Yesterday was exhausting. Ran errands all day. Got the info to replace Bill's ipod again (this will be the seond time since last fall. The first time it just died for no reason. This time we think it was shaken to death in his checked in luggage on the flight home, as there was a lot of turbulance). Got Steven's trumpet back from the repair place. Took the kids out to lunch at Tios. Got Bill's truck back. That bill was nearly $7000. Thank God with insurance Bill only had to pay $580.06. And he did pay it out of the earnings from his part time job.

After Dan got home we went out to dinner at a good steak place he's been wanting to go down in Dundee. Then we headed down to the Pink Floyd Laser Light Spectactular down at the Toledo Zoo Amphitheater (of all the odd places). The amphitheater is right next to the cheetah enclosure. We were wondering what the poor cats thought of all of the noise and crowd! It was pretty good. The first half was mainly songs from Dark Side of the Moon and the second half mostly songs from The Wall. Some of the effects were great, the best ones were to the song Learning to Fly. About half the crowd loved the 3-D glasses, including Dan and Steven -- about half didn't wear them, couldn't deal with the added intensity of the lights (like me and Bill).

Coming home we got a flat tire on the Jeep in the middle of nowhere (US12 northbound, near exit 5 -- we ran over a nail). It was after midnight, the freeway was very dark, and it was drizzling. The cars and trucks were whizzing past at 80MPH, so I didn't want Dan or the kids getting out to change the tire, even though they offered. So I called AAA, and it took something like an hour and a half for the repair truck to get out to us (did I mention we were in the middle of nowhere?). It turned out that the Jeep's tires have locking lugnuts, and there was no key. So the tow truck guy did his best to patch the tire, and did a good enough job that we were able to get home, around 2:30AM.

Today the dryer is broken again. It is raining, or I would go to the hardware store on my patched tire and get some clothesline and clothespins and string it between two trees and attempt to dry the clothes that are in the washing machine before theneighbors all have fits about me committing the great crime of hanging laundry out to dry. <rolls eyes> Actually, it really is a crime in many area municipalities and/or neighborhoods with homeowners' associations to dry clothes outside, as it considered unsightly, as is having a television antenna on your roof. <rolls eyes again>

Towards evening the Harry Potter books finally arrived in the mail.  My kids can ride for 12-14 hours in the car and not complain once -- but today they were asking whether or not the mail had been delivered yet every five minutes in these heartbroken tones of voice. Hilarious!!  I am overlooking the closet lights burning late at night in their rooms tonight.