Rockin'

This hindered my commute this past Thursday. I saw the truck open--mine was the second car behind it. He was in the far right lane, I was in the far left. I tried to get a plate number or anything identifiable, but I could not get close until it was pulling off I-75 and even then it was too dirty to even notice where the plate was. He got away with a successful hit (err... dump) and run. I had no idea that it was that big of a spill--stuff is always all over the road around Detroit.
Lesson: if you see a truck dump something, call the police and give them a plate number. Don't assume your car is ok and just drive away.

The gravel pelting left me with a broken radiator. Luckily, I noticed it before it started leaking much and I pulled into a gas station that stocked stop leak and coolant. The stop leak worked well enough for me to get home and to work the next day (not a drop leaked out overnight). Then it started leaking and half of the radiator emptied into the parking lot in Maumee. After work, I gave it a top-off and after a 10 minute drive home, it emptied half of its contents into the street in front of my house. At no time did the temperature gauge vary from normal, so I consider it a success.

I started looking for a cheapo used car, but until then I ordered a radiator from radiator.com which should arrive today. I was using a vacation day today anyway. The turn signal lenses are now covered in packing tape until I come across a piece of clear plastic to silicone to the front of them.

On a happy note, Joel loves being outside a lot. Here we are shoveling after this weekend's storm.

Winter fun with Joel

I want to share some pictures.
Joel got some fancy soft pajamas. I love his smile more than almost anything, even cheesecake.

Here we are on the pond ice at the Knight nature preserve (hooray for the levy passing so we can keep these neat places going).

No skates for Joel yet, but he could slide on the snow/ice pretty well. I went back a few days later and skated for an hour or two. It was really peaceful (and good exercise, which is hard to get when we are deep into winter).

Joel and I made his first snowman. He was even happy/excited to see it melt (it only lasted two days).


Random news:
-We are preparing to move Joel to his "big boy room" so we can have the room that is close to the master for the baby.
-Speaking of the baby, May 30th is coming up, yo. Yes, everything still is great with the womb.
-I am getting out of the "drive to Detroit twice a week" position at work. Onto a different interesting study soon!
-I replaced our only 1973-vintage (20 gallons-per-flush) toilet. It was really easy.
-I have been throwing every free minute into the dissertation. It is really different than it was. It is ridiculously complicated but very well-documented.
-We get brown eggs from a local chicken farmer. They are happy and tasty.
-I ordered another side of beef for this year--again, it was from the local BG butcher.