Our Married Life

So my sister keeps asking when we’re going to have kids. Her first child, Melody was born NINE months after she was married. I told her life doesn’t exactly have to work out that way. You know, get married, have kids right away, etc. I guess she didn’t understand my views on family planning. So needless to say she thought 3 years was a long time to wait. But the more I think about it, I’m leaning towards 5 years. I’ll be 30 and Brian will be 31. In these days that’s still young, but I don’t want to be too old. My parents were in their 40s when I was born, and people always thought my dad was my grandpa. Anyway, I actually don’t think it’s fair to have kids that old. Besides, that I want us to be able to retired earlier than normal versus slaving away to support a college student. Speaking of retirement, I think we both need to invest more.

In a related story, Brian and I were at Target, and we walked by the baby section. I stopped and looked and some fuzzy teddy bear and thought it was cute. I think Brian was a bit freaked out. Hehe.

Anyway, I guess our goals are like any other couples. We need us time, time to travel, time to save, time for careers etc. I want to at least end up in a director level at work before having kids. That’s a pretty aggressive goal, since most directors are in their mid 30’s, but we’ll see. I guess I’ll be ok with senior level.

Ok, so I found this house listing and thought it was cute. It’s in E. Plano though, so I think that’s a bit far from work. But seriously, do we even plan on working here forever? I would assume so at this point, but life changes. I think it’s close enough. The only downside about this house is that Brian doesn’t want a two-story. At least for our first house. Oh well. It’s cute though, I think.

I think we bought entirely too many gifts this year. I have three random gifts that I think we’ll either need to return or keep for ourselves. Whoops. I guess that’s what happens when you have no idea what to buy for people so you continue to collect stuff.

I got my car back yesterday in working condition. Woohooo! Finally. Anyway, I gotta finish this wedding album TODAY and place in order so I can get it by Christmas. Eekkk.

Brian thinks I’m a freaking out too soon, but then again he has no balls, I think it’s the right thing to do at this point. Read what I’ve wrote below and let me know if it sounds fair.

I recently purchased a brand new 2006 VW Passat on November 4th, 2006. Just after 3 weeks and 1500 miles, I noticed that the air conditioning/heater fan was not starting immediately after the car was turned on. I took the car in the following week to have it checked out. After waiting 2 hours, the technician was unable to find the root cause and had to make a call to TechOne. I was told that I will receive a call the next day and that I would need to bring my car back in.

The next day I did not receive a call. I had to followup myself the day after and the advisor stated that the issue was a defective speed resistor. The part was ordered, and I received a call the following week. I came in that night after receiving the call and waited another 2 hours for the speed resistor to be replaced. Upon driving the car home, I noticed that the issue was not resolved. The fan still did not start automatically. The following day I drove the car around and noticed that the problem had worsened. The fan would take more than 10 sometimes 20 minutes before it actually started. That day, I called and made an appointment for that evening to bring the car in. Since then the service team still has my car and have no idea what the root cause of the issue is.

Unfortunately, this car has not performed well, nor was the service adequate. I am disappointed because I feel like my car is being worked on for an issue that appeared to be minor and yet there is no resolution. I do not trust that after the car is returned it will be in the shape that it was when I first brought it in.

I fear that the product I have purchased does not live up to par on what the VW corporation has promised its customers. I have had cars with over 100,000 miles and never once did I have an issue with them as this one. I fear that the car will continue to have problems; therefore in retribution I am requesting that VW will offer me a full extended warranty at no cost due to the uncertainty of the state of the car once it is returned back to me.

This is not a complaint on the service level that I have been receiving but rather a complaint on the competancy of your technical staff.

I look forward to your reply and a resolution to my problem, and will wait until the end of the week before seeking help from a consumer protection agency or the Better Business Bureau. Please contact me at the above address or by phone.

