That's right folks, the countdown is now at five more months until Europe '09 commences. Much has transpired since my last post. Work has been nuts... If you recall two post ago, I was commenting on how crappy I felt at work because of the crazy summer. Well it didn't stop there, as the rest of August and beginning of this month continued to be nuts. The stress drove me into a massive funk, I really just didn't want to work for almost two months. Finally, about two weeks ago, my stress level was obliterated, and I've felt magnificent since. So things are great now, quotes are steady, and jobs are steadily coming in. I'm so stinkin' thrilled that I don't feel like crap at work anymore, let's hope this rides through 'till after the big trip.
So my very last post discussed how we had purchased our plane tickets for next March. Well, as you might see where this is potentially going (or read my updates on Facebook), we had booked with the now-notorious Zoom Airlines. For those who live in bubbles, Zoom Airlines went Bankrupt at the end of August, like two weeks after we bought our tickets. I was fortunate to find out the very afternoon that it happened, and I took about two hours out of my work day to put a patch over that gaping hole in our plans. I first went to their website, where they advised passengers to contact their banks to attempt a refund for purchased flights. We paid for ours on Visa, so I contacted them. It was a very easy conversation, I simply said my airline went Bankrupt, and the girl said, "oh yeah, Zoom right?". I said yes, and she said, "No problem, I see the transaction here on your statement, so no worries, we'll take care of this." I've since received a full credit for the amount paid. So now I just have to figure out how to take a negative balance on my visa and transfer it back into my bank account without incurring any interest fees on withdrawals and what not... but that's a small problem so I'm not too concerned.
In the same two hours I also contacted our travel insurance provider and made sure that our paid for insurance would be able to be used for a new flight and everything, and it is, so that's great too. Finally, I then went on to purchase another flight with Air Canada, just to keep everything on track... It was basically an impulse purchase, lol. Anyways, it didn't cost much more than the Zoom flights, so it seemed reasonable. That's pretty much it on the trip front for now.
I'm super excited about fall. I absolutely love this time of year. There's just something so unique about the atmosphere that surrounds this season and it's draw up to Christmas. Thanksgiving, and Christmas shopping, and fall colours, and comfy pants and sweater weather... let's not forgot that awesome time period between the warmth of summer, and the cold of late fall when you can turn off the air conditioner and not have to use the heat yet. I love that... well, my wallet loves that, lol, but I like it too. It's great having a smaller place during this time, cause we can even just use our gas fireplace during this season to heat most of the house, and then at bedtime we just pile on the comfy blankets. Goodtimes.
In other news, my parents are going through a fairly dramatic period of change in their lives. My dad moved on from his job, heading to another company, and he and my mom decided to downsize to a smaller place in the Burlington area. Their house is basically sold at this point, and they've started searching for a new place. They've found a few keepers, and a few not-so-keepers, but are just waiting for their house to finalize before throwing down any offers. I'm excited for them, as I think the changes will be kinda cool for them, and since Linds and I spend so much time with them, we're so excited that they'll be so much closer to us. The one place they really like is only a five or six minute drive away.
I think that's basically it. I've started working Saturdays to save up extra time off work for next March, as my vacation time is just two weeks next year. I hope to work off the extra ten days we'll be off work (two work weeks), so that way I don't have to dip into my holidays from the next year, but we'll see what happens.
I've started budgeting for 2009 now, and it looks like it'll be a great year money-wise. By October of 2009, my car will be fully paid off and we'll be pocketing an extra $357 a month. It'll basically go straight into our line of credit for awhile, as this trip will be adding a little weight to that account. That being said though, I'm still super excited to not have a car payment to make for hopefully a solid three or four years. It's like getting a massive raise all of a sudden, lol.
Anyways, that's about all I can think to write about for now. Hopefully this will make up for a month and a half of no posting. Peace out.
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