My car

So I put my car in for a service on Tuesday knowing that the front brakes might need doing as they had told me at my last service that the front brakes were getting low and would need replacing at the next service. Dustin wasn't happy with the job the previous mechanic did where it was serviced last so I took it to "Midas" in Beenleigh. And that is when the drama started...
I dropped it off at 7am on my way to work and had my dad pick me up and take me to the train station, once at work at about 9am I received a phone call saying that not only did the front brakes need replacing but the back cylinders needing replacing as well and also the front bearing. (I had noticed a noise that I asked them to check out and it turned out to be my back brakes) As it was brakes related I didn't argue with them and told them to do what they needed and so that took the total from $230 to $960. At that point I asked them to service it whilst it was there as I was planning on getting it serviced in the next 1,000 km anyway, which then took the total to $1,174. I was merrily working expecting to pick my car up after work when I received a phone call at about 4pm saying they couldn't get the bearing out of the hub because it had heated up that much that it had weilded itself in there and so the whole bearing, hub, cv joint and shaft had to be replaced... basically most of my front suspension... my only hope was if they could somehow get the bearing out of the hub... so it was soaked for a few hours and placed in the press with 50 tonne of pressure placed on it and still wouldn't budge. They took it to a store next to them which had 100 tonne press and it still did not budge... alas it was not budging and they would have to replace more parts.... for this they did not have the parts in store and so there would be a two day wait to fly parts up from Sydney. I caught the bus home and walked in the rain as it stops about 1km from our house and did the same thing the next morning to get to work (still raining). Once at work yesterday I received a call from them saying that the part that had been flown up was the wrong part and Sydney has said it would be a further 3 day wait for the right part. At that point the guys at Midas gave up on the Sydney distribution centre and called every wreckers they knew trying to find a spare part they could recondition. Luckily one was found, alas it was in another kia that had also seized. They collected that part and put it in the press, and it popped straight out so they reconditioned it and put it in my car. Then they replaced my front and back brakes, tightened my handbrake, gave it a service and a tune up and then told me I could pick it up at 5pm yesterday. I asked what the total was, and with the extra running around and second hand parts etc they said the total was now $1,603. I called a friend of mine who was a mechanic (who hates doing drum brakes and hence why I did not give it to him to do) and he said with what had happened that price sounded about right. And as I really need my only car I reluctantly handed over my credit card details and thought to myself there goes my Christmas budget and half my spending money for our trip! But alas I have my car back and I nearly put myself through the windscreen at the intersection on my way home last night because it stopped so hard and fast with new brakes front and back!

So that is the latest dramas of my car...  now off to work and then to go to the Thanksgiving dinner tonight... I am not sure what this pumpkin pie thing is all about but I will give it a go!

Also, am trying to do one blog a week to keep you all updated on our lives. Dustin already has two that he wants to do so we will see how we go...

Our boys

Aslan making room for himself..... Step 1. You push Marley to one side... step 2. make yourself comfortable on your half of a two seater couch that you no longer fit onto together...

Jools from Willitoft Great Danes, Alsan's breeder and a person who has become a good friend of ours, not to mention her invaluable advice on all things Dane, noticed there were no pictures of Aslan on our blog. As she was the 3rd person to say that I thought I would stop being lazy and update everyone with some recent pictures I have taken of our boys in their natural habitat....

Marley will be 2 next month and Aslan has just turned 8 months.

As you can see the matching two seater couches in the study and the garage hardly hold both of them anymore but they still try.. even sleeping on each other in the process! For some reason even though they have their futon which fits both of them with room to spare they still fight over the two seater couches!

Now for the exciting news! Aslan will be participating in his first dog show at Durack on September 11. We will take lots of pictures and will let you know how he goes!

During our routine walk to the off the lead park last Sunday Marley and Aslan were playing with some silky terriers and a lab pup. I was really surprised how gently our pair played with dogs who were smaller than their own heads! I couldn't stop laughing at one point when one of the terriers darted in one direction and then turned suddenly and started in the other direction leaving Aslan paddling at full speed trying to turn to chase it but his growing legs got all tangled and he tripped over himself in the process of trying to turn and landed on his side. I really hope for his sake that when he stops growing he works out where his limbs are and stops tripping over himself, but I must admit it is so funny to watch him attempt to run and turn to chase smaller dogs who are obviously more agile than he currently is.

Well I guess that is enough for now... I will attempt to keep you more updated from now on...

See, it's got raisins in it...... You like raisins.

