havocandmayhem.com

I am a thesis short of a Master’s Degree in medieval history (or as they now classify the Tudor age – Early Modern History, (which makes the fact slightly less interesting in a current context but still interesting from a personal historic point of view) ) None of that is the fun fact The fun fact is that despite my spending the past 20 years reading & writing about medieval history and how I study medieval history, I still cannot spell ‘medieval’ without a spell check. Medieval…medeival, meadevil, medieveal. I had one teacher who insisted the biggest problem students of the Tudor era had was the spelling of Britain & insisted we write it over and over again that first day so we’d get it right. Not Britian, but Britain. I never understood that because, Hello? Britain did not exist as a concept in Tudor times. You were English, or Welsh or the enemy up in Scotland. Medieval though was still very much a part of Tudor history (not that they used the word themselves, but ...

DH & a co-worker, T, went at looked at cars Friday. T is in the market for a new car. He gets a new one every 2-3 years. He said he thinks that after putting 50,000 miles on a car it is time to trade it in. T asked DH what our number was for getting a new car. DH told T he was driving a 14 year old truck with 250,000 miles on it and my car is a 2001 with 140,000 miles on it. Generally we figure 3 years after paying the car off is a good time to consider getting a new one, assuming it is having mechanical problems. If it’s running fine there is no need to replace it. We passed the 3 year paid off mark 3 years ago on my car and it’s not running well right now. DH was sparked by this conversation so we decided to look at cars Saturday after dinner (to better avoid car salesmen). The plan was to drive around the 3 used car lots in town and see what was on offer in our price range to give me a feel for what is out there so that Monday I could stop by alone & check them out (alon...

This is the time of year when my car takes its annual week long rest cure at the mechanic, costing me between $1000-1800. Last year most of the engine needed replaced (except the transmission and a/c) & between repairs and rental,it was $1800.  The year before that had been the collision so the insurance picked up most of it but I still had a $500 deductible and even though the insurance was paying for a rental car, I still popped for the added insurance on it, which came to another $500 by the time I got my car back. My collision had happened due to high winds blowing a tree branch into the road & my hitting it. It was still quite windy when I rented the car or I would have passed. The transmission was replaced in 2006 for $1100. Currently I have no a/c, which I didn’t have last year and somehow survived but was miserable, and the car makes ominous groaning noises from time to time in certain situations, like it’s shocks or suspension need oiled or replaced. I’m ...

It’s just the daily photos this week. Apartment buildings near the airport. The tallest building in our town is only 4 storeys. Buildings are HUGE in the metropolis. Overzealous yeast in a batch of bread dough DH took a corner too wide on his bike. Fortunately he was only doing about 15MPH and there was a bed of mulch where he landed I have a new job Reading to Daddy My to be read stack is getting sort of low To see more weekly winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom ! Thanks!   

Mayhem had his second tooth filled today. It went really well apparently. DH goes with him to the chair. I have issues & don’t want to expose the boys to my mental dental hang ups. So I only get second hand info on how it went. He wasn’t very happy about the shot, but who is really? And it was his 3rd shot in 2 days, which would be making me fairly unhappy if it were me. he had a physical on Tuesday and needed 2 vaxes. But all the shots are done. All the doc & dental visits are done for at least 6 months, short of sudden ear infections. A doc & dentist free summer is something to look forward to.

Not as I would ever do personally. My recent vacation involved flying out of Reagan National airport.  Reagan National is a reasonable enough distance from my house but I never think of it when making flight plans. I immediately jump to BWI or Dulles. Reagan National isn’t even on my radar. In fact, I think about it so little, in my mind it is still simply National airport. The last time I flew out of it was early Sept 2001 and the time before that was about 4 years before that.  But I’ve been in and out of BWI and Dulles many times (and almost always at come gawdawful hour of the morning) Here’s the one thing about National everyone knows - it’s on the Metro line. “Oh it’s so convenient!” everyone says when you say you are flying out of National. “it’s on the Metro” “You can just hop on the Metro for that” “Oh yeah, you don’t have to deal with parking. You can just get on the Metro” Then I say “Oh, have you taken the Metro to National then? Where do I change lines? ho...

We’ve been on vacation this week. We flew to Florida. to visit my parents who have interesting landscaping Naturally we did not travel alone. They played hide & seek My mom made her super special secret spaghetti sauce. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone. We also went to Build a Bear, though no one got a bear. Havoc chose a monkey And naturally Mayhem went with this guy For more Weekly Winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom . Thanks!