Weekly +/- III

In the - column:
- On the last day of our trip our car's air conditioner stopped functioning.  We spent seven sweaty hours roasting on our way home.

- In addition to the fact that I was roasting in the car on Friday, I was hungover as hell.  

- Our car is having a couple of other difficulties aside from the air conditioning.  We were briefly stranded in a furniture store parking lot on Tuesday until the AAA guy showed up.  He tried starting it in neutral and that worked immediately.  However, this is the third time the car hasn't started in a couple of months.  Every time we've taken it into the shop, they tell us that they can't find any problem.  (At least the mechanic didn't charge us to tell us that.)  It was the fear that we might have to pay for some car repairs that kept me from spending my returned money (see below) at Anthropologie....

- Bailey is overdue for a nail clipping and she is not a fan of her mani/pedis.  It's not a struggle that I enjoy.

- I got up (later than I intended this morning) to run on the treadmill (because it was later than I intended) and my ipod, which was fully charged, would not work and would not reset.  M. suggested connecting it to an external battery that we have, but that didn't work either.  Since I have brunch plans with a friend here in a bit, was already running behind schedule, and have 6 miles to run today, I'll be running on the treadmill this afternoon and using my computer to keep me entertained.  I guess I might also be on the market for a new ipod, which was not a cost I had foreseen this summer.  Again, I guess it was good that I stayed out of Anthro yesterday.

In the + column:

+ We found a place to live for this next year.  For a while it looked pretty dire because no one wanted to rent to us because of Bailey, but we finally locked down a townhouse.  It is really nice and it has a deck off of one of the second floor bedrooms, which we are planning on turning into an office.  I foresee sipping wine and sitting outside with a book in the evenings when the weather is nice.

+ I got to see several old friends who preceded me in my graduate program.  Coincidentally, we were staying at a motel ten minutes from the place where my former deskmate just got a tenure-track job and bought a house.  He and his family had just moved in four days before we drove through, so we went to dinner with them.  We stayed three nights with another friend and former colleague because he lives very close to our new burg.  Then on Thursday we ran into a number of old friends at M's conference.

+ I had eight salads in seven days.

+ Macy's took that damn dress back.

+ After mostly eating out while we were traveling, I went to the grocery store and stocked up for the week.  I kinda wanted to go to Trader Joe's too, but with the AC out in the car, I just couldn't bring myself to swelter any longer.  I made a menu plan for the week, and started it off yesterday evening with a home cooked meal of risotto, roasted asparagus, and arugula-based salad.  I love making risotto, although I usually have to call M. in for a stirring break at some point.

(Clearly I need to get better at taking food pictures.  I apologize for the poor quality of the photos.)

How's your weekend going?  Any technological mishaps?  Any delicious food?