My absence has been due to an emergency trip to Microtech Computers for a little computer overhaul. Thank-God everything is OK now. Our display driver had something wrong with it and everything looked so terrible it was almost not worth it to be on the net - almost.

We have finally got a settlement on our van... $3246.50.
Is that how much our van was worth? Absolutely not. On the other hand, it is a good amount of money for a 16 year old vehicle. It just smarts because we took such amazing care of it. We are pretty sure we could have sold it for about $2000.00 more.
But to be practical about it, we weren't planning on selling it so that doesn't really matter. It only matters that we are now without a vehicle and although we have one hell of a stroller and a very good public transportation system, it can be quite limiting.

On the great and ever so sneaky side though... the car seat - which was in the van when it was stolen and tossed out somewhere so was never found - is covered under our insurance. That actually took some convincing on my part, they weren't too keen on doing that for us. We have been able to borrow a car seat from some friends and so we plan to buy the next size, a forward facing seat with the money from the insurance. I thought perhaps I could get one that can change into a booster seat once he grows out of this new one.