So, sometime last year, I think it might have been for Christmas, Cindy got me Trivial Pursuit. I love my trivia games, (as do most of my family) and I thought this was a great present. However, we discovered that she didn't get the current Genius edition, but the DVD Pop Culture one. This is going to be cool, we thought. Little did we know that, pop culture doesn't seem to be that popular here in Australia. Most of the things that it references, never existed Down Under, or weren't widely known. Consequently, it wasn't much fun for Cindy, (and I must admit, there were a vast number that I had no clue about, either!) and so has mostly sat on our shelf next to more used games, such as Tri-Bond, Picture This!, Scattagories, and Scene-It.

We also watch a lot of movies and tv, (mostly shows that we own or have downloaded... such as Star Trek TNG, DS9, and Voyager, MacGyver [Cindy's favourite!!], Smallville, ect...) and as such, are exposed to some pop culture there. After I got Cindy hooked on the Star Treks, which before she had always thought were unintelligent nerd trash, she started seeing a LOT of references to it in other shows, and understanding some more of the jokes and such.

One other show that we like a lot is Family Guy. There is so much mish-mash, random culture and current event references in there it's not even believable! While we were watching an episode a few months back, Peter was riding his maid as a horse, (don't ask...) and pulls up to a set of lights. Two Asian guys in gold suits pull up next to him, and one starts to announce a race in the style of Howard Cosell. I was laughing at this, and Cindy had no clue. I was explaining to her that it was from a movie from the early 80's called Better Off Dead with John Cusack, (which one of my circle of friends really quite liked in high school), but she had never heard of it.

Just a few days ago, I got my bit torrent program working again, and have downloaded a few movies. One of which is Better Off Dead. I have just made Cindy watch it, and while I found it quite funny, I don't think she got it, (or maybe appreciated is the term....?) Evidently I now owe her "big time" for making her "put up with that mindless drivel" for an hour and a half. But you know what? We watched the Family Guy afterward, and she got the reference and laughed this time.... Maybe it's time to break out and dust off that pop culture edition again and see if we do any better now...?

Our House

Both Tawnya and Mom have asked to see pictures of our house. So here are some before shots taken by the real estate agent before we bought the place. We will put up some after shots as soon as we get a chance to take some so you can see what it looks like being lived in by us.








Yes, the carpets are brown public library carpet, and the walls are pineapple yellow. We think they learned their lesson after painting the toilet as it is the only room in the house with 3 coats and WOW it is bright! We could almost deal with the yellow walls if it wasn't for the ugly brown carpet.
As for the front garden, it has all been ripped out a redone so we will get up some pictures of it soon too. If you want to see anything in particular let us know and we will get make sure we get a shot whilst we have the camera out.

Marley

We thought we would give you all the chance to meet Marley. He is our 18 month old Great Dane and our baby of sorts... aka spoilt rotten! We adopted him from the Great Dane Rescue Society of Queensland. For those who are wish to know, he is 35 inches at the shoulder and still growing. When we last got him on the scales he was 60 kilos (132 pounds) but that was a few months ago now, he has grown a bit since then.
These are some of the pictures I took of Dustin and Marley playing together yesterday. Marley has a glow in the dark ball which Dustin holds above his head and Marley jumps to get it... but as you can see from some of the pictures on mid leap Marley's head is well and truly higher than Dustin's.
He loves nothing more than playing games and curling up on the couch with us to watch TV.
According to the neighbours he has been starting to whine and carry on during the day whilst we are away at work and so Dustin and I are considering adopting another Dane as a friend for Marley. Besides, we can never have enough pets!

The wide world of blogging...

Ok, so Dustin thinks blogging is a good way to keep in touch with what friends and family are doing. I agree to a certain extent but I must say I am weary of sharing my life with the wide world web... You could certainly call me a ultraconservativist when it comes to these kind of things... I don't even like giving my credit card details over the net let alone personal details about us and our lives we are living. But I am going to make an effort and try this blogging thing as I have read some of Tawnya's and Sharon's and I must say they bought tears to my eyes I was laughing so much reading some of it. (in a good way I promise) It was like getting a glimpse into the quirky ongoings in their lives... or as much as they are willing to share via the internet anyway... It makes us all seem so much more human... I think I like it...
Now if I could only work out how to post pictures on here so you could all meet Marley and see our house... feel free to give me step by step instructions as I think I am going to need them... otherwise I will be left to my own devises stumbling and whistling in the dark...
Cindy