sigur ros

I am a terrible journal writer. I was never that good at it.

We (husband and two friends and I) went to see Sigur Ros, an Icelandic band, last night. Wow, they put on a fantastic concert. Their music is hard to describe. The lead singer has a haunting high voice and plays the guitar with a violin bow. They have a piano player, drummer, and bass player. They use all sorts of different types of instruments including an organ and a xylophone. It is just a great sound. Very mellow but some of it is really intense. We saw them at the Bank of America Pavillion in East Boston. If you have ever been there, then you know it is outside. Wooh!!! it is a bit chilly in September when it gets down to 50 degrees. I think it is better to see them in an indoor facility but this was pretty cool. They are a mesmerising band. If you check out Youtube and search for Sigur Ros track 8, you will get some crappy recordings but you can kind of see what it is like and how they sound. That is the best song and they leave it to the last and it is phenomenal because it starts off slow and then you get the drummer going with this really cool beat and the intensity rises and they just go all out. It is awesome for lack of a better word. Check em out.
ps I just found a really cool version on youtube. It is from their documentary. Sigur Ros Heima Popplagio is the header. Check it out, there are some weird parts from Iceland but listen to the music. It is great.

xb rocks

Picking up the new car today. I am so excited. Yesterday when I got home, Chris suggested that we just go and pick it up last night. But since it was brand spanking new, we decided to do all the paperwork last night and then pick it up in the morning. Then they can detail it, put a radio in, and inspect it. I can't believe that after 10 years of driving the standby escort, I am going to be getting a brand new car that no one has ever owned. Wow!!! Although the payment thing is a little scary seeing as it has been over 5 years since I had a car payment. Oh, well most people have these things.

weather

I just want to let everyone know that we had an entire weekend of nice weather. Isn't that amazing especially this summer. Although there is some nasty stuff heading towards some areas of NH.

As to the continuing saga of buying a car, I am one step closer because I cleaned and vacuumed the old car today, so it is ready. Can't wait to get the Scion xB and get rid of the scort.

The Saga of Buying a new car

So as I said before the 'Scort is getting up there in age and miles. I have also had a lot of work done in the past year and feel it is time to be looking at something new. I had made a preliminary list to work off from. That list included Honda - Fit, Civic; Nissan - Versa, Sentra; and Toyota - Corrola, Matrix and Prius(pipe dream). I also was looking under $20,000. One weekend we found the dealerships in the area and starting test driving. The first stop was Dover Honda. Not a lot of selection but they did have a standard Fit and an automatic 2007 Civic to test drive. I really enjoyed the Fit for its large inside and it was fun to drive and thought the Civic was a little sluggish did not have a very well designed interior. Next we went to Somersworth Nissan dealership. That was not an enjoyable experience. The salesman was very annoying. He did not take a breath to let us say anything the entire time we were there. He insulted every car company and he insulted the Mercedes convertible that we drove up in. I test drove the Versa but could not tell you anything about it because he talked about going endo and about his illegitimate daughter in Florida. We were on a tight schedule and did not have time to test drive the Sentra. He also held my license hostage until the very end (which means I was test driving the car without my license) and when I refused to give him my phone number he was very upset. I was up in Keene visiting my parents, so I decided to test drive the Sentra while I was there. I told the salesman about my ill experience and he was very nice and let my brother and I take the care out by ourselves. The car was not my favorite. It was basically my car, just a little nicer. It also had continuous variable transmission which is an automatic and I didn't foresee myself really getting used to that. It also sounded like it was very difficult to get a standard in either the Versa or the Sentra. So Nissan was out. Next was Toyota. We went to the Toyota dealership in Rochester. We test drove a Corrolla and again found it to be not that exciting. Mine just a little nicer. There were also no sticks on the lot and he wasn't sure if they would get some in. He mentioned a 2008 Scion xB that was a stick. I had never really thought about Scions before. I decided to test drive it and decided that I really like them. We decided to do some numbers on the xB and didn't have a good experience with that. This dealership is one that does not sell new Scions. They had just got this in as a trade. They are going to be selling them in the future but I am thinking that they didn't know what they were talking about when they were trying to sell me this car. Basically you can buy a new 2009 xB for less than what they were offering at this place for their "BEST DEAL." It also smelled like smoke. I was very discouraged by this dealer but encouraged by the fact that Irwin Zone in Laconia has brand new xB's for less. Watch out people, I may be driving around in a giant toaster soon.

issues

Why am I always tired? Probably because I don't get enough sleep one or two days a week and then I am catching up the rest of the week. Why does my back always hurt? Probably because I need a new bed. I half woke up early this morning and basically could not move my lower back at all because it hurt so much. My bed has a big dip in the middle and it is not supportive anymore. I need a new one but it is expensive and I don't want the cheap one. Why does my car suck? Probably because it is 10 years old and just hit 149000 miles today. It also desperately needs an alignment and possible a new wheel because I may have bent in the time that I did not have the wheel bearing fixed and because I live on a dirt road that is filled with pot holes and I have a low paying job and can't afford a new car. Why is my dog pacing? Probably because he needs to pee. See ya.

