My check engine light is on again. Arg. I hate that. I took the van to the shop across from the office and they called with the diagnoses. The O₂ sensors are not working consistently. The bill to have them all replaced is almost $1400. It's not a life or death problem so I can replace them one at a time. That's a good thing when it comes to car repair, but still, $1400 is still a lot any way you pay for it. I will call around for a better price, lower cost part or labor rate will help, too.

Before I knew what the problem was I didn't want to drive the van so much and drove the Corrola, the car my husband drives most of the time. His oil light was on. sheesh.

Do you like numbers? I think number are kinda cool. I try to find a pattern to remember phone numbers and addresses. I also like the odometer on the car. Yesterday the odometer read my birthday 111660.

Autism Isn't Black and White

I finished this quilt top last night. It's made with puzzle fabric and letter fabric, two of my autistic son's favorite things. This is intended as a wallhanging for his room although my husband thinks I should make another for an Autism research fundraiser. I love the puzzle fabric, I'll probably have to buy more regardless of its future. I plan to bind this quilt in the red from the center block.

The problem is I don't know how to quilt it, pattern or which color thread. Given the busy-ness of the fabric, I'm not sure I want elaborate quilting, but I cannot think of what to do.

Any ideas?

Last night was back-to-school night for my new middle-schooler. It started at 7:00. I was told about it at 6:30. Sheesh. This year is going to be a good one.

I went through Fern's schedule as she does every day, but with 10 minute classes where I learned I'm a below average parent. She has an agenda book which I'm supposed to be checking and signing every night. I've seen it once in three weeks. Oh well.

All of her teachers seem nice. The social studies teacher seemed nervous. This is his second year teaching, first at the middle school level. Fern doesn't like him. I wonder if it's his inexperience that evokes this from her.

During "lunch hour" I got to see other parents I've known for years, many just by sight, from Fern's other school years and activities. It's like a reunion for us too.

I got home at 9:00 and my family wondered why I took so long. Fern: do the math! 10 minutes times 9 class periods plus 2 minutes each to change classes plus homeroom = 2 hours.

I'm looking forward to a good year. I hope I'm not disappointed.

Update about being bribed to change a merchant feedback score (see post below):

I wrote the merchant again and said he'd ignored my request for my shipping to be refunded and therefore I was going to ignore his request.

Voila! I got the refund.

And he's still getting 2 stars out of 5.

He even offered me "member pricing" on any future purchase from his web site. I just happened to need a new memory card for my camera. His member price plus shipping is more than twice the price I found on eBay for the same thing.

Can you be bought? Do you want to be bought?

Back in July we had a lot of rain and I had ordered a rain gauge from Amazon. Actually, a merchant who sells through Amazon. Thanks to being a pack-rat I have all the emails.

July 5, I order the rain gauge.
July 11, It has not arrived and I email the company. No reply.
July 14, Your order has been shipped, here's the tracking number.
July 20, delivery.

This is a cool rain gauge, Look Here to see it. It's self emptying so it can rain more than the fill on a cylinder and you still know how much you got.

Anyway, One of my emails from the company says sorry, here's a discount code for your next purchase. I reply saying I'd rather have my shipping refunded instead of the discount.

In the mean time, Amazon's been bugging me about providing feedback for the merchant, and I'd ignored it for a long time, but finally last week I acquiesced and gave the merchant 2 stars out of 5. Soon after, I got a form letter thanking me for the feedback and a $25 off coupon for my next purchase.

Then someone actually read my feedback and I get another message:

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback about your shopping experience. I am sorry that you did not have a good experience with SkyBox USA and I wanted to reach out to you because of that.

We are growing quickly as a company, and unfortunately, experiencing some growing pains along the way. Although that is not an excuse for a poor customer experience, we are spending the majority of our time right now focusing on fixing some of the issues that we are having so that future customers can have an excellent experience. With that being said, low feedback scores are very detrimental to our business. In an effort to help restore your confidence in us, I would like to offer you a $10 gift card at one of the following merchants if you would remove your feedback from Amazon (you have up to 60 days to remove it).

• Target


• Wal-Mart


• Starbucks

So, Can I be bought? I'd really just like to have my shipping charge returned, but they ignored that request, so I'll just ignore this one.

What do you think?

The mice are back. Well, a mouse for sure, probably more. The mice in my neighborhood like butter. I don't like cold butter so I leave it on the counter. Yesterday morning there were teeth marks on one end of the stick so last night I set out a trap, with butter in it, not peanut butter or cheese. My husband found it full this morning and disposed the carcass for me. (He's such a good guy.) I found the coolest traps, if mouse traps can be cool. They are reusable and look and act like large, wide clothes pins. Pinch to open, load the bait, and wait. The unsuspecting critter triggers the spring and wham! Then you just pinch it open to release the varmint into the trash or disposal, depending on your level of cruelty, and set it back into place.

And on a less gruesome note, we're off to the beach for the weekend. All the weather reports indicate rain today and early tomorrow, and sunny Sunday and Monday. Yay! My parents will be joining us on the morrow, so it should be a nice time for everyone.

What are your plans?