Holes In Our Plan

Now Playing -  Always Something by Cage The Elephant

Life -  

 Well, I should have called my last post "Knock On Wood" cause just a few days later, my wife calls me from work - Her car has a leaking tire. Grr. I've kind of suspected that we'd have to get her car new tires soon, they weren't exactly new when we bought the car two years ago, and we've put a lot of miles on little Bluebelle in that time, but I was really hoping it would wait until Jan or so when we'd paid off some of these recent moving expenses.

So off to Bangor today, where we spent $400 on four tires, where we learned that her alignment is also off, which will end up costing another $300 due to some missing pin or something. (I don't speak car) It was kind of a rough trip. One of our goals this year was to kill off our credit card and we're up to almost where we were before we moved to Maine 2 years ago. Linz was in tears at one point, but the simple fact is that her safety, driving on four new tires is more important than 20% interest.

While we were in town, we decided to do the last little bit of shopping for Christmas we had to do (Pretty much everyone is getting a card this year...and nothing else) and check out the stores we haven't been to for a long time. We aren't shoppers. We hate crowds and usually take our list and buzz in, grab our stuff and buzz out. But we like Holiday decorations, so once a season we take our time and wander stores.

Plus, this was our new town and we still hadn't been into a few of the big box stores to check them out. Target had some impressively cool looking fake trees and ugly ornaments, K-Mart was trashed and cluttered and carried potatoes, which was a surprise. There was a bizarre thrift store next door that, in addition to second hand goods, they sold furniture, four-wheelers and wedding dresses. I am not kidding.

We also went to the mall and indulged in a couple of Hickory Farms treats, bought a couple of finishing touches on clearance at Bed Bath & Beyond for Linz's room (Which we've been working on for the last few days, pics soon!) And in the old Border's building, which closed a month or so ago, was a new store - BAM! With a subtitle of something like books, gifts, something and more.. It was kind of funky, the entire store was laid out almost exactly like Borders, only the place had a very rushed "We gotta get this up and open before Christmas!" feeling. Including a few exposed spots of old carpet and shelves supported with pieces of board and exposed nails.

At one point, I spotted a sign with the copyright belonging to Books A Million(Hence BAM, I assume.) , which I'd never even known they had a Brick and Mortar store. It's no Barnes and Noble, but I'll take any book store.

On the way home, we grabbed a cheap pizza at the gas station and watched Castle. It wasn't the best day in the world, but it's potentially the last trip we'll have to make into town before Christmas (Apart from driving there for work every day, of course) and despite the disappointments of the car, it was a nice day.

The ROUS FAMILY -