The accident is officially dealt with. (Providing of course that the other person doesn't challenge ICBC's ruling.) Despite the fact that over a year's worth of payments had been made on the car, it still cost us about $3,000 more than what ICBC gave us to pay out the loan in full. I did make sure that ICBC gave us fair market value for the car, but apparently the person we took over the loan from was shafted by the dealership, either that or it's natural for a 2000 Ford Focus ZX3 to devalue by about $5,000 in a little over a year (June 2004 to October 2005). I made an appointment to see the only person who manages loans at the JW Auto Group for 3:00. I showed up at 2:50, she was out untill 3:52. It was just as well that I spent over an hour sitting and waiting (and they didn't even have the usual assortment of shitty magazines I've come to expect in that situation) because when I did get to see her I had to stand behind her in her cubicle because there were no chairs and no room for a seat anyway. Actually working out dollar amounts and handing over cheques was less than 10 minutes, it would have been nice if I had been able to do it earlier. Coming up with the money was tough, but I was able to do it, although it unfortunately meant our line of credit is maxed out again (although it has a much lower interest rate, so that's slightly better), as well as using up the cash Jenn got for her birthday. On the other hand, spending that money now means it will be free later to pay off Jenn's DVDs when Amazon gets them in three to five weeks, so it's all the same in the end.

After that, it was smooth sailing. Minimal waits for the busses, went to the insurance place and cancelled the insurance, and since I had the claim number I was able to back date it, so ICBC is sending us another cheque for $147 (the other one being a refund of 75% of the deductable, since I was only 25% at fault), and there will be no payment for insurance coming out on thursday, which helps a lot with making sure our cheque for the loan payment won't bounce.

Then it was on to groceries. Nearly everything I got was on sale, and I completely forgot that today was Welfare Tuesday, so I got an additional 10% off for being ugly and wearing sweat pants, so all told over $60 worth of groceries was around $45. Jenn and I bought me a new backpack yesterday, as the old one had a strap broken off. I really didn't want one with the layers of vertical compartments, but that was my only option between about 6 different stores, so I got the best one I could. I now believe that my backpack is awesome, the outer verticle layers kept my umbrella upright and my transit schedules flat, and the main compartment easily held 8 Chef Boyardee cans, a 4L jug of milk, a 1kg box of frozen chicken strips, a regular sized styrofoam tray of beef, a small block of cheese, 200g of mushrooms and five packets of sandwich meat. And it was still comfortable.

About five minutes after I got home the landlord showed up to collect rent, which I had exact change for from the shop (also a plus), then I polished off some leftovers and had a beer for dinner, and now theres lots of candy (zero goblins last night), He-Man, and dismantling the Halowe'en Lego waiting for me. In other words, life is alright.

I don't think I ever want to take a loan out on a vehicle again, though. A car is considered to be an asset, but I've never found them to be anything but a liability, what with repairs and the barracudas you have to buy the cars from in the first place. In fact, I think I won't have a problem living without a car for as long as I can. The only reason I can think of to need a car again would be when Jenn and I want children, but I'm thinking that won't be for a while. Even then, I think I'll go for a lease rather than owning.

Just picked up the car, the 2000 Ford Focus. I don't like the fact that it's standard, and my insurance went up 50% (seeing as the new car is 10 years newer). I stalled once coming home, which I think isn't bad seeing as I was never truly taught and I haven't driven standard in about three and a half years. Now I have to go out again, but I don't want to because I'm still getting the hang of it, but there's only one way to improve. Oy.

My car died on the road today. I drove to Ikea, then Coquitlam Centre, then on my way to Royal City Centre it just died. I was in the left hand turn lane, northbound on McBride just before 8th Ave, so I called BCAA and signed up on the spot, and they sent a truck to tow me around the corner to the Canadian Tire, where I'll get a diagnosis from tomorrow. For those of you who want to guess what it is, here's the symptoms:

-The engine has been overheating for a couple weeks now. You can see the thermometer rise when I increase the revolutions, and decrease when I take them off.

-The engine sounds okay when it first starts up. Once it warms up to normal temperature, the rattling starts. The rattling gets louder as the temperature increases, and also increases with the revolutions.

-Today the car stalled and the engine and oil lights came on. I couldn't start it again, although I think that was because I was slightly boggled and didn't put it back into park to restart the engine, because as soon as it was in the shop the mechanic was able to turn the engine over.

Any ideas? The winner gets to declare that they are more knowledgeable about cars than I am.

