We Won!

So, as you may recall we have been battling the big evil home warranty company. The short version is that while they pretended to be decent for a year and do what we paid them for (with enough prodding), right before our renewal period they morphed into an evil company. They lied to us and about us and refused to honor the contract. This would be the dryer incident. So we decided that we didn't want to renew with them after all and told them we were cancelling our renewal. Mind you that this was before the renewal date. We were not so kindly informed that the cancellation fee was $300 (renewal fee was $339), even though it was not yet the renewal date. It didn't take long to realize that any logic was lost on them and we resorted to disputing the charge with the credit card company. We had our doubts about whether we would be successful since it was taking so long and the credit card lady seemed to be having a lot of trouble understanding the concept of a home warranty. However, Mike noticed on our credit card statement yesterday that we've been credited the renewal fee so we won! We feel a little like David bringing down Goliath. Just in case you're interested. We had National Home Protection and (obviously) don't recommend them. We googled them after we started having trouble and there's a lot of unhappy people with them trying to file a class action lawsuit now and dealing with the attorney general. Since we got our money back we're not interested in all that, but I just thought I'd share for anyone who is researching home warranties.

Guess we'll have to start going to reunions...

This weekend I was in Chicago for a college friend's wedding. We were never able to find super-cheap airfare so Mike stayed home and worked on the yard. I roomed with several of my college girlfriends who also left their husbands at home and had a really fun weekend. It was great to catch up with all the Trinity folks that came to the wedding. And with 4 girls in one room, "adult libations", dancing and a hot tub I started having flashbacks to college. Of course the problem with acting like I'm back in college for the weekend is that I'm not back in college, I'm 30, and I had a huge presentation on Monday morning. I've decided that I'm officially too old to behave like I'm 20 anymore. At one point in the evening though I realized that with the exception of a few people that everyone there would be married by the end of the year. I haven't been back to any of the official Trinity reunions because I see so many people at weddings instead. Guess we'll have to start going to reunions....

Why fight over a baby that's wanted when there are so many that are not wanted?

There's that phrase about when it rains, it pours. So in a metaphorical way we're in the middle of a flood around our place. There's just been a lot going on to raise our stress and anxiety level.
The one that is the most upsetting to us though is the family that is trying to take away our friend's baby. Our friend was in a very difficult situation about a year ago and voluntarily agreed to allow a family to foster her baby while she could find a job and get her feet back under her. She's a good mom. The government didn't take away her baby. She didn't want someone else to keep her baby. In fact it broke her heart to do it. But she really felt it was the best thing for her daughter and 14 year old son. The foster family was clearly told multiple times that this would not lead to adoption and they said they were fine with that. However, now, 8 months later when my friend is trying to get her baby back they don't want to give her up! They want to keep her and are filing petitions in the court to begin that process. Unbeknownst to us (but they knew) that if they kept her for 6 months then there is legal standing for them to bring this petition.
We're confident that we'll get the baby back. There is no reason for the judge to deny my friend her baby. We're just frustrated over the hurt, betrayal, how much money this will cost, and additional the time she is losing with her daughter after having lost so much already. Beyond that though I am furious that they are spending the time and money trying to take a baby that is wanted by it's mother and who is a good mother. How many baby girls are out there right now whose mothers don't want them or don't care for them? Why aren't they putting this time and money into rescuing one of those babies? And more over, when did people start to think that being poor makes someone an unfit mother? When did it become ok to try to take some one's baby just because you make more money than them or have a bigger house? Poverty is difficult and certainly not necessarily ideal conditions to raise a child but many people (including my mom and both Mike's parents) were raised in poor families. They came out fine and in someways those experiences gave them a lot of compassion for others. Perhaps if these foster parents had some similar experiences they would have more compassion and sense than to think they can just take any baby they want to.

