homealone

When we were on the first stages of buying the Camry Hybrid, we called the nearest toyota dealerships around our area and asked them if they wanted to participate in the bidding process. After we got the interested parties’email addresses, my husband sent out an email telling them what we want, and that we know the price of the car, so give us their best offer. Unfortunately, my husband didn’t really bother to change the wording on what is basically a template letter used by my sister and what was said on our “bible”. We received the offers, but there was this one salesman who wrote back saying he had seen exactly the same email, word for word. And he went on accusing us of lying, of working for somebody, of being inconsiderate of his family that he needs to feed, etc. etc. In short, we was a jerk. I told my husband to just ignore it and do not even try to offer him our business. I thought he was being an ass. But the husband wanted to get as many offers as possible so he gave this guy another chance and explained to him that we were legitimate buyers, that we use what other people have used, etc. This guy did not even apologize but we did get some really good offers from him. He was actually beating the other offers but there was this other guy who, according to my husband, was really nice and sounded sincere and willing to help. Of course, they want to sell a car. As the end of the bidding draws near it comes to the jerk giving the  best offer, but we were really hoping the nice guy would beat his offer. One more phone call and the nice guy offered to take another 100 dolllars off the price. He beat the jerk by $35. So, eventhough the nice guy’s delearship was about 15 miles farther than this jerk’s dealership, we decided to go to the nice guy. It was a pleasant experience dealing with him. Then my husband emailed the jerk and said that somebody beat his price and we went with him. This jerk still had the nerve to email us back, true to his jerkness, his email was filled with anger and sarcasm. He said he hasn’t, in his 25 years of being a car salesman, lost a sale for $35. And that his experience with us will be added to his book, a memoir that he’s writing, and that if we found out that we were not satisfied with our dealer, we shouldn’t feel embarassed to go to him. What an effin asshole this guy is. I was so pissed, I told the husband to send an email to this guy’s boss and tell him that this guy’s attitude just cost their dealership a sale. We wrote something mean to send to this guy, but of course, we did not send it. Let him wonder what he had done wrong. Give him time to write his memoirs. I think he’s the reason why a lot of people don’t like car salesmen.

So we just bought a new hybrid car and we got it for a really good price. We got it about $300 below Invoice price! The finance person (i don’t know what they’re called) at the delearship couldn’t believe it. SHe said a couple of months ago, hybrids were non-negotiable, meaning you pay the sticker price. I think it’s because of the economy, nobody’s buying cars. But we needed to get a new car, that’s why we bit the bullet and got it.

So, first thing we did was to borrow my sister’s book which she also used to when she bought a new car. It’s called the “carbuyer’s and leaser’s negotiating bible”. It was a very informative book, and we got good tips on when to buy (the days before new year), how much to pay, where to get the info (for the invoice price). We did all that and it worked. The biggest tip that we got was how to make the dealers bid for the price. We basically auctioned off our business and of course, dealers what your business so that was pretty easy. We sent out emails or faxes to dealerships who agreed to participate and we told them what we want, and asked them to give us their best price and we did! The power of competition works.

We had been planning to buy a new car to replace the gas guzzler BMW M3. I liked that car, but it was hard for me to drive because I am pretty short and it was hard for me to see the front and back (being a sports car, it has bucket seats). Also, it’s a guzzler and only takes premium gas. And it was getting too expensive just to keep it. It’s my husband’s car and he’s had it for a while, but he rarely uses it anymore because of the above reasons. While trying to sell the car, we’ve also been looking for hybrid cars. Being environmentally aware, we have decided that the next cars we’re going to get to replace our cars would have to be a hybrid car. So, whenever we had to rent a car for road trips, we made sure we rented a hybrid car. First we tried the Toyota Prius. I hated that car because of the looks but I started liking it when we rented it. Drove just like my honda. It fit me just fine. The husband, on the other hand, liked the technology so much that he actually decided that was the car we were gonna get. Until he drove car himself. It was way too small and uncomfortable for him. He is 6′4″. So Prius was out. The next time, we rented a Honda Civic hybrid. Since we have another civic, there was no problem for us size-wise. But it was a civic. We already have one. We needed a little more room. So, last christmas, we rented a Camry Hybrid. Camry’s don’t usually get rented out, and they were about to give us a Nissan Altima hybrid. We asked the rental person to look around to check maybe there’s one in the lot and we got so lucky because they found one that was just about to be delivered on the lot! We got a brand new Camry to drive with only 20 mi on it, with the stickers still on and everything! So, we drove the car and liked it very much. Last night, after two days of negotiations over the phone and via email, we got the best deal (a few hundred dollars below invoice!) for the car we wanted and so went and just bought it.

So after a long break, we’re back home and back at work. Real work isn’t that bad, it’s actually very quiet these days. I guess that’s kinda bad in a way, meaning, we’re not getting customers! It’s kind of good for me because I get to work on my own personal stuff. We took down our christmas tree, which was seen by just a few friends and family. I finished putting away the christmas decorations, all the gifts, etc. But it feels like it’s never ending chores right now and on top of that, I don’t feel well. I got sick as soon as we got home (stuffy nose, sore throat). I have been taking Sudafe for and that seemed to help a bit. I feel good the whole day but then I crash at the end of the day. I guess it’s because of the nonstop work. I want another long break! We’re thinking of going away again for the the New Year, but as usual, we haven’t made any plans this late in the game. Oh well. It’s probably good to stay in and welcome the new year in our “new” house. 

