First week

The boys finished school on Tuesday, so it was the first week of summer for us.
It started with a separation. I helped a friend move to Portland and hung out there for the weekend. The Dude took the boys to the river to take advantage of Free Fishing Weekend. The first day of the weekend was too cold and wet and rainy. The second day, he could only coax the little dude out with him. Too bad, because it was a great day for it.

 The little dude is learning to love fishing

 Glorious Scenery

They were not the only ones out there fishing

The beaver was probably more successful.

They had a lot of fun. My friend picked up the tab for eating in Portland, to thank me for my big strong muscles :) I bought tea and a muffin on Monday, as well as a cookie at the airport. Maybe $7 spent. And it does fall into travel, which is something we are willing to spend money on this summer. The dude picked me and the other helper friend up at the airport, we had a picnic in a park on the way home.

I brought a cold home with me so was pretty miserable the next few days. The Little Dude had a 5th grade celebration *sniff*

*sniff* *sniff*

Now they were officially home from school! Let the summer begin.

They got signed up for summer reading. We have been watching 1940s House, 1900 House, and Frontier House. They are fascinating and fun and give a nice perspective.

So, now to keep the boys entertained. The boys do need to be bored and entertain themselves, but we also supply resources and want to hang out with them.
Since it has been so long since I have blogged, I will update names:

Magnus: Oldest son
Rin: Middle son
Luigi: Youngest son

Magnus and Rin are quite self directed, introverted, and contained. Magnus is 15, Rin is 13. Magnus is happy reading, drawing, walking downtown to the library and used bookstore. He blogs and reads stuff on the computer. He must be coerced into family fun sometimes. Rin can usually be found reading, playing video games, or Minecraft. Luigi is different. He is 11 (in 3 days) likes to read. But he also likes to build, hang out in nature, draw, create. He is more extroverted and needs more direction and companionship. So my challenge is finding things for Luigi to do and finding things interesting enough that they will engage the sullen teen types.

The Dude and Luigo made boffers. It turns out if you give a kid pool noodles, duct tape, and pvc pipes, they can do a lot. Boffers, torches, pocket knives, double ended weapons.
On grocery day, we took all the kids and dropped them off in town to wander around and be kids while we shopped. Then we picked them up and went to the park for an epic boffer battle.

Saturday, we headed to Idaho for more free fishing . Rin is not a fan of fishing, so he and I were going to hike while everyone else fished.

Meanwhile on the trail:

We didn't find a good trail near the fishing area, but we did find butterflies!

Luigi caught a fish

Then we spent some time catching frogs, which was ridiculously fun! I have never caught frogs before. It was a very simple activity which was great.

Our tally for the week:
1 lunch at Arby's: $13. We were running behind for lunch, heading to grocery shopping, and were in between home and shopping. The best solution seemed to be fast food. I set a $2.50 per person budget, so it was not outrageous.

1 State Park entrance fee $5. The trailer event was in a state park, so we had to pay the parking fee. Worth every penny.

1 after work pint of beer- $3.

1 during work lunch- $4. 

Goal- $0. Actual- $25.

Upcoming week-Father's Day and a birthday on a zero dollar budget!

A No Spend Summer

Hello blog readers. Did you miss me?
Once again, that whole school thing got in the way. I was going to write more about my trip, then couldn't figure out how to quickly upload zillions of pics to go with it, then spent many days just organizing those pics, then had to get the house in order for back to school, then went to Portland for a week, and then school started. All those people who told me that the first year is the hardest lied. The second year was so hard. Well, not hard, but insanely busy. But I survived, even got good grades, and have students who like me and turned to me for advice. That is a good feeling. It is now summer and I must write my thesis. Yay.

Since it is summer, I have no funding. None. Current income-$0. I could try to get a job, but I need to write my thesis this summer. I am taking three classes in the fall, which is a heavy load. In the spring, I will be taking one class, studying for my giant qualifying exam (taken next summer) and packing to move. We will be moving back across the state to our "hometown" next July. I place that in quotes because it is not our hometown, we didn't grow up there or anywhere near there. But it is the place that we think of when we think of home. When I take (and pass) my exam, I will be ABD, all but dissertation. I will finish that work over there, and The Dude will get a real grown up job, or will go to graduate school, or both. So, next school year will be packed and now is the time to write.