...but that doesn't stop me. Monday, after I dropped Jenn off at work, I went to roll down the rear driver's side window, and it stopped partway and clunked. I soon discovered that the window was totally loose and could be moved up and down from the outside. I wedged it up the best I could, and fortunately no unsavoury types guessed the problem. Today I pulled out the Hanes manual and tried to fix my power window. I spent over an hour just trying to figure out how to remove the door trim panel, then I couldn't figure out how to get at the mechanism. In the end, after three hours labour, the window is securely up (not all the way, though, it's still open a crack), but it no longer moves, which is kind of good because no one can accidentally break it again by trying to open the window. That's one more repair for the mechanics, although I think it can wait untill after the power steering and brake fluid leaks are repaired.

Yessir, I passed. I got all cleaned up before I left and wore some casual office type clothes, just because people treat me better when I look boring and presentable. I took my test in the Coquitlam testing centre because it's closer, but I was shocked to see that there were only six other people (besides the ones that worked there) in the centre with me at 11 am. That absolutely would not happen in Surrey, so I reccomend this location to all you Deltans. The test itself was a breeze. Aside from a three point turn and identifying hazards along two seperate 4 block stretches of road, the test was just driving around for about an hour, and because the test was so long, I was able to get over being nervous after the first 15 minutes or so and just drive. To be honest, I found this test a lot more easy than my class 7 test. I didn't get a perfect score of zero faults, but the tester did say that my score was really low, and asked if I had been driving with a novice license for a while (yeah, it's only been seven years...). So now I'm just making some lunch, after which I will be making that yellow 5 sign to put in the rear of my car. Once I get my new license in the mail, I'll adjust my insurance (I'm hoping this will reduce it) and then I can start teaching Jenn how to drive.

(Curls lip) TCB, baby. *ahem* Jenn got her learners license this morning, so I think I'll cut her a copy of the key to my car. Unfortunately, I can't teach her how to drive, because even though I've been on the road for seven years, ICBC still thinks I'm a novice. So this morning I went to their website and booked a test for my class 5 for next wednsday. That'll learn 'em. I also phoned Lego Direct, and asked about getting the updated software for Lego Studios, which they said they'd send right out to me. Now I'm about to wash the pot I just cooked my macandcheese in, take out the garbage, cut the greens, buy a casserole dish and cook up some chili with cornbread topping (it's kind of like a shepherds pie). Oh yeah, it's all coming together.

Fri - Sun: Worked. Sunday night I watched HP&tPOA. First off, I like the new Dumbledore better than the old one. The old one was all squinty eyed and looked like a burnt out hippy to me. The new one has large clear eyes, which seems to say that he sees everything. He's also doing the eccentric bit way more, ie saying something that sounds like jibberish but makes sense an hour later. I also thought that this movie was going to be scarier than Chamber of Secrets, but it was completely lacking in suspense. I did like the werewolf, though. All skinny and hairless and creepy, almost like what I envisioned in the Call of Cthulhu game I ran last Halowe'en. And holy cow, did Nevil Longbottom shoot up! I hope the actor becomes all tall and beefy, just because Nevil is my favourite character, purely for the Batman factor. I totally (totally!) want to read a book about him as an adult being all badass and being "slightly" heavy-handed in capturing and bringing to justice all sorts of dark wizards. Lastly, I have this to say. The girl who plays Hermione is way too young to call hot. However, I shall be keeping an eye on her in the next five to ten years to see how she looks when she's of age.

Monday: Got my car fixed. Tow + rebuilt starter + new battery + oil change = $730. Not bad, considering that I had it off the road for 10 months and saved about $300 dollars a month by riding my bike to work. So I am once again piloting the Tie Fighter. While the repairs were being done I went to EBGames, and saw a copy of Aquaman for five dollars less than I payed at Blockbuster. But I passed. I picked up some really cheap Lego for parts, raced to pick up my car, and went to Jenn's. We had chili dogs and watched the rest of Holy Grail with commentary. Then I drove Jenn to work and did some laundry. I tried to play Aquaman, but my Xbox absolutely would not read the disk, so I returned it to Blockbuster.

Today I got up really early and picked up Jenn from work, as she was off before transit started up again. I went back to bed, and got up to cut the greens. However, the greens had just been sprayed with insecticide, so I won't be getting them till friday. I also went to the Zellers and the Safeway for Tums, pens, a new belt, and paper towels. I've just cleaned all the old glue off of the cases for my Xbox games, and now I'm just waiting for Jenn to get back from class so we can check out furniture at Knock on Wood, and go to EBGames for the cheaper (and hopefully functional) copy of Aquaman.