This week has been about me having adventures with car care. The back of my car got flooded from all the rain. There was in inch of water on the floor in the backseat of my car. When I took it to the dealership, they told me that the drains in my moon roof were clogged and the clogging caused the rain to seep into me car. Who knew you were supposed to clean the moon roof drains. I have my my moon roof open all the time when I drive because I hate having wind on my face and hair when I drive.

I called my insurance company and they said I could get it covered under flooding. Thank god for car insurance. To drain and clean out my car cost me about $1200, but I only paid the deductible of $250. Okay, that was adventure # 2.

Adventure # 1 which I'm still reeling and in shock about happened in November. I took a friend of mine to the pet store to get a cat scratcher for her new cat and then we went out to dinner. I didn't even drink but I don't need booze to get myself into a dummy car fender bender.

The opening into my driveway is very small and I am usually careful driving into for fear of scraping my car. Well, I guess three rootbeers was enough to get me going because I ended up scraping the passenger side doors of my car. It looked like a some huge animal with sharp claws took a swipe at my car, because I scraped against brick. Oh my god, I am such a bonehead!

I felt like my co-worker at work who ran her BMW into the pylon in the parking garage at the job we both used to be at. We used to always joke that one of us was going to hit the pylon and it was her. My co-worker called her insurance company and the woman told her not to report it because it was an accident she caused herself and based on that, the insurance company would raise her rates.

So I decided not to call my insurance company because I don't need my car insurance rates to get any higher, and instead took it to the shop that repaired my car three or four years ago when I got into that accident on the Bay Bridge. I told another friend of mine about my accident, and she told me that she had similar type accident. She didn't report it as well and never got her SUV fixed.

I think if the scratch wasn't so bad I probably wouldn't have bothered to get it fixed, but it was really, really bad. So I took it the shop and the guy fixed and even gave me a discount because I was a previous customer. But even with the discount, I had to shell out $1,800. God, that really, really hurt! Still does as a matter of fact.

So remember how it's a saying of mine that bad things come in threes, or maybe four as the case may be.

After I picked up my car at the dealer on Friday, the dealership guy told me my airbag light was on and I told him that it was fine when I brought my car. So now I have to take the car back to the shop next week so they can take a look at it and diagnose what's wrong. The dealership guy said they would do it the diagnosis for free because the service people might have done something to my car when they were trying to air it and dry it.

The dang car still smells kind of mildewy but at least the water is gone. I'm going to have to blow some cash in the next couple of months to get the car detailed to see if they can get rid of the smell. I put two new car air fresheners in today hopoing that would help.

And then there was the matter of the knob that controls the side mirrors on my car breaking. That cost me another $100 or so dollar to fix. Then as I'm driving home from the dealership yesterday, I noticed my AC was on. The garage probably had my AC on high to dry the car. Well, now the AC light sometimes doesn't go on, and the airflor switch next to it isn't working.

I swear to god I am not buying a european car again. All my friends who have japanese cars never have this kind of stuff happen to their car!

But wait it's not over. This is bad adventures with my car # 3. After picking up my car from the dealership, I decided I needed to get some things at Target and then at Costco. On the way home from Costco as I'm driving home on 280, I noticed there was a crack in the windshield on the driver side, my side. I was like freaking out. Someone had tried to break into my car. They tried to smash the windshield and as I found out later in the morning, whoever was trying to break into my car had used some kind of sharp instrument to pry open the bottom covering of my windshield. And this all happened in the Costco parking lot because I was in a hurry and just grabbed the first open spot I could which was far from the store entrance. And I'm like okay this is my lesson. I need to park at night as close to the store entrance as possible or to a more populated portion of the parking lot and under a light. Parking far away with no overhead lights is just inviting trouble.

My poor car. Thank god the idiot theives couldn't break my windshield. For all the problems I've had with german fat boy car, my baby has protected me. It's a well-built strong little car, able to take a lot of knocks without totally getting wrecked. But my baby car gets a ton of love too. The owner of the shop that fixed my dented and scratched door told me he could tell my car was well taken care of and that my engine sounded great.

So again for the second time this week I call my insurance company and they said glass damage was covered under my policy. So luckily I was able to get an appointment at noon and my windshield was replaced and all I had to pay was my deductible of $250. My insurance company is so going to hate me and will probably raise my car insurance rates to the sky come renewal.

My car insurance rates area already large just because I live in the city and county of San Francisco. I have a friend who insures two cars and because she lives in Oakland, she insures two cars for less than what I have to pay for my one car. I asked the insurance rep about this once, and they told me car insurance companies determine rates all by zipcode. And apparently I live in the high insurance rate zipcode.