I did some online shopping as soon as December rolled in. I always try to do most of my shopping online because it is very convenient and some times tax free. I needed to get some children’s toys for the kids in the family so I went to Target online. That day it said free shipping so I thought I was getting a good deal. I bought 3 items, and decided to have it shipped to our house since we’ll be seeing the kids on Christmas anyway, we thought it would be better to give the gifts to them ourselves (we usually have the gifts shipped to their house).  The next day, I received sale confirmations from target. And then the following day, i checked my credit card for the transactions and that’s when i noticed that the amount charged were much larger than what I purchased the toys for. Turned out 1 toy purchse is one transaction. And I got charged shipping per toy! So for a $25 purchase, I got charged $33. That’s almost 25% more than the original purchase price. And to think these toys weren’t really *that* heavy! Man, I felt ripped off. Learned my lesson. Read and double check the charges before submitting your order! Not gonna buy from the online Target store. That free shipping wasnt free at all. Very misleading. Amazon and Overstock did pretty good with shipping.

I finally got that HSG procedure done and Oily Shit that effin hurt! It only hurt during the procedure - which probably took about 3 mins? Anyway, it was painful procedure but my endocrinologist said that pain of labor is about 10x that! Yikes! Anyway, we got the results, we had the doctor meeting and all that. Everything was normal except for one - my progesterone level was really low. Let’s say they wanted to see equal or greater than 10, I only had 4.5. I do not know the standard of measure that they used but that’s what the results said. And that was a little disappointing. The next thing to do for us is to take Clomid, a fertility drug that induces ovulation. As I understood it, the doctor said that clomid lets your brain know that youre ready for reproduction and so it tells your brain to produce eggs and prepare your body for pregnancy. Did I get it right? If i got it right, then I am a little confused about the whole thing. On all the tests performed, including the vaginal ultrasound, it seemed to me that I had no problem ovulating, and the ultrasound even showed then that I had two eggs ready to pop. Why then would I want meds to produce more eggs when all I need is something that will make my body be ready for the egg, assuming we got them fertilized, to nest to. And if I the level of progesterone is the problem, can’t I just get progesterone supplements (if that exists) instead of something that will make more eggs? We just started using an ovulation kit this month to see if i ovulate and it showed that I did…  I don’t know, this whole process is starting to confuse me and frustrate me so I think this will be the last ‘pregnancy update’ for now.

I just need to vent a little today. I had an appointment for the HSG this morning so I had to take a few hours off from work, and endure traffic jam to the hospital. I got there a little early so I could fill out the forms, etc. I haven’t even started yet when they called me. Then the nurse asked if I took the antibiotics. I said “what antibiotics? Nobody told me to take antibiotics, I did not get any prescription for it”. So she looked at me and disappeared inside the x-ray room. She came back and said, “we’ll have to reschedule you because you should’ve taken antibiotics first before we can do the procedure. Can you come back on Thursday?”. I got a little upset and told her that they should’ve told me what I needed to do before I came, they were very prompt at billing  me (over the phone!) and nobody mentioned to me that taking antibiotics is part of the process! She disappeared again, and this time the head nurse came and was very apologetic. Whatever. Of course I had no choice but to take the next appointment - they wouldn’t do the procedure no matter what I say, anyway. It’s their protocol. Grrr. So now i have to re-schedule my appointment with the endocrinologist, and change work schedules, too. So far, all our blood tests, semen analysis, urinalysis, etc for turned out normal. I am hoping nothing unusual shows up on this procedure so we can just relax and enjoy sex again.

Since we’re still not pregnant, we’re taking the next step towards finding out why we can not conceive. I am scheduled to have HSG done next week. So what is hysterosalpingography (try saying that fast!) ? It is an x-ray test used to view your reproductive organs. During the procedure, a radiologist takes images as a contrast dye flows throught the uterus and the fallopian tubes.  These problems include blockage or narrowing of the fallopian tubes, scarring of the tubes and uterus, abnormal shap or size of the tubes and/or uterus and growths in the uterus. Wow. Just thinking about those makes me wonder what would they find out in there? Hope it all comes out normal or good. This is  pretty expensive test, I wish i didn’t have to do it. oh baby where art thou?

I got another blood test result. This time it’s for the FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) level. My test results showed 3.8 mIU/ml. The health provider’s standard scale shows 5-20 IU/L. I know IU stands for International Unit, and I assume that the value “m”  means mililiter so basically, that means my FSH level is lower than “normal”. I got a little scared and started reading some more about the normal levels of FSH. So far, i’ve only those tests done on the 3rd day of cycle, mine was done on the 21st. Also I read that normal FSH is anything below 10. But if the standard they use at my clinic says 5-20, what does that mean now? I read that low fsh mean s the body doesn’t need to work hard to get a normal ovulation. If the egg number is low, the body needs to work harder to get ovulation, so it increases the amount of FSH in an effort to push the ovaries. A high FSH means the egg number is reduced, sometimes to levels so low that pregnancy is not possible. So do I have a good FSH level or not? I can’t wait to see the doctor again for some explanation. 

This morning I went to the lab to get blood drawn and tested. They also took some urine sample to pregnancy test. I wasn’t expecting that, but it was ok. I needed to pee anyway :D. Let me just tell you that the lab tech messed up the first time. Yeah, she stuck a needle on my left arm, wiggled the needle while it was in my skin then eventually said, “this one’s empty, let’s try the other one!”  I KNOW! So now i have two bruised up arms.

Anyway, ’nuff about that. I got the results an hour later. All the blood test results were good (I think), but the pregnancy test turned out negative. again. That was very disappointing. I don’t know what’s wrong but we’ll keep trying. Next step is the HSG test… more on that later.