The Van needs a Professional....

EARLY Saturday we drove the van out to Dave's apartment in Mesquite, TX. The boys were gonna take apart the engine and replace the gasket that was leaking. They worked from around 10am until 1pm getting it all taken apart. Then this dude from the apartment management said that Dave's neighbors complained about him working on a vehicle in the neighborhood. Dave checked, and sure enough it is in his lease agreement that he can't work on cars in the parking lot. All the boys were allowed to do is put the van back how it was to begin with. BAD NEWS: once it was put back together, the Van wouldn't start!! It had something to do with leaking antifreeze. The boys (well, at least Dave) could tell you better than I can. Are van is stranded at Dave's apartment in Mesquite. We went ahead and slept over at Dave's apartment Saturday night. I've never been so glad about my over-packing tendencies! I knew I'd have to keep the kids occupied all day while the boys worked on the van, so I brought stuff to keep the kiddos fed and occupied. I had at least one spare shirt for all four of us, lots of underwear for Allan and we brought a bunch of Pixar DVD's.

While we were at Dave's apartment, we learned that Allan has become allergic to cats. There's no doubt about it. Allan's exposed skin, especially wherever he scratched, broke out in a rash. His eye was swollen for a while and he kept scratching it. I gave him baths, which seemed to relieve the itch. Dave found a blanket that was put up in a closet away from Cleo, Dave's kitty, so that's what the kids slept on.
The plan is to have the van towed to a real mechanic on Monday. Dave is gonna handle the paperwork, since we wont be in Mesquite on Monday. We don't know how long the van will be at the mechanic. My job is supposed to start this week, so we had to think of an alternative way to get me to school and work.

Dave drove us home, but we swung by Steven's on the way. Steven has built me a new computer! No more dinosaur laptop!! My laptop was running so slow. Now I'm on a computer comparative to Jimmy's, but with a lesser video-card, so he wont try to play video games on my new computer. (Do I sound territorial?). Unlike my laptop, this new computer can burn to DVD+R's and can play any type of CD or DVD. My laptop would not save to a CD or DVD, only 3 1/2inch floppys.... seriously! I am use to typing with my hands close together from the laptop so Steven gave me a keyboard with very compact keys. I'm overjoyed to be on a better computer.

Anyways... Dave drove us by Stephen's house. We heard that Fumi's blood sugar is doing much better, since her diabetes medicine was switched. Steven said that depending on the time of day, he might be able to help Dave later this week, when the van has to get back to us in Denton. Dave and Steven could drive the van and Dave's car to Denton, then they could share Dave's car for getting back to Garland/Mesquite. It sounds like a plan.

In the meantime, I needed a way to get to school and work. What we came up with is fixing my bicycle. It needed it's chain repaired and a new bike seat. Dave took us to Walmart and Target and neither store had the type of seat my bike requires (it needed to have a pole coming down from under the seat). Dave decided to just bless me with a brand new bicycle. He wanted to know that it was gonna be a reliable bike to get me around. When we got back to the trailer, Dave and I worked on the bike. We wanted to try to move my saddlebag-style baskets from the old bike to the new one. Whatever Dave and I tried, the baskets kept messing up the tire's alignment. I'll have to get some longer bolts from like an Ace hardware, if I want to attach the baskets (*note to self).

While at Dave's apartment and the night before, I worked on the drawing for his buddy. *pics to come*