My car has been in the shop since Friday. I am totally disappointed. At this point, they’ve probably already jacked up the dashboard and it’s probably not even the same car. I don’t even know when I’ll get it back. I doubt they even know what’s wrong with the car. I wonder what the policy is in taking it elsewhere and having them reimburse me. I should be angry, but I’m more upset. I don’t even want the car back, give me a new one. If they don’t know what they’re doing, they should just say so.

I’m never getting a VW again. I wouldn’t be so upset if it was 2 years from now, but the car barely has 1500 miles on it and it’s already effed up.

I can’t believe it’s already Sunday night. There was an “emergency” with one of my clients yesterday and I didn’t hear about it today. That surely put a damper on things. I was having lunch while I got the call. Ugh. Anyway, after lunch we went to see A Christmas Carol at the Dallas Theatre Center. Parts of it was a bit long winded, but overall very good. I really wanted to drive around and see Christmas lights afterwards, but it wasn’t dark enough, so we made a pitstop at Best Buy before heading home.

My car is still in the shop. They will probably work on it tomorrow and hopefully I’ll get it back tomorrow (it’s the third time it’s been in there, and they still haven’t fixed the issue, I’m livid everytime I think about it). Right now I’m in a loaner. I miss my car.

My other beloved is my laptop, which is also at the shop and has been there for over a month. I was supposed to get it back a couple weeks ago, but when testing it, the laptop had no video. Everything I own is broken! Ugh!

I’m thinking about picking up knitting. A coworker of mine knits and it’s so cool, so I want to learn. I knitted once. Yes, I knitted ONCE. I thought it was cool back when I was in the 4th or 5th grade and tried to knit for a day. I’m not sure what happened, maybe the yarn was ugly or something.

I don’t know what to get Brian for Christmas. I may not get anything from me this year. I am sad that I can’t think of anything to buy him. Oh well, I still have two weeks left.

I finally get to take my car in today to get the speed resister installed. Gosh, I’ve wasted a least 6 hours of life for nothing, but I’m glad it’s going to be fixed. Last week someone I had to wait for my windshield to defrost at least 10 minutes before heading off to work. It took an extra 2 minutes because the fan didn’t come on. I was so pissed.

Anyway, I have no urge to finish any work today. Thursdays are always slow, besides that I’ve already used all the resources my brain has to offer yesterday.

Last night I went through more pictures for the wedding album. It’s so hard to choose, and after looking at them some more I finally began to realize how good they were. I think I’m done picking out the photos, now I just need to finish it. I need to order by December 17th in order to get it by Christmas time. Too bad I missed all the special deals because I’m a big procrastinator.

A coworker asked at lunch today how married life was. My only response was there isn’t much of a difference. I guess after the high of the actual wedding day is over, everything seem to fall back into place. I guess the next big thing to look forward to is buying a house or having kids. I want to be able to get a house next year, but we’ll have to see where we are then, it’s hard to tell now. I guess we need to sit down and set some goals.

Anyway, I’m bored and ready to go home.

It’s this time of the year that makes me want to bake. The month of December means experimenting with cookie recipes. Yesterday we had lunch at McAlister’s Deli and Brian wanted to buy a cookie. I told him I’ll make my own variation of those giant cookies you see at delis/bakeries. So here’s a recipe I found. It’s ginormous, it’s chewy, it’s delicious.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
I substituted a half cup of the choc. chips with some peppermint chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
The recipe makes a dozen big cookies.

They were yummy and huge and probably better than what you get at these delis. I need to take a few to work just so we don’t eat them all.

We spent a majority of our day shopping. The day started with our Sunday morning date having breakfast and reading the paper. Then we took off to go shopping up in Frisco. Man it was bitter cold, the wind was just brutal. Anyway, I think we bought of the stuff we needed to buy. I still have no idea what to give Brian. He doesn’t DirectTV even though I want it, and the stuff he asks for I refuse to buy because I know he won’t use it, like his bike, mousepad drawing thingy, his watches, etc etc. He may as well not get anything from me this year.

Anyway, I finally got caught up with some work which is great. Now the weekend is almost over, and we have to go back to work tomorrow.