I Got Screwed!

So a few days ago we took our car into get fixed because the brakes were being really loose and the guy at the shop said that the master cylinder needed to be replaced. So we had them do it and they then called back and said that it wasn't working still and said that the ABS unit might be out and that it would cost over $1000 for a new one. So we decided that we couldn't afford that and called Emily's dad to come and look at the car to see if he could see what was wrong with it. So they came down a today and he looked at it and decided that all we needed to was bleed the brakes and change the calipers and brake shoes. From his years of working on cars he determined that if they were doing it properly they would have to bleed the brakes. But when he looked at the brake calipers they were all rusted and they had not ever been bled. After he told me this I was so pissed.

So to clarify ... the brakes had not been checked and this guy at the auto shop took us for $270. Even though he did change out the master cylinder he didn't follow any of the procedures that would be necessary for a proper brake check. So tomorrow I am going to go back to the shop and ask him a bunch of questions about what he actually did, and if I find that he is lying to me I may have to file a complaint with the BBB and possibly file a suit against him for fraud.

Dishonesty is running rampant in the business world. Especially in the automotive industry. If you can find an honest person in the world who won't take you for everything you've got then make sure you make friends with them because they will save you a ton of time and money. An even better idea is to learn how to do it yourself and save the cost of labor for a mechanic (Of course this only work if the repair is simple like repairing brakes or brake pads.) I really learned a lot from this and even more from my father-in-law.

Winter finally arrives! ... Sort of

So this morning I woke up to find that despite what I had seen in the news there was about a half an inch of snow on the ground. We had a totally dry Christmas so it is nice to actually see some of the white stuff on the ground. I always am a bit disappointed when we have Christmas without any snow but I guess it is better late than never. hopefully we will get a bit more as the days go on because otherwise we may have a very dry year.

On another note ... I am glad that it has been dry a bit longer because it has allowed me to do a few extra things around the yard before it got too cold. I can't wait for spring now because I will be able to plant and have a garden like I have wanted for some time now. I don't know if anyone else feels like this, but once Christmas is over it seems like it should get warm and be going into springtime. But we still have just over 2 months before it gets warm again according to the calendar. We shall see who is right.

One final note: Baby is growing well and Emily and I are literally "gearing up" for her arrival. We have done most of our baby registry at Babies R Us and we hope that we can also get lots of hand-me-downs from siblings, friends, family, and anyone who has girly baby stuff that they want to get rid of.

A Baby? ... A BABY GIRL!

Okay ... for those who don't follow my life on facebook that much or who aren't in my immediate family, you probably haven't heard that Emily and I found out that we are going to have a girl in may. We are so excited and everyone we know has asked us if we know for sure that it is a girl. Well ... we have been into our doctor for our official ultrasound (20 week mark) and also we are participating in a first time pregnancy study at the hospital that gets us 3 extra ultrasounds over the course of the pregnancy, and to top it all off when Emily hit her 15 week mark we went to a commercial ultrasound place to get the gender then as well. So needless to say it has been checked 4 times since the 15 week mark. We do have a few names picked out but not quite sure which one we are going to use until we see her.

In the next few days I am going to scan and put some of the ultra sound pictures up on this blog for all of you to see.

Emily and I had such a great Christmas this year. We didn't have much to spend on each other but we did get quite a few baby things from parents and friends. We are so grateful that everything is going well in Emily's pregnancy. Hopefully everything will continue to well and everything will run smoothly and normally. 

My new years resolution... Keep my wife healthy and happy!