What's Happening

It has been a while since my last post. I am the type of person that gets gung ho about things and then a couple weeks or months after I start them, I lose interest. I guess that is a sign of me having ADD.
I will quickly update you on the last few months. I still have the same job (amazing and sad). I still have the same husband (just kidding ha ha). Chris and I went to Mexico in June which was a good time even though I didn't have my bags for 2 days at the beginning and Chris got really sick the last couple of days. We have had several births this year. 2 people at work as well as 2 friends. 3 boys and 1 girl so far. One person at work is pregnant due in November and another friend is due in August, right around the corner.

We just had our 1st annual Girl's Weekend during the week. We spent two days down in Gloucester hanging with kiddos and girls. All boys so far. Soon we will add a baby girl to the mix. What fun. We had a really good time and I will be posting some pictures and sending links to friends soon.
We also had our third babyshower of the summer yesterday which was a lot of fun. Mom to be got some really great stuff and all the kiddos were there again so it was a good time had by all. I have had my fill of babies for a while but can't wait for the newest one.

I was just reading a friend's blog about the saga of the 'scort. Her's died and it was one year older and had about 30,000 less miles. That is not encouraging. Although, I am in the same boat as her with looking to buy a new one and not having a ton of money to spend on it. I haven't had a car payment in 5 years and it is a scary thought to think that I will have one for the next 5 years. I am looking small and trying to be proactive about the whole thing. Mine hasn't died yet, but I don't hold out much hope. It is 10 years old this year and I have had it for 10 years this month. I keep complaining about it but Chris says that it has been good to me. My parents certainly didn't expect it to last this long.

The dog is doing well. He is 4 this month. We have had him for almost 3 years and can't imagine life without him. He is the best bull dog ever and he is the cutest too. Everyone is still in love with him and can't get enough of him. We are currently at my parent's house for the weekend so they can get their fill of him.

It will probably be a while before I blog again and I apologize but you can't undo 30 years of ADD.

The Saga of the Lost Mailbox Part III

It comes to this, we have found the mailbox and finally we have found the post on which it was perched. The post is not in bad shape but we purchased a new one just in case. Now we are in search of all of our driveway. Right now, the first part of the driveway where you come in from Rte. 11 is mostly clear. That is all of the paved part. Then once it becomes dirt (well it did) and the ice remains. There must be about 3-6 inches in spots. It is covered by trees and there is snow on either side of the driveway so there isn't much hope. Once you get into the more open part (it's all relative) it is actually dirt. Of course at the base of our driveway is a beautiful little mud pile that is forming. There are nice deep ruts that have formed. If you have been going at a nice clip along the driveway and by that I mean 2nd gear, when you get to this part the car goes down to about almost the stalling point if you don't put it in first gear after coming out of the peanut butter pit. It wasn't so bad and by that it was all in the same direction until this past weekend when some of our neighbors down on the point decided to come up to fell some trees. They stupidly thought that they could get down their road. What were they thinking? That it was the middle of April and almost a month since the calendar told us it was spring? Since they couldn't drive down their own road, they decided to park in ours. And as it was they were right in the middle of our lovely mud pit. So now with our horizontal lines, we have some vertical lines and some diagonal ones to go with it. In other words a big muddy mess. I asked my father-in-law what we might do about our little mess and he replied nothing, it will run its course or something along that lines. Lovely, now I can call into work late and say I am stuck in the mud. Because I haven't had the best lines for excuses not to go into work and eat up more of my vacation time so that I won't get paid for my much needed trip to Mexico. So the mailbox found, the driveway almost found and the warm weather may finally be upon us. Well more than one day of it. Also, happiness may be upon us with the warm air and loads of sun in our future. To the sun and warmth, I toast you (with water).