Dryer Escapedes

Mike has a washer and dryer that he bought when he first moved into the house. While they're not ancient, they're not very new. They also weren't the high end type either since if you know Mike you know he doesn't like parting with his money. Our neighbor who is equally attached to his money terms it economically efficient. I have dreams of some day getting one of those high efficiency washers and dryers like our friends who just bought a new home got. I never realized that I would be envious of a friends washer, but I was. For now though it's not on our purchase list and that's fine because it works reasonably well. Or it worked reasonably well until Sunday afternoon.
With wet clothes in the dryer and another load already started in the washer, our dryer over-heated and quit running. No finagling could get it working. So we hung all the wet clothes up in the guest bathroom (learned that much weight on the shower rod make it come crashing down in the middle of the night) and put the rest of the laundry on hold until the dryer could be fixed. The problem arose when the dryer guy came on Tuesday and said that he couldn't fix our dryer until the parts came in on Friday. This was problematic since Mike had a very important business lunch on Wednesday and now had no clean slacks. I suggested that he wash them and take the slacks over to our neighbor's house and ask to borrow her dryer. Fortunately we're good friends with our neighbors.
A little bit later Mike went back to get his pants and their cars weren't in the driveway. We have a key to their house (for dogsitting) and so Mike rang the doorbell, waited a few seconds, and started to let himself in. Right as he started to open the door it opened from the inside to reveal the babysitter who was freaked out by someone opening the door. He told her he was there for his pants and she was apparently speechless. Mike didn't know that they were going to have a sitter and the sitter didn't know Mike was coming over. I can't imagine what was going through this poor girl's mind as a total stranger walked in to the house and announced that he was there for his pants!
Hopefully the dryer will be fixed on Friday so we won't have anymore clothes at our neighbor's house, but in the future we may need to check about sitters. =)

More about the Mexico trip: Just seemed a little odd

As Mike and I were driving out to Chichen Itza we started seeing hammocks for sale by the side of the road. That really wasn't that odd. We had been seeing hammocks for sale the whole trip. What made this one a little different was that shortly before the hammocks was a sign announcing the local prison. The hammocks themselves were being sold just outside the prison. And, on the other side of the road, was a sign that said "Handiwork from jail". Guess there the prisoners make hammocks instead of license plates.

Mexico Trip - 2008

Mike and I had a great time while we were in Mexico. We went to the Yucutan Peninsula. We spent several days down in Tulum. Besides the relaxing atmosphere and ruins, we were also able to go Cenote snorkeling. The Yucutan is largely limestone which shattered long ago. Now there is an underground network of rivers that runs beneath the surface. In some places there is no head room and very little space. In other places it opens out into larger caverns. The best way I can describe it is to think of something like Carlsbad Caverns, only full of water. Periodically on the surface there is an opening into one of these cenotes. A place called Hidden Worlds offered snorkeling tours and we were able to go through two cenotes. It was a very interesting, very unique experience. There's no light though so the pictures are limited.
After Tulum we stopped at Coba and saw the ruins there. They have one temple which you can still climb. It's 12 stories to the top. The ruins at this location are pretty spread out. We walked about 7 miles that day to see all of Coba. After that we went to Valladolid and saw the Fransician cathedral there. The nuns found an opening to a cenote on the property and built a well. Recently it was excavated by archaeologist who found rifles and a cannon. The pictures in the museum show the size of the cenote under the cathedral and it's enormous. It was a little intimidating to think about an open space that large just a little below our feet.
Then our final ruin was Chichen Itza. After that we drove back to Playa del Carmen and caught the ferry over to Cozumel. We spent two days there and did some snorkeling before flying home. It was a great trip.
Here's the link to the photos. They're up on kodakgallery.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=xfufd5w.97t3t3vc&Uy=rqdv6p&Ux=1&UV=668418762111_211403079208

Apollo's grownup

Here are some updated pictures of Apollo. In the first one you can see his favorite pose. He lays down on his belly and immediately flips his back legs out. We think it's pretty funny looking.

We decided to Bell train Apollo. The idea is that he learns to ring the bell on the back door to let us know when he needs to go outside. It was especially helpful when he picked up the stomach bug and was needing to go out a lot. However, before he learned the bell had a purpose, he thought it was a toy. So here's a glimpse of what we went through for about two days before he decided that playing with the bell was old.