Intrigue-ing Week

It’s the end of July and I’m not sure how August can start already this week. It’s been a big week to be a Remynse. Let’s see here.........

Monday, I got notice of my promotion. Matt decided to take me out to celebrate. In doing so, we discovered his transmission is pretty much shot and as described by one of the tranny shops that he called to get a price quote from, “it’s a catastrophic event.”

Wednesday, we went and test drove a vehicle. Now here’s the kicker, we’ve been talking about SUV’s for the past year but hadn’t seen one that we both could agree on. The week before the “catastrophe” we’d done by bountiful basket pick up at the Ford dealership in Mandan and while we were waiting in line, we meandered thru the lot and happened up a Mazda CX-5. Both of us admitted that we liked the look, layout, and price. We put it on our list of cars to look at when we got serious about car shopping. It’s like “Heather” (Matt’s car) knew that we’d been looking and was ready to go to a greener pasture in the sky. So upon test driving there are a few factors we wanted to look at, handling, feel, mileage, and if Matt fit. I’ll admit, I was pretty excited with all.

Thursday, we went back for a secondary drive and decided to negotiate a bit on price.

Friday, after talks with the bank and our mortgage lender and running the numbers and running the numbers and running the numbers, we signed the paperwork. We are the proud owners of a new car. I’ll admit, when we decided it had to be done because replacing the tranny wasn’t worth the cost of the car, I was a bit bummed, wasn’t sure we were ready for a new car and the unjoys of payments but it does feel good now and I’ll officially start driving it Tuesday to work. Matt will take over my Grand Prix.

Other notable events of the week include the play that we took in at the Capitol. Matt went with me to MacBeth. It’s one of my favorite Shakespeare’s because of the use of women in power. It has so many great memorable lines, “Out damn spot,” “Screw your courage to the sticking board,” and “Unsex me here,” and I love the Porter scene. I will admit that I was disappointed that Matt didn’t enjoy as much as I did but I was very happy that he went with me. It also made me excited that this exists in Bismarck, we didn’t have the same opportunities in Dickinson.

We also took in camping at Lake Tschida with the Ericksons (Sissy, Chayden, Kay, and Jess). It was a nice relaxing weekend and only could have been improved in two ways, less wind on Saturday and more fish biting on Matt’s pole. Otherwise it was a great campfire, it was a starry night on Friday (complete with shooting stars), it was good food, and really good company.

We also may have some really nice news on the condo. Stay tuned for more details.

Best meal: We ate at 40 Steak + Seafood for my promotion. The appetizer, poke (pronounced Pok-kay) was great. Matt had a steak, I had the bacon wrapped/stuffed trout with asparagus. We ended the meal with a deep fried banana dessert. It was such a nice night, despite the hellacious storm happening outside. I had protested about going there and Matt said, it's not everyday you get a promotion and we can celebrate. Made me feel pretty special!

ALR: Matt, we think Sissy ate a rock. Do you think it could be bad?
MJR: I don’t know! I’m not a geologist!
Josh (Sissy’s Uncle): There were a lot of ways to go with that, but I didn’t see it going that way.

MJR: Take me to Bill Barth Ford.
Cx5: I did not understand, repeat.
MJR: Bill Barth Ford.
Cx5: Recalculating. Say your location again.
MJR: Bill Barth Ford.
Cx5: Taking you to tennis courts.
ALR loses it.