The Saga of the Lost Mailbox Part II

Well, we have had a sighting of this elusive negrus mailboxus. I am getting ahead of myself already. Now as you all know, we are living in a snow cave and by that I mean we are enveloped in snow all around us including at the end of our driveway where we last saw our friend, Mr. Black Mailbox. Because of the extreme height of the snow banks along the side of the road and the impending snow storms to come, the town of Alton (or maybe the State of New Hampshire Department of Transportation(sorry, mom)) thought it would be good to shave off half of the snow banks along the side of Rte. 11. As I was driving up to my driveway, (that is hidden if you don't know what you are looking for (Chris' dad passed it the other day because it had been so long since he had been up to the house)) I noticed that they had done some of this shaving. I am not sure this is the proper term for it but it is when a giant snow plow truck drives very close to the side of the road with one plow perpendicular to the road and one plow halfway up the snow bank so that they can cut down the snow bank by half. As I was slowing down to pull into my driveway, I noticed that they had not even bothered to stop where the mailbox once was and just kept going to the edge of our driveway and continued on their way. At that point, I knew that the mailbox (if it was still there) was gone. Now a few weeks have gone by with some fairly nice weather and by that I mean it has been almost up towards 50. Woohoo!!! As a result some melting has occurred. Now don't get me wrong, we still have maybe 19 feet of snow all around instead of 20 feet. We also have not seen grass or gravel or even the concrete of our garage floor since maybe November. But there has been enough melting to catch a glimpse of our once beautiful mailbox that served a wonderful purpose. Now, I am not sure you could even get a slim envelope in it. It is mutilated beyond belief. If anyone has ever seen the cartoon where the traveling salesman has a briefcase that turns into a table after several times of opening it, imagine this has happened to our mailbox except backwards. The mailbox which was once a rectangular open box is now as flat as a pancake being smushed side to side and partially front to back. It is rendered useless. And from what I can tell, the post from which it was bungeed to, is also unusable. So, Chris' parents have been generous enough to buy us a new mailbox that we won't be able to use until about May. Hope you have enjoyed the Saga of the Lost Mailbox. It has been fun.

winter woes

The mailbox is still missing and now we are living in a snow cave. I cannot see over the top of the snow banks in my driveway. If I decided to walk down to the right of the driveway I would be up to my waist. Earlier in the winter, Rocky was able to find his way over the snow banks to find new and wondrous places to poop. Now, it is the side of the road. Hope you don't hit on your way in or out because there is only room for one car with no room on either side. If you decide to go more to the right or left you will be moved back to the center by the unforgiving snow banks. Also, you can't go very fast down the road because you might maim your car with one of the giant ice rocks that have formed. Several times I have had to stop the car and move some of these ice rocks out of the way so that I don't puncture any holes in the bottom of my car. Now when I say rock, I mean a giant snow covered ball of ice. There is no earthly form in there. It will all melt hopefully at the end of the winter when we will have to deal with another terror, MUD!

The Saga of the Lost Mailbox

Our saga begins a few weeks ago when we had a snow storm. All the weeks of this winter are molding together in my brain, so I can't give you an exact date. I was stuck again at the end of my driveway waiting for Chris to come and bail me out. I noticed our black mailbox off to the side detached from its post. I picked it up and gave it to Chris. He was smart and stayed home that day. He first put it back on the post using duct tape (of, course). Now mind you, the mail lady has given us several notices that show pictures of the correct way to plow out a mailbox. One had an angry circle that had been drawn many times around the exit. We tried to keep up with it, but because the snowstorms usually happened when we were at work, we didn't always get around to getting out to the end of the road to keep it cleaned out in the specified way. By the time the mailbox had become detached from its post, there was not much of the post to see because of the giant mound of snow surrounding it. Also, with the ice, rain, and snow that we were having (not necessarily in that order) the entrance and exit was somewhat bumpy, I guess you could say. She has a Jeep for crying out loud, stop whining. I digress. Where were we? Ah, yes, Chris was taping the mailbox back to it's post. For those of you who do not know, we cannot see the mailbox from the house. It is about a 1/2 mile away. Chris went back out later that day to get the mail. He noticed that the mailbox was missing. Somehow (evil postlady) it had been knocked off again. Chris realized that duct tape, however strong and versatile, was just not going to do the trick. He went back to the house and began a search for something better. He came up with bungy cord. Nice... That seemed to work, or did it. Right now we won't know until we have the Great Thaw. Because for the past week, it has been buried under a 20 ft. pile of snow that has just multiplied with each flake of snow that we get. Begrudgingly, Chris made his way to the post office to tell them the tale. Apparently several Alton townies were in the same predicament. MAIL HELD UNTIL END OF WINTER. Several of us have had to have our mail held because either they have lost a mailbox or in our case it is buried. Sad, we are back to getting our mail once a week because of the convenient hours of the post office(if you didn't notice that last comment was dripping with sarcasm.) Last Monday, it was very warm and we did capture a glimpse of the elusive mailbox but of course that did not last long because Surprise! there was another snow storm to bury it again. Will it ever end???

