 2 minutes. The lone clerk was nowhere near me.

Nice option to have though.

I topped it up, but that didn’t help for long.

Last week I took my truck to Victoria Car Clinic. I’d used them before and wasn’t that impressed.

My first time to them, and they didn’t even do the things I asked. That day when I dropped it off I parked my truck on the street. Out of sight, out of mind. They did the oil change after I called them wondering about my truck. Not impressed.

This time it was booked in for an afternoon appointment on Thursday and when I dropped it off, I parked it in their lot, then rode to work. Around 3:30 I called to get the status update and was met with a strange reaction. The guy I talked to sounded sheepish on the phone. Turns out they hadn’t started any work on it but were just about to. Strike 2.

I called around 4:15 and learned they finished the servicing, had a quote for the power steering, and were just getting my truck put back together. At 4:30 I left work to cycle down there. Once I was there I learned of a problem. Two of the studs on the driver side rear had broken off when they took the wheel off to check the brakes. They were having problems getting the right size studs.

While I waited another delivery was made, and another incorect size. At this point I left the truck with them for the weekend. I also told them to go ahead and fix the pump. I picked up my truck yesterday and it runs good again, and in their testing it didn’t leak any more. Hopefully it stays that way.

Finding a good, trustworthy mechanic is hard. These guys haven’t earned my trust yet. With these two experiences, I don’t know if I will go back. The strange thing is that several of my friends use this shop, and they have nothing but good things to say. Then why do I keep getting the bad luck?

Saturday morning we had a brunch in Langley that fit in after Beet’s nap. We visited with a group of friends, ate good food and watched the kids play a lot.

For Saturday night Sox and I had tickets to see Collective Soul play at the River Rock casino theatre. It was nice to have the evening out just the two of us. The show was good and they played a lot of good songs. There were a few that I missed hearing. Under Heaven’s Skies is what I really wanted to hear them play, but only because that song has special meaning to me.

Sunday we visited some of Sox’s in North Van before heading to the Horseshoe Bay ferry and going to Nanaimo for dinner. After dinner we piled in the car and drove home.

The drive was not a good one though. On the parkway in Nanaimo it was snowing pretty hard. It wasn’t sticking on the road yet, but it was pretty miserable. Just South of Nanaimo it stopped snowing, but was raining very hard. Passing Mill Bay then starting the climb up the malahat, it resumes snowing. Quickly we could see accumulation on the road, halfway up the hill there must have been a couple inches on the ground, but thankfully just slush on the road that didn’t cause any problems. As the snow thickened I was getting more and more tense. Driving over a slippery road, at night, during a snowstorm is not a good experience.

At the top there was bumper to bumper traffic doing 40 KM/H all the way down to Goldstream. The drive was pretty hellish and it was great to get home.

2 people were charged with crimes. The first pie got bounced around quite a bit (whomever is accused can protest their innocence by paying at least x + $5 where x is the cost of the pie directed at the previous person). The final recipient was another Greg, since he didn’t want to pay $45 to bounce it to someone else. The original bounty on the pie was $10, so that pie raised $145 for the charities.

The second pie’s original bounty was $10, but bounced to another person by paying $20. She bounced it to me adding another $5. I had no cash and no means of paying, so I was deemed guilty. My crime? Spending a month in New Zealand.