So my holiday car adventures which are far from over have cost me about $2,500 this year. It has not been a very joyous christmas for me financially. I mean I have money to pay for all of this, but still! I could have used that money for other things. I really want to visit M-Square for New Years and drive down to the LB but with my car luck these last two months, I don't know if it's a good idea. Plus, I'm like thinking I probably should just stay home and not wreck my car and not spend any money.

What's trippy is that I just finished paying off my car and I have the title to my car, and now all this crap happens. What is up with that? I guess I should try to be positive. Bad things are happening to my car and luckily not to me personally. But still, I'm the one who has to pay when bad things happen to my car. And yes, I was an amazing dumb dumb bonehead for hitting the side of my apartment building but at least no one saw me. My friend hit another car at her parking garage and the parkkng attendant saw her and reported her to the police and now she's got a point on her license. Apparently when you hit a stationery vehicle it's considered a moving violation. So things could be bad for me like her friend because having points on your license automatically raises your car insurance rates.

I'm like way whining here but it's been a horrible four weeks I think. The only positive things things are I have a new passenger side door, which is great because there were a couple of scratches on that door. Now my car almost looks brand new. I also have a new windshield, which means those stupid college parking stickers that I stuck on inside of my windshield and which I couldn't take off are now gone.

And of course, M-Square and I survived the winter holidays which makes everyone cranky and depressed. We're still together and it's my bestest christmas present ever!

Merry Christmas eve everyone! I'm at home stuffed from eating lobster. M-Square is spending Christmas eve with his kids. Yes, the guy has children. I received an early taste of what the winter holidays will be like with this guy, and it's so unknown territory for me. My parents stayed together so I am clueless of the protocol of divorced parents and their kids. It's a hard world to be in for a kid and for the parents, I think.

M-Square has never seen his kids at both Thanksgiving and Christmas, so this Christmas is a first and very, very big deal for him. My friend Melissa was telling me about her boyfriend and his issues with the holidays since he is from a divorced home. She says years later as an adult he still get depressed over the holidays. Melissa told me that either I get used to it or I get out now.

M-Square and I celebrated our 6-month anniversary on Friday. He said 6-months was a milestone for him, and I told him for me too! It's a been a long and rocky six months, but we're still together and us still together is my best christmas gift ever!

So okay, I'm alone on Christmas but I think it's fine. I am seriously dreading next Christmas with me in LA and us most likely living together and having to deal with his kids and the holidays. A friend of mine told me I will always be the evil stepmother ... something to look forward to huh?

Yes, I am still here! Thanks for asking. I've been busy at work and having a case of the blue meanies and the holiday blues. M-Square and I are still together which is my best Christmas present ever, but ... it's been a shaky couple of weeks. What is about the holidays that freaks everyone including myself out!

I decided I completely and totally hate my job and that I will never be promoted working for the people that I do. My boss' boss totally hates and is jealous of me. My cubemate, whom I've grown very close to in these last three months, suffers from the same fate. She's a smart kid who just graduated from Stanford, and my boss' boss shut her down because she came up with ideas that my boss' boss hadn't even thought of. The poor dumb witch couldn't take it and starting getting mean. It's the same thing that happened to me.

But, you know what? I don't care. I can't care! My immediate boss is really nice, and she told me if I wanted to move to Southern California to be with M-Square, I can still keep my job. And this is the only reason I am staying in my current job, even though it is spiritually totally killing me. It's so difficult to know that I don't dare sound intelligent because I know I'll get shut down for fear of showing my boss' boss up. But whatever!!! That is her karma and I'm a total believer in karma.

As soon as I move to SoCal and get settled with M-Square, I can start job hunting again. But until then, I'm going to have to be very British and have a stiff upper lip and just deal with it.

The people at Blue Calico are so nice. They sell dinnerware from the Burgess Dorling & Leigh's Middleport Pottery, the oldest continuously producing pottery in Staffordshire, England. Burgess Dorling & Leigh, maker of Burleighware®, is the only pottery in Stoke-on-Trent which makes all of its blue and white ware using the ancient transfer-print process.

I have the Blue Arden pattern and my teacup saucer broke, and they said they would contact the Pottery to find out if they have extra stock or could have one made for me since they don't make the particular teacup and saucer set I have anymore. Aren't they great?

I am a blue and white dish fiend! All my dinnerware is blue and white, and I especially love English dinnerware. I have Burleighware and Spode. I also love Denby too, and would buy them if they made blue and white dishes.