It's quiet...

I had to drive Dh for some blood tests this morning, then drop him off at work. Eldest was really tired, so she went to bed after we left, and Youngest has yet to get up. Which means I'm the only one up in the house right now. I'm not used to it being so quiet this time of day! Heck, I'm usually just getting up, since I go to bed so late. Knowing I had to give Dh a ride, I tried going to bed earlier. It didn't work. I slept terribly, but there's no way I could go back to bed now. Ah, well. I may was well take advantage of the lack of distraction and catch up on my writing.

A belated Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there. I hope you had a great day. Dh and the girls were really sweet. They made breakfast, and in the afternoon, the girls and I took in a series of three, one act plays put on by a local youth theatre group. The third play was written by one of the actors. It was a complex piece with a lot of depth. I actually got teary at the very end, with a "flashback" of the main character's dad, who'd been killed in a car accident, talking and reading to the main character as a little girl. I'm such a suck these days. *L*

Yesterday, I had the great "fun" of making phone calls for estimates to get our piano moved out. It's a 200 yr old upright grand piano (do they even make upright grands anymore?) that weighs a thousand pounds. I discovered that a lot of moving companies won't do pianos at all. Actually piano movers, on the other hand, tend to be local moves/deliveries only. I did scrounge together a short list of moving companies that will do it, and most of them were considerably more expensive than I'd budgeted for.

Did you know it costs less to have a car shipped, than a piano?

*grumblegrumblegrumble*

We've really got to make the push to have it brought out, though. Rather than leave it in an empty house or put it in storage, we found a family to take it in. This allowed them to find out if their kids would be interested in learning the piano without actually making a huge investment, then discovering they hate it. So they got good use of it, and it went over well enough that they decided to get a full size electronic piano. Which means they now have two, and ours takes up a lot more space. We've already delayed shipping it out for far too long. I just never thought it would be this hard to find companies to ship it!

It'll be good to finally have that over and done with - and to have our piano again!

After the piano, next on our agenda is replacing our car. It should be interesting to see how that works out, what with the troubles the car companies are in right now. You'd think they'd be actually willing to sell cars and lower prices to get some of that excess inventory out the door, but judging from the prices I'm still seeing, they don't seem to want to sell cars that badly after all.

We don't want anything new, since those prices are always over-inflated, but something a few years old would be good. A mini van we can use to drive back to Manitoba and visit family with would be ideal for our needs. Dh has been talking truck with extended cab. We were still living outside the city, I'd be all for it, but I think a truck would be overkill for us now. For what we'll be using it for, either a mini van (I'm partial to the Dodge Caravan) or SUV would meet our needs, and I think a mini van would be more practical. It'd be good to have plenty of room to bring back some of those boxes we still have stored with my parents. Maybe make some camping trips or drives out to one of the lakes outside the city. There's a geology camp we've been missing every year for lack of reliable transportation.

Until we actually have a new set of wheels, though, no plans can be made. At least now, though, I can see it actually happening in the near future!