I've just returned from taking Jakob to swim class.

Really, is it so wrong to have a drink at 12:23 on a chilly Saturday afternoon because he was really, REALLY horrible in the class. This time he didn't even pretend to have a passing interest in the swim instructor - and she's adorable.

Jakey spent his time acting like someone with an IQ below 40: gargling pool water, sucking on floating devices, splashing and making guttural noises. Lot of fun. I'm sure I was as much entertainment to the other parents as I yelled at Jakob, making hand gestures, continually hopping off the wall to remind him to listen - and he payed as much attention to me as his instructor. Of course when I told him no treat afterwards there was remorse - but it was fleeting.

My frustration was exasperated because our car broke down this morning leaving us stranded. I called CAA and they came an hour later. We were hoping that worst case scenario was that it needed a new battery, now it's at the shop while they perform a diagnostic. Seems the car is draining the battery even when completely shut down. Thankfully it worked fine at 11pm last night when we drove home from Norm's birthday party - all I can say is please don't let it be expensive. So to get Jakob to swim class, I dug out our dusty old sled and pulled him all the way to the pool while Paul dealt with the CAA guy and took the car to the garage.

Sleds are not meant to be pulled on concrete.

Sadly it will be a while before I post more pictures. I took my camera to Henry's and it turns out the there was a recall on my camera and also that Minolta is no longer in the digital camera business and has been bought out by Sony. Off my camera went to Sony with a promise to have it returned either fixed or replaced in 6 weeks. Hopefully before we head off to New York, and seeing as Minolta is no longer in business, and a new camera rather than a repaired model that's probably obsolete.

But there is news on the house front - and I really wish I had photos to post - our light fixtures are all up, we're missing only one Sputnik which will hopefully come in soon and the barn door has been installed, and everything looks fabulous! The painter was in doing his final touch ups so we're nearly at the end of this whole crazy process.

All we're missing now is the hardware for the barn door, which was to be installed last Thursday. But after a no-show by Tim (the carpenter) and still no word from John - I'm not holding my breath that it will come in any time soon. It's a bit disconcerting that John can't even be bothered to phone me to let me know the reasoning behind the no show when a date had been committed to. And it also makes me wonder how accountable he will be when it's time to do the touch ups next spring after the house has settled. If he can't be bothered to show up or call when we still owe him money, how am I going to get him here to do final repairs when we no longer owe him money and I no longer have a carrot to dangle?

Good news regarding my skimmed funds, the money is back in my account! - well was, it's now in the hand of the daycare. I am still sending out evil thoughts to the people who did this but thankfully I have a fantastic bank manager who put all the paperwork in place and had the money returned to me on Thursday. While I was out with a couple of girlfriends the other night, Beth told me the same thing had happened to her and it was the No Frills on St. Clair where her card had been compromised - and that was also one of the places I had used the week before with my debit card. My bank is not passing on the information on where my situation happened which is unfortunate. Going forward in life, I will be much more cautious when and where I use my debit and credit card - other than that I really don't know what more I can do.