The Dude has graduated college. Yay! But now we are living in a town that has a shortage of good jobs and an overage of qualified candidates. Therefore, he is at his old fallback-waiting tables. It is good but unsteady income. Overall our loan amount was much less in the spring-Dude had zero loans, since he graduated. I only took out the subsidized loan, and last year I took out both. So, we had quite a bit less money, but will owe less in the end. The Dude didn't have a job for a few months, so that was a hit to our pocketbook as well. The tax return is pretty much spent. I splurged out and bought an iPad, which I still feel good about because it actually keeps all my notes in one place and I am terribly disorganized. I tried to do notes on my computer, but I failed. I like to write in handwriting. The iPad will pay for itself when I have successfully completed my degree. We also had some dental bills and bought the littlest dude his own computer for his birthday. The Dude's student loan repayments have started. Whew. Money is tight right now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8kRsoAZjpM

How should we respond?

We are planning to do a no-spend summer! Here are the rules: no spending on anything not necessary. We will be food, shoes (if needed), gas, and pay bills. We also include some family outings as necessary to our family sanity. We will be going to Glacier National Park for a week. We had planned to do a week in Yellowstone, but have decided to scale back. Now we are focusing on how we can get away for free. We live near some really pristine parts of the US, and for the past few years, we have been stocking up on backpacking gear. So, it occurred to me that maybe this year is the year to try out that equipment and do some backpacking. There are forests nearby that don't require a pass, and there is free camping in those forests, so the only cost will be gas. Of course, gas is almost $4 a gallon, so that cost is not insignificant. I have a (free) app on my iPad, Cost2Drive. It is sobering and may help keep some of the trips in check. We are also close to some really nice bike trails, so biking is on the summer list.

As for the rest of it, we simply won't buy it. It will be a summer without garage sales or thrift shops. This will be difficult, because we love both of those things. But the less we spend elsewhere, the less stress we will have about bills, and the more we will have to spend on trips.

So far, we have had some interesting things happening. On Wednesday, we decided we should do this. Friday, June 1st, might as well start then. But we also thought we might as well jump start it on Thursday. Thursday we went grocery shopping. On the way, we saw three super cute chairs in a free pile by an apartment complex. We have the ugliest chairs known to man in our dining room. I have wanted to replace them, but chairs are spendy. 4 of our chairs were ripped up vinyl. 2 of them are vinyl and not great, but not ripped up. We have one other vinyl chair that is cute but had no home. So we brought home the 3 chairs, added the 4th, homeless chair, kept the 2 blue ones, and now have a cute, eclectic mix for nothing.

We did our shopping, nothing extra at all, just what we needed. Then we were heading home and The Dude went past a furniture making shop. They had a TON of good wood out front, for free. The Dude is a pretty accomplished, self taught carpenter with quite a few projects on the list. Now he will not need to buy the wood for them.

Friday we were going to go out on a bike ride.  The littlest dude couldn't find his helmet and so wanted to do out and buy a new one. We found it but it turns out that he is outgrowing it and so he still needs a new one. Well, it just so happened that there was a safety fair this weekend and they were giving out free helmets for kids under 16. We went to it, and our kids are giant and have big heads to match, so there weren't any large enough in stock. However, the woman working there gave us a coupon for a free helmet at the local bike shop. We went over today, got their heads measured and will have free helmets in 2 weeks.

I will post later about the many projects that are happening around our house. But I will give a glimpse at some of the ways we plan to entertain ourselves this summer for no money:

Swimming. We have an annual pass to our community pool. That will come in handy
Picnics in the park
Catching butterflies
Boffering with pool noodle boffers This is kind of a cheat because they aren't no cost. We bought the material in May. But that was before we knew we were no-spend challenging. We got the noodles at the Dollar Tree and the PVC pipe for handles was less than $5, so the total cost is less than $10 for a family full of boffers,
Croquet and bocce on our lawn or at the park
Disc golf.  There is a course nearby
Games. We have lots of un-played board games
Stories by candlelight
Bonfires in the back yard
Blowing bubbles
Baking bread
Picking fruit
Biking
Hiking
Touring the campus
Making movies
Drawing
Painting
Nerf gun wars
Learning outdoor skills
Visiting local free events

In addition to a no spend challenge, we are limiting internet. The boys will not be using the internet during the day and there will be at least one day per week when the internet is turned off completely.




