bad car .. bad!

So, I went to get my new cell today .. just for giggles I told 'em to check and see if I'd be cleared to get a contract instead of a prepaid phone. I had issues with Cellular One a while back .. they tried to charge me $792 to break my contract with them, because the little child-phone that I got for my daughter didn't work anywhere .. they refused to replace it or to cancel that account, so I refused to pay.

Anyway .. so, back to US Cellular. They ran me through the computer, just for giggles .. I was expecting to see some kinda smoke signal or the dark mark in the sky or something, but lo and behold, I was approved .. with no deposit required, no less *cheers again* I picked out phones for me and Pookie, 'cause I had to pick out 2 phones for the family plan .. they said if she didn't like the one I picked, we could exchange it within 30 days .. good deal. I figured she wasn't going to like it and I'd be making a trip back, but that was fine.

I came zipping back home to find out that I was out of work for the day, no biggie, the holidays always screw us up .. it'll build back up in a couple days. So, I went online to find replacement parts for one of the dog collars. The battery cap has somehow gone missing and replacing the collar will cost $80. After 2 or 3 sites, I found a replacement cap .. $5! yay me! *happy dance*

Pookie got home, gave her the phone, she's all ecstatic 'cause it's got a slidey out keyboard for texting. We ran back to the store to see if she saw any other phones that she liked better .. she decided the one I picked was perfect *preens* ... of course, I saw one that I hadn't seen while I was there, so I decided I'd run to the bank and exchange mine, but had to get the munchkin home, get her stuff to go to volleyball tryouts, and get her to the school first. We got home, got her stuff together, ran back out to the car, I pulled the brake release .... and off it came. The whole release thingy .. came out .. in my hand.

So now we're stuck in the garage, the emergency brake is on, and I can't release it. I called my stepfather, who knows everstuff about cars and asked him what to do. He gave me instructions -Take the plate off the dash with a screw driver, shine a flashlight back in the hole, find the gear tooth that's holding the brake in, and pry it out so it'll release the brake. Easy enough.

I went out to the garage, armed with my trusty screwdriver, only to find that I needed a socket wrench, not a screw driver. Returned to the house to find the socket wrench. I don't have one the right size. I have every size BUT the right size. So, I took the screwdriver back out and pried the plate off the dashboard ... busted it up into a bazillion pieces .. but it's off. :) On to the next instruction!

"Shine flashlight back in the hole" ... Right.

I have 8889792839234 flashlights in the house, 1 of which works. We went through all of them to find the one that works and Pookie had to try to hold it for me. She shone the stupid thing everywhere but where I needed it, of course.

Next: Pry gear tooth loose. ..... Uh huh .. well, the screwdriver wasn't long enough to get back there, I contorted myself all over the place to try to get the stupid thing in there .. no dice. Returned to house again to find a hammer. Not sure what I was planning on doing with it, but got it anyway. Messed around with the screwdriver and hammer for about 20 minutes. Finally, I remembered my grandfather had left this neat little thing called a "Grip it" here for me (for opening jars and stuff) .. so had Pookie run in and grab that .. It's got a little rubber strappy thing on it, so i strung that through the hole, wrapped it around the brake release thingamajig and ta-da! It came loose. YAY .. I'm a mechanic!

Grabbed Pookie, got her in the car, flew down to the school ... got there with 4 minutes to spare, and Pookie realized she had the wrong shoes on and they won't let her try out in these shoes ... so we had to fly .. literally .. fly back to the house, she ran in .. came out with shoes, no socks. Sent her back in for socks. She ran out .. didn't shut the door. Sent her back to shut the door. She ran out .. again .. finally with everything and the door was shut. We did mach-10 back to the school. She's wiggling around, knocking the car out of gear while trying to get her shoes on ... the engine makes a neat whirrrwhizzing sound when it goes from 5th gear to neutral and I still have the gas pedal buried in the floor.

She finally got her shoes on, got to the school, tossed her out to go try out for volleyball .. screeched into the gas station on fumes, got gas, went to the bank ... and got there 5 minutes after they closed .. argh!! So, now I have to wait until tomorrow to go get my pretty new touch screen cell phone *le sigh* I have to try to make do with the stupid Krazr *sniffles and tries to look pitiful*