x country skiing

I went cross country skiing today. Wooh! I am out of shape. I didn't get very far the first time. I got new boots last weekend for my old (1991) skis and bindings. I had one hell of a time getting the boots to click in. So today, I went down our snow filled steps very carefully with all my gear. I got down to the lake and tried to put my boots into my skis. I could not for the life of me get one of my boots in. How frustrating. I decided to go to the place where I had bought the boots to tell them my problem. After huffing back up the snow filled stairs. I took the dog for a ride to Piche's to get it all straightened. They are the nicest people there. Very helpful. After taking a look at my situation, one of the girls brought me to the back where a guy was working in the repair room. He put a little lube on it and fit the boots in and they worked. Yeah! He saved me about $50 trying to get new bindings. Rocky and I went back home and I went skiing on the lake. What a gorgeous day. I went for a little bit and then decided to turn back because I had to walk up the snow covered stairs again. By the way there are 84 stairs. Although when they are covered in snow you take about 4 at a time. When I got to the top I was ready for a nap. I really need to get on that elliptical so that I can go for a longer time. Have fun in the snow.

a little song i wrote

snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow. more and more snow.

where is the sun

I have been starting to feel the effects of the lack of sun. This morning, we had yet another snow storm and I had to shovel out the end of my driveway in order to get out. About 30 seconds after I had finished, the plow guy showed. Convenient timing. This is the second time this week that I have been a half hour late to work because of the god damned snow. It is really starting to piss me off. On the way in, the girl from the Mt. Washington Observatory said that it was going to be sunny tomorrow and I thought to myself, Thank God. I can't wait for the sun. I can't wait for it to be warm. I think some of my problem has to do is that I was in Hawaii at this time last year and I have been thinking about how wonderful it was. Hopefully my mood will brighten soon.

skiing

I survived my first skiing experience in about 4 years. I was hurting by the end of the day but had a fantastic time. We went up to Killington with a bunch of people for the weekend. Even though the house was dumpy the skiing and company was fun. One fantastic thing that happened was when we all (11 of us) went out to dinner at the Wobbly Barn. We walked in thinking that we would have to wait forever. The guy asked if we were with another party of 11. Apparently they didn't have all of their people there and we got seated within 30 seconds of walking in. Awesome. Pretty good food as well.
We had a good time and hope to do it again next year.

3 int and they still lost

18-0 but the real game is yet to come. 2 agonizing weeks until the big day. Yesterday we headed down to Worcester to our friend Ben and Julie's house. We are convinced that we need a new tv. They have a 40" 1080P tv with HD cable. It is sooo nice!!! We also played RockBand. Best game ever. So back to the Pats game. What a great game and as it says in my title the Chargers had 3 Interceptions and they still Lost. Ha Ha Philip Rivers and LaDanian Tomlinson who was probably crying behind his darkened visor the whole time. Well, we will be anxiously awaiting the Super Bowl and Tom Petty Half Time Show to go into NFL history. Woo Hoo. Go Pats!!!

miscellaneous

Not much is happening here. Awaiting yet another snow storm. Work has been going well. Watched the Pats vs. Jags last night and woohoo they won. Now we can run all over the Chargers next week. I finished my book club book finally. It was a very interesting book about the Dust Bowl. Depressing but interesting. It spanned the years of 1901-1939 through the boom of the wheat time through the stock market crash and the 7-8 year drought that they had. The author followed several families that lived in different areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Southern Colorado and Eastern New Mexico. It is called The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. Very good read for any of you interested in this time period. Love to hear what you guys are reading.

new year'seve

I haven't written at all since the new year. We had a low key but fun new year's eve. We went to our friend Jon and Stacey's house and saw some people we hadn't seen for a while. It was nice to catch up. Life has been pretty much the same as normal here at the Baker house. Yesterday we helped Jon and Stacey bring an enormous frig into their house. The we headed into Portsmouth to take some pictures with the camera. They came out pretty well. It was a little cold to hang out too long. I also got a new phone yesterday. I got the Krzr. It is pretty cool. A little step up from Chris' hand me down phone that I previously had. Lots of excitement around here. Yahoo.