Well, believe it or not, the Mazda has to go back into the shop this week. This time the speaker on the driver’s door, the antenna, the dash board radio faceplate all need to be fixed because they were not put back together the last time that the car was in the shop and the front license plate holder needs to be attached to the car now that it has finally arrived at the shop. So the saga continues. In addition to this story, there is also a side story…

I have been going to the same dealer now for a few weeks to have the RX-7 worked on up in Canandaigua. I have talked with them about getting a 2002 Mazda Protege5, standard in Yellow (yes, just like the Zoom Zoom ads.) I was told that I could not order the car and that I would have to get something else because Mazda had not yet decided whether or not they were going to make the yellow cars since they took such an effort to paint. Well, I wasn’t too happy about that since the Mazda web site and publications had led me to believe that I could get this car. So, I went up there on Friday to order either a blue or silver Protege5 instead. When I arrived at the dealer, I saw a yellow Protege5 in the back of the lot. I went inside and talked to the salesman and asked about the car. He informed me that that one was not for sale because someone had ordered it. I asked why someone else had been allowed to order one and I had not been since they obviously knew that the car was coming when they told me that it was not being made since it would have to have shipped by that time. I was told that they &quotmust have had a good reason.” Well, that gave me a good enough reason to hop into the RX-7 and haul my butt up to Rochester and drive right into John Holtz Porsche-Audi-Mazda on West Henrietta Road. I walked in the door and asked if they could order me a Yellow. 5-Speed 2002 Protege5 with a sunroof. They said sure. I said ” I’ll take it.” They said, &quotThat is the lowest pressure sale that we have ever made.” So, now I have the car that I want on order and it should be arriving in 2-4 months.

So that is the exciting world of Scott’s cars recently. At least the RX-7 has been running well now. That is a big relief.

The new house is still not done. Today is four weeks after when we were “expected” to move in. There is no sewer line run yet so that is holding things off just a little bit. They ran six Ethernet lines into Loopy and my rooms but didn’t know how to terminate them (as if there weren’t Ethernet lines in every other room of the house and in every other house that they had built) so we had to spell it out for the electrician. Who knows when the house is going to be done. Today we cancelled our second truck scheduled for the move. Anthony has been living in the basement here in our old house now for two weeks and Tim had to move into the dining room today. This place is starting to get a little bit crowded. I am looking more and more seriously at buying a house and putting all of this nonsense behind me. Our lease is getting shorter everyday that we are not moved into that house. Soon it won’t even be worth the effort of moving. Part of me hopes that the whole things just falls through so that we don’t have to deal with it anymore. It is just such a hassle and it isn’t getting us anywhere.

The font has been moved back up to the old size because we got a lot of complaints and no one really seemed to be liking the new smaller font. I am going to try to keep these updates coming, especially now that the school year is back in session and everyone checks the page all of the time. Look for some new pictures soon since this weekend is the infamous Party at the Pond. At least we don’t have to worry about moving during the party.

Finally we have some good news about the car! Nate and I drove up to Farmington (north of Canandaigua) to pick up the car and when we got there, they had magically fixed the window. So, needless to say we are very happy that our window is now in good working order.

Today is Dominica and Mandy’s birthdays so everyone give them a good spanking when you see them. We will be celebrating with a big Llama party down at Maxie’s Supper Club on State Street tonight and then a migration over to the Bear Lodge in College Town for some karaoke.

Not much to report since yesterday. I have been putting in a lot of time on the Ithacaportal.com site. The new changes aren’t up yet but I think that everyone is going to like the new facelift when it goes online sometime in the next few weeks.

Tomorrow Eric, Nate and I are taking Josh out for his first ever round of golf. This will be dangerous.

So the car is still in the shop and they weren’t even able to fix the problem. They said that to get the window to go up and down that we would probably spend $3000 in addition to the $500 that we already spent. So guess what work we aren’t having done. That really sucks. So the car managed to get stuck in the shop and then when we tried to go and get it, the shop closed mysteriously and we weren’t able to get it. The worst part is that we had them leave the window down instead of up on the car (it is a convertible, it is more useful that way) and then it rained for three days straight while the car was in the lot at the garage. Normally we would be able to put the cover on the car but not this one time. What a pain.

Yesterday Sara, Josh, Dominica and I all went up the west side of Cayuga Lake on the Wine Trail to do some tasting. That was a lot of fun. We ended up buying 40-50 bottles of wine, two bags of chocolates, two wine racks, a bottle opener and who knows what else. They made out on us. There is some great wine here though. It is really nice to have such a wonderful resource so nearby.

On Saturday (the 18th) Nate, Sara, Dominica, Amanda, Eric and I went out to Hillendale at 7:00 am and played Best Ball Golf. That was a blast. Eric and Amanda had never played before. Sara and Dominica ended up winning but Eric managed to play better than anyone but Sara. Which is amazing since he has never played before. He and Amanda had so much fun playing nine holes that they then went to the driving range that afternoon and hit two buckets of balls. I am challenging Eric to a game with Josh and I on Wednesday in Rochester to see if he can beat me again.

Today is Joe’s (Dominica’s little brother) birthday and tomorrow is Dominica’s so don’t forget to tell them happy birthday if you see them. Tomorrow is also Mandy’s (Nate’s cousin who used to live in the first Llama apartment before most of the Llama’s moved in) birthday too. So we are all headed to Maxie’s Supper Club tomorrow for dinner and then to the Bear Lodge in Collegetown for Karaoke.

Sorry about the lack of updates, gang. I have been pretty busy over here trying to keep up with everything that has been going on. The car is in the shop again today. I was hoping to have it out yesterday but that didn’t work out so it is there again today. That is three days so far this week. And I have no way to get it today in case they are able to get it done. The new speakers are a big improvement over the old ones. We can actually hear the stereo now. The old ones had deteriorated into nothingness. The surrounds were completely gone. I will keep you updated on the car because this is getting to be so entertaining.

Nate has been out of town the last few days in Albany. I have to travel to Pittsburgh again tomorrow and Friday. Did you know that Pittsburgh is the most misspelled city name in the United States? Just so that you are all aware. It has an “H” on the end of it. The initials of the city are PGH.

While Nate was away I actually got the chance to play two games of golf on Monday. Loopy and I went out in the morning and shot nine holes and I was able to drop my game six strokes (only those of us who are SO bad can drop that many strokes in one game) and am now in the competing range with everyone around here so at least we are somewhat evenly matched. I made it out later on Monday with Dominica and shot seven holes and actually managed to shoot hole seven on par! I was very excited. On Sunday, Nate, Sara, Dominica and I were out at Wal-mart and I had purchased new golf clubs so that is really making a difference for me as well.

Eric, Amanda, Loopy, Sara, Dominica, Nate and I are going out golfing on Saturday morning. This should be interesting. We have three people that can kind of play. Two that have shot one game ever. And two that have never played. So, this will be fun!

Ok, I don’t have a lot of time to be doing an update today so that is about the end of it. I will talk to you Llamas later.