I am having a very. very. bad. day.

Last night we were running late for dinner because of the fiasco that was/is activating Mike's iPhone. Stupidness. Ian comes in while I'm on the phone and mouths the words "There's a chihuahua in the garage" while he motioned frenetically to the lower level of the house. Now, mind you, I didn't realize this is what he was saying or the word "okay" would never have passed my lips. Anyway, I find out about the chihuahua after the phone call. The tiny excuse for a dog was missing a toenail AND limping due to some gimpy back leg issues. Me = sympathetic. So, you know, we feed it. Feeding turns into getting him a bed. Getting him a bed turns into him using Pagan's crate while we go to dinner, the cooking of which was out of the questions at this point. We had a small adorable dog to care for. We couldn't cook.

So, two hours later...

We get home and the dog and my dog start to play. We consider for a moment that adopting a kitten probably wasn't a good choice for our dog. Oh well. I like my kitten. Anyway, chihuahua starts to get a little friendly with Pagan. Like, way too friendly. You know, in his FACE. What the hell is with the chihuahuas? I mean, really. This happened when Megan brought that little black and white one home a while back. Do you remember? You can read about it here. It was decided that the chihuahua had to go first thing in the morning. Well, Mike works 45 minutes away while I am a measly 5 minute drive... so guess who got to take the dog to work this morning? That'd be me.

On my way, with Ian and the dog, to pick up my niece and nephew this morning for school I noticed the car tugging to the left. I think "crap, I need air in the tire. why do I need air in the tire? oh, crap." I get to Tara's place and honk for the kids while I simultaneously stick my head out of the door and gaze with a sense of foreboding at my noticeably low tire. I think to myself "can I get the kids to school? I think so... yeah, sure."

So off we go.

I'm on the phone with my sisters (Tara and Megan), both of whom work down the street from me at Costco, trying to arrange a way to get my car to Costco to have the tire patched. I hang up the phone and hear the noise no one with a low tire wants to hear...

thud, thud, thud

Now I say "crap" out loud and pull abruptly into the parking lot at the park, halfway between my house and the school. The kids are like "what?" and me? I stare at them for a moment and then I sigh and say "okay, guys... you're gonna hafta huff it. Out of the car! Hurry up, love you and all that... but you gotta get going" Remarkably, they were all rather good natured about it. Not one moan from any of them. Next I call AAA. I love AAA. AAA says it's going to be 45 minutes. The love affair is over. But whatever, they would be there momentarily to fix/change my tire. I make all of the necessary "I'm going to be late I'm stranded in the park with a flat" calls and then I wait.

While waiting I realize the sweet little dog must need to go to the bathroom... and I don't want him going in my car. So, I opened the door. You know, I never realized that a chihuahua could run so fast with a gimpy back leg. Seriously. They're quick little buggers. Off he went after a freaking CYCLIST. See me mortified. I'm a big leash person. My dog is an escape artist. I really did know better. Anyway, got the dog back, got to work on my spare and called animal control. They came, took the cute (evil Satan dog) puppy away to its owner, who had called looking for it this morning.

Then, around 10, I take the car to Costco and see about patching my tire. Um, no... it's shredded inside. WTF, I say... how? Dunno, it just is. *sigh* Guess what? I have an all wheel drive car. Do you know what that means? That means my car, that is not even a year old, needs FOUR new tires. You can't just replace one or two at a time on an all wheel drive car. So, I said farewell to about $500 today.

But, on the bright side (because there has to be one, right?) I get new tires before winter. YAY NEW TIRES. Did you feel the sarcasm oozing from those words? Huh? Did you?