Kids skate free:
http://kidsskatefree.com/

Free Milkweed seeds (bring monarchs to your yard):
http://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds.htm

Kids bowl free. Two games per day, all summer long:
http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/#

Free Redbox movie rental codes:
http://www.coupondad.net/blog/redbox-free-rental-codes/

Redbox text club:
http://www.redbox.com/textclub

The epic overview

Hello all!
We have returned. Washington  to Washington and back. 7845 miles. 25 days.
I will give a full recording over the coming days and weeks, but wanted to run through the highlights quickly.
Coolest discovery: we can travel in a small minivan for that many days and miles with only mild squabbling.
Favorite state: Montana
Least favorite state: New Jersey
Most surprising state: North Dakota
Favorite city in MT: Bozeman
Favorite town across the whole country: Medora, ND
Hottest temperature: 115 with heat index, Washington DC
Coldest temperature: below 45 (estimated) Gallatin National Forest, MT
Favorite accommodation: Sandy's house!
Nicest hotel: Hyatt Place by the Dulles airport
Most surprising hotel: Baymont Inn and Suites Des Moines, IA
Worst motel: Thoroughbred Lodge White River, SD
Best campground: Langohr in the Gallatin National Forest
Worst campground: KOA in Kankakee, IL
Best public transit experience: Staten Island Ferry
Best surprise: 1. Finding out the Dude's sister and brother-in-law were stuck at a hotel right by Dulles when we were there. We got to see them before they returned to Paris.
2. Museum of Modern Art was open on Tuesday in summers. Very shocking!
Worst surprise
1. The $800 worth of repairs in DC
2. The unflushed (very unflushed) toilet in our motel room in White River, SD
Coolest souvenir:
A hook newly forged before our eyes by a blacksmith at a living history museum. Won by Magnus (oldest son)  for answering the test question correctly. What was the  blacksmith's favorite working temperature for steel? 1800 degrees F.
Most prolific free/odd souvenir finder: Luigi (Youngest son)
Strangest roadside find:
1. A long distance unicyclist on the freeway in northern Idaho
2. A dead top half of a garter snake with 2 live babies inside at a rest stop in Iowa.
Coolest unplanned museum stop: Museum of the Rockies Bozeman, MT
Guiding motto of the trip:
In 10 years what will we remember? That we got there on time or that we got in late and had a lot of fun?
Best boat trip:
Maid of the Mist (Niagara Falls)
Worst boat trip:
Chicago Water Taxi across Lake Michigan (riding backwards on the engine)
Best Beach:
Lake Michigan, Michigan
Best roadside picnic stop:
Theodore Roosevelt National Park rest stop, ND->Bison across the canyon and horses in the parking lot
Fort Niagara State Park. Eating dinner on the banks of Lake Ontario with the sun setting over the lake and Toronto skyline looming in the distance
Thing that brought me closest to the tear: Star Spangled Banner (THE Star Spangled Banner) at Smithsonian American History Museum
Coolest things to see:
1. Hope Diamond
2. The Air and Space Museum
3. Prairie Dog Towns
4. Les Demoiselles D'Avignon
5. Forevortron
6. Family and friends
7. Hundreds of different types of barbed wire on display
8. Opera singer in a tunnel in Central Park complete with crutches
9. Moon rise over Lake Wassota
10. Thousands of fireflies in Illinois
Coolest things we did
1. See Lincoln Memorial
2. Rode subway to Times Square
3. Horse and buggy ride in Medora, ND
4. Drive through liquor store Dayton Ohio
5. Dune climbing at Lake Michigan, Michigan
6. See the world's largest Holstein cow: Salem Sue New Salem, ND
7. Setting up camp by moonlight on Cayuga Lake, NY
8. Visited the ugliest state capitol (building not city) in the US: Bismarck, ND
9. Bought lunch meat from an Amish butcher in Nappanee, IN
10. Rode the "trolley" in Chicago
Scariest happenings:
1. Car trouble in DC
2. Connecticut driving
3. New Jersey driving
4. Driving directly into a huge and damaging thunderstorm in SD and then turning back to outrun it and finding the only motel for 50 miles to have the office closed. While waiting for the manager, we then heard a siren, possibly tornado!
5. Gas station northern Idaho
6. Gas station Livingston MT
7. Getting lost in Niagara Falls, NY
8. Skinhead campground neighbors, Kankakee, IL
9. Driving north of Chicago
10. Losing Magnus at the Lincoln Memorial

Biggest disappointments:
1. Missing Lego store at Mall of America
2. Jamestown, ND
3. Not finding our campsite-Flathead Lake, MT
4. Field Museum (Sue) and missing MOSI and other museums in favor of that one
5. Not going to National Archives
6. Atlantic City
7. Not camping in Badlands
8. Not visiting Greenwich Village
9. Our motel room in Wildwoods, NJ
10. The heat and humidity from Chicago-DC

State Awards
Awesomest: Montana
Crappiest: NJ
Worst road conditions: NJ and NY tie
Worst road signage: NJ
Worst drivers: CT honorable mention: IL
Most overpriced for time spent ratio: Delaware
Most overpriced food: DC (not a state, but)
Most toll booths: IL
Best rest area welcome center: Wyoming
Saddest rest areas: Montana Honorable mention: Minnesota (closed due to govt shut down while we were there)
Most exciting: South Dakota
State with most sandbags holding water off the freeway: Iowa. Runners-up Minnesota and North Dakota

Most sanity saving device: Audio books
Favorite audiobooks:
Stormy Weather Carl Hiassen
Smoke Jumper
Journey James Mitchener
A Reason for Hope Jane Goodall

More to come. Stay tuned....

Over the river and through the woods...

Long time no post. That whole graduate school deal got in the way of my blogging!

A while back I wrote a whiny rant about our lack of travel. We have decided to do something about it. The Dude's dad got sick last month and it put the need to see him on the front burner. We looked into airline tickets for the Dude to fly out. Over $600. We figure that it wouldn't cost too much more for us all to drive out and then boys could see their grandfather.

We have some interesting things in our house. For one, our youngest has never seen fireflies. He really wants to and has been angling for a trip east of the Rockies in order to fulfill this desire. For another, my boys want to see Washington DC. My oldest had the opportunity to go with his class this year, but the package was $2500. I really thought we could take him and his brothers to see DC for around the same price. So we began to plan for such a trip. But when? First we thought of this summer, but I want to work on my thesis and the cost seemed like a lot. Next summer? Maybe, but I will have a conference in Denver and so that puts DC out of reach. The following summer I will need to prep for my qualifying exam. It was getting further and further out and became a "someday." Of course, the oldest is entering 9th grade in the fall and we are running out of somedays. But the conversation got shelved for several months.

The youngest was writing a poem and somehow the Smithsonian came up. He asked if we were ever going to go there. We began talking and realized this is a priority. We thought about going next year and tacking it onto our Denver trip. But then we realized that the Dude would be paying $600 to fly out, so we thought it would make more sense to roll that into our travel fund, add to it, and take off this summer. We have money in the bank and are able to at this time.

We leave tomorrow. This blog will turn into my travel blog for a little while. I thought of starting a new blog for the journey, but decided that this is a good example of living well while broke.

The trip is 3 1/2 weeks long. We wanted to upsize to a Suburban so that we would have more leg and elbow room, but it came down to: we can stay home and buy an SUV or keep our minivan and hit the road. The road beckoned all of us. So we will be spending the next 3 1/2 weeks in a small minivan. We have downscaled our things. Everyone is taking 3 days worth of clothes. We have a small box of books on tape and compact games to keep us entertained. We will be buying food along the way. This smaller scale living should help the gas mileage some as well.

Best way to save money while traveling is to camp. We will be doing this all along the way. We splurged a bit and bought an air mattress. It is more than paid for the first night in a tent instead of a hotel. All the rest of the camping equipment was bought used. We will be camping at state, city, and national parks, with a few private campgrounds thrown in. I did use the reservation services. This is a mixed bag. It is nerve wracking to travel without knowing whether you have a site, especially if you are driving late into the night. But with each reservation, I was greeted with a $5-$9 reservation fee. And if I needed to change a reservation, there would be a double penalty-a cancellation charge and a new reservation fee. For some nights we are going without a reservation. However, even with fees, our lodging for 3 1/2 weeks is running about $500. We have budgeted another $500 for meals out. I don't think we will use that much, but I wanted to overplan. I am not including camp and road food that we buy at grocery stores because we would be eating anyway.

Gas is our biggest expense and there is no way around it. I used Gas Buddy to try to find our cheapest option.

For attractions, I have scoured guide books and the Internet seeking out the best free and cheap things to do. We have a rich and varied itinerary and are spending less than $200 on activities. All told, our 3 1/2 week vacation for 5 should cost around $3000. I know that this is a lot, but for what it is, I think it is pretty good.

Highlights:
2 days in Chicago, 3 days in DC, 2 days in NYC
Museum of Modern Art
Greenwich Village
Staten Island Ferry as mode of transportation
Maid of the Mist (maybe) Niagara Falls
Cape May
DoWop tour in Wildwood, NJ
Field Museum of Natural History (Sue!)
Museum of Science and Industry (largest science museum on the western hemisphere)
Lake Michigan boat ride
National Zoo
Air and Space
Sand Dunes
Deep River Muster
Badlands
Lego Stores
SPAM Museum
Music Man Square
and the list goes on...

I will be blogging about it when I can, but I intend to keep notes and update and dump pictures here after the trip is over.

25 days, 7000 miles, 18 states, lots of nights under the stars.
Stayed tuned....

Holiday gift pizazz on the cheap

I have been scouring the Internet for gift ideas and I thought I would share some links. I won't say if I will be using all, some, or none of these ideas, lest my readership include potential recipients.

First, on the decoration. I think I will make something similar for the front door:

http://micheleravendesigns.blogspot.com/2010/09/book-page-wreath.html
I really like it with music sheets
http://micheleravendesigns.blogspot.com/2010/09/vintage-sheet-music-wreath-by-primp.html
I found the links in the comments here:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/entertaining/upcycled-paper-wreaths-simple-joys-paperie-133709
Looks like I can make it myself for a few dollars or buy one for $50 or $60!! Hmm, let me think about that for awhile!

For a computer lover, how about a wallet made from computer keyboard innards:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Wallet-made-from-a-computer-keyboard/

Or these adorable bugs made from computer parts
http://www.instructables.com/id/Computer-Bugs/


Greenhouse in a jar is very cute for the gardener
http://www.instructables.com/id/Greenhouse-in-a-Jar/

Ambitious but really cool
http://www.instructables.com/id/Magnetic-Rubik-s-Dice-Cube/

If you need to give your reader the gift of storage and have some old encyclopedias (or your thrift shop does for cheap)
http://www.instructables.com/id/A-bookshelf-made-of-encyclopedias!-YAY!/


I have to make a plug for my friends awesome blog. On the side panels, you will see lots of links to lovely craft and gift ideas
http://goddesshobbies.blogspot.com/

Dollhouse 1:
http://blog.jugglingfrogs.com/2007/07/camp-mommy-foam-core-doll-house.html

Dollhouse 2:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5738146/simple_shelftype_dollhouse_thats_easy.html

Puppet theaters:
http://www.essortment.com/hobbies/doityourselfh_sbnl.htm
http://www.childhood101.com/2009/10/diy-kids-tabletop-puppet-theatre-for.html

And some puppets to go with it
http://www.savvyhomemade.com/homemade-puppets.html

I will continue to add to this post until Christmas, so keep checking back. And please post your own ideas or links in the comment section.

Calling and Christmas gifts

It pays to call.

We have a couple of different places where we keep money. We keep most of it in ING but use a checking account through a credit union. The dude woke up this morning and checked our account. There was a $159 check that had tried to go through, and we didn't have that much in the account, so it bounced and we were charged $25. The dude called the credit union to find out what the charge was. It was from a carpet cleaning we had done in July! He told the banker that he was transferring money over but it would take until Tuesday to make it. She pulled the check back and will hold on to it until then. She also took off the $25 charge.

Also, the boys have spent the evening playing with a new toy I found at Salvation Army. It is like this: http://www.amazon.com/Quercetti-Small-Skyrail-Suspension-210/dp/B0002CYT8K but with 500 pieces. Same brand, same set up. We paid $4.50 for it! It is awesome.

I have also located the 47 cent back room at my local thrift shop. I found pants for the boys, pants for me, a cute shirt that still had its $35 store tag on it. All for 47 cents each! We also found cross country skis for $6 per pair. Still need boots and poles.

One great thing about living in a small town is that there isn't a lot to spend money on!

But the thing right now is the looming holiday of gift giving. I am trying to come up with inexpensive fun gift ideas for the boys. I would love to make them kits. We are buying them things as well, but I want to fill in with low cost things! Not coming up with much. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! So many of the homemade gift ideas seem geared toward adults, it is hard to find info on middle age kids.

The oldest is almost 14 and into: sci-fi, reading, writing screenplays, sketching, comic books and graphic novels, steam punk, and wants to get into building models (specifically airships)

The middle one is 12: Manga, comic book superheroes, building things, robots, computers(playing and programming), music, cooking, movies, legos

The youngest is 9: Building things, drawing (his passion), legos, baking, sewing, Barbies, animals, nature, math, chemistry, physics.

Any ideas?

Is there a course on how to live well in poverty?

Because we just aren't getting it. (whiny rant ahead)

I have many friends who are low-income. Some have children, some are childfree. Some are married, partnered, or single. And the vast majority seem to have this poverty thing figured out. Their cars remain in working order, they have cozy warm houses filled with trinkets from far off lands, they eat organically and shop fair trade and buy groceries at the co-op. When they go to they go to the farmer's market, they are able to buy their kids lunch, or at least a muffin. And they TRAVEL. That is the one I am most envious of right now. They fly home to see their families, and some of them even go to other countries. How? How do they do this? Is it parental help? An unseen trust fund? What? And it doesn't seem to be sacrificing one thing to save up for the other, because a lot of them seem to be able to tackle a lot of the things listed.




I am feeling a bit grim right now. The frugal plan has not gone as well as intended. We did some smart things like pay off credit cards and prepay insurance. But we have been hit with some things like: the dog's accident. She is still in a cast and has been going for bandage changes every week (or so) since the beginning of August. Plus the cost of the original treatment. So that has been $30-$60 a week, and I think the first bill was about $300. And we have been having some lovely car trouble that has run a few hundred dollars and isn't fixed yet. Luckily the Dude knows his way around cars, otherwise it would have been a lot more and not fixed, since he did exactly what they said to do. I went to the eye doctor, and my glasses cost $100, and that was after the insurance paid a big chunk. I was having severe neck and back pain, and accompanying headaches due to my extremely heavy book load. So we went and purchased a really good backpack. Good news-no more pain. Bad news-$100 lighter. So there have been things like that eating into our funds. And there have been the bad choices we have made: ordering pizza for dinner a couple of times, joining friends for drinks, buying lunch at school a couple of times. None of them feel like bad choices though, it is our attempt to feel "normal" and not poor.

And that is what I would like to talk about. Feeling poor. Right now, I am definitely feeling poor. The things I listed in my first paragraph are things that I would like to do to feel like I am leading a rich, well-rounded life. There are a few others as well. Some I can manage, but others are not happening at this time.
Things we do:
We attend free or cheap concerts or cultural events through my school
We hosted a party on Halloween. The cost: pumpkins, dry ice, candles, and a black light bulb.
Also, I am so busy with my school work that I don't have a ton of time to miss what I am missing out on.

But some things feel like they are lacking:
Hiking. At our old place, there was beautiful in-town hiking within a mile of our front door. And spectacular hiking was within 2 hours. Here, I haven't found any great hiking in town, and two hours means a lot of gas money these days!
Travel. As I said, this is the biggie. I am constantly perplexed by people that travel home every holiday. The Dude hasn't seen his father in almost 10 years, because we can't afford the cross-country travel. We were going to visit our favorite city for a one day, two night getaway next month, but then realized that it would cost a couple hundred dollars just in gas and lodging. And we have never really figured out how to do dinner on the road. The other meals are fine, but dinner we want to be hot. And we are usually out and about at dinner time. But even without the food costs, $200 is extravagant right now. And it will be more than that. And there is the whole sketchy vehicle situation. I am very sad about this because I love to travel. But even if we camp, transportation costs run so high.

UPDATE: I wrote this post a while back but hadn't posted it yet. At this point, we are planning to go. We will spend only one night there and make sandwiches for the road. Hopefully we can get the car issue resolved. However, it still leaves the larger question of how people do this on a regular basis.

Also, the doggie leg is healed and will not need surgery!