Pictures Galore and an Update

Wow, if I was stressed out on Friday it was nothing compared to what Saturday brought. We got the call early Saturday morning about Brandon's car. The mechanics went outside to look at the car and based on the problems Brandon was having, they thought it could be a number of (expensive) things. See, it started out with Brandon pushing on the gas pedal to accelerate and the engine would rev but the car wouldn't pick up too much speed. We thought it was the spark plugs or something. The next day the same thing happened, only on the highway in front of a diesel truck. Brandon could feel the car slowing down so he pulled it over. The car could start, he could put it into gear (he has a manual) and rev the engine but the car wouldn't move. The mechanics said it could be the slave cylinder (???), the transmission, or the clutch. All were very expensive things to fix and in order to diagnose the problem they would have to practically tear the car apart. Just doing that is alot of work and alot of money so if we weren't willing to fix it then it would have been pointless to do. We had already decided on a monetary limit (about $400) but the mechanics said to diagnose and fix the problem would be about $1,400. We politely said no thanks and found a junk yard that would come haul away Brandon's car.

Now I want to add that I had also set up to have a photographer meet us at a park on Saturday to take our pictures with Oso. I had made this appointment weeks ago and put down a deposit so there was no way we were missing it. So I was rushing around Saturday morning trying to get my hair fixed and outfit ready while Brandon was dealing with his car. He managed to set up an appointment very easily to have the tow truck come get it. All he needed to do then was agree on a price for the car (they told us $500), sign over the title, and say good riddance.

Except Brandon lost the fucking title.

We had this car paid off for almost two years. I have a file folder where I keep everything and I remember seeing the title a few months ago when I switched from an ugly black file folder to a more pretty flowered one. Yet the title wasn't there. Brandon thinks he took the title with him when he went to register the car after we moved here. If that's the case then it's probably gone forever because if Brandon goes just one month without losing something, he will die. Or at least it seems that way. I was so pissed. We had a photography appointment in just a few hours where I would have to stand next to him and smile as though I loved him when all I wanted to do was strangle him, and we also had to rush to the dealership afterward to get him a new car so we wouldn't have to share a car next week. Because (of course) the military doesn't exactly have a traditional 9-5 work schedule and they don't really let him off work so we can flip-flop with the car.

So Saturday was a total nightmare. In the end Brandon got his car, the one he test drove last week and the one we didn't plan on buying for another six months. We're kicking ourselves in the ass now because if we had just bought the car last week when he test drove it then we would have had a functioning car to trade in. But hindsight is 20/20 and Brandon got a good deal. He got a 2011 Nissan Sentra (SR I think) for about $17,200. We managed to score the Nissan financing for 0.9% and we decided to get a 60-month loan this time and pay it off early if we get the chance. (On a side note, while we were there we saw a young guy in his early 20's with his grandpa buying a 2009 Nissan Murano with 50K miles. I don't know how much they paid for the vehicle, all I know is that they were putting a down payment on the car AND financing for 72 months. Sounded like they were getting fleeced.) I haven't taken pictures of Brandon's car but here is a stock photo.
And yes, it is that blue. Even at night it's that blue. It's almost blinding. I named him Blue Steel (from Zoolander). I wish I could have a clever name for my car but they didn't have a Nissan Rogue in red....I wanted to name her/him Red Roguer (Rogue-er? however you want to spell it).

And now I suppose you would like to see a few pictures from our photo shoot. We had them taken by Carrie Weeks Photography who did an excellent job. Brandon was a bit skeptical and thought they would turn out ugly or cheesy because most of the leaves have fallen off the trees and it's not exactly looking picturesque up here in Connecticut. But the pictures look lovely and I have a few to share of our little family.

We have got the absolute cutest dog on the face of this earth.

So Brandon is happy with his new car (even though I'm still convinced he sabotaged his old car to get a new one), the pictures from our photo shoot turned out well so far (she isn't done editing) and we somehow managed to survive this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend.