Team PLP and Taxes
Last night I was in the zone... I got my part and went to work on my car. The little Sentra has been sick for a while and last night she got some medicine. The dealer figured out that she needed a new MAF (Mass Air Flow Sensor)... they wanted to charge me $680 for the part, $50 to ship it next day, and then $130 to change my spark plugs... Yes they wanted me to give them over $850 plus the $80 it cost to figure out what the problem was. Despite having the best month ever for OutSight Design, I did not have that kind of money.

Since they swapped my spark plugs while doing the diagnostics on the car, I had them not charge me labor on those, so total to get my car from the dealer (new plugs and the diag) cost me $112. Not too bad, I used my roadside assistance to get my car towed back to my house. I found a the part for my car from AutoZone for $250, and they only charged me $6 to get it here next day... I bought a special tamper proof socket bit set ($10) and I was ready to do the repair myself. It took all of 40 minutes... and that includes the time I started taking something apart that I did not need to and put back together. She runs great now!

My baby getting towed.

Now that I have been under the hood... I want to do more work.

Check Engine Light On.

Check Engine Light Off.

So I had a quick love your car day like the old Parking Lot Performance (Team PLP) days. I cleaned the interior of my Sentra and I got the rims all cleaned up and they will be installed today! Now I got the car working bug... I need to get the NX 2000 fixed up and ready for racing season this summer. She needs a couple hundred dollars with of work and some elbow grease to get her back to the course. I also want to run the Sentra around the cones once...

So tonight I am rolling to Grand Rapids. Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my laptop back... I know... finally! I hope she is actually fixed this time or I might just lose it. So I hope she is done and I can have my baby back and in good working order. What does suck is that I do need to do a complete reinstall of all my stuff... that will take a long time to do. I think I will wait til school is out and I have less work so I can focus on getting it all updated and back in shape.

I filed for my IRS Tax Extension today... nothing like waiting til the last day for my extension. Now I just need to remember to get them done before August 15th... Anyhow that is off my plate. Got some programs on campus on Saturday and Sunday so I get to be in Albion for those. I am glad it will be so nice this weekend!

Great Weekend... Bad News
This weekend was awesome! The conference was a big hit, we had some small snags but things all in all went very well. I did some fun new stuff with the AV, and have tons of plans for where I can take it for next year. It was very tiring, but right after the banquet I hoped a plane to Chicago to see my family.

Sunday was the birthday of not only Novali, but my dad as well! Miguel was in town with his friend Kate, and so was Andy and Soloumeh. My parents got some hotel rooms for everyone and we had a good time. Novali road her bike in and outside of the hotel, and we had a nice Centellas family birthday lunch. Raquel was the only one who could not make it. It was great to have the family together.

She loves riding her bike around, in or outside!

She always thinks I am on a plane (usually I am) so I got her a wrist watch with a plane on it.

Her first Apple Store Gift! ... Finding Nemo Computer game, for Mac or PC.

Blowing out the candles on her cake.

The Centellas Crew.

Her cute little birthday outfit.

After my family left, Novali had another party for the Chicago side. This one was at McDs and she was super excited. Her cousins and friends and family were all there. She loves to slide down the play slides and climbs all over.

Going down the slide.

She is four now... man time flies!

Cake #2.

So what did she get... clothes, clothes, clothes...

I was very tired getting back to Michigan, but it was worth all the hectic travel to be able to be everywhere I needed to be for the weekend.

So now I am back at work, back in Albion, back to the normal life. Work is slowing down at Albion, my big conferences are over, and OutSight is having the best consulting month ever! So whenever things are going really great I know I am due to get some bad news. So last night I took my car to the dealer to finally try and figure out what is wrong with my car... yes folks... to fix that little check engine light... more then $800 bucks. OUCH! Good thing I did not get that Palm Pilot I been wanting... now everything gets to get spent on my car.