Car window

... and someone is in the driveway right now replacing our car window that was smashed.

Police report

Here's my account of what happened and the damage/loss:

We (Robert and Eshinee Veith) arrived at Resurrection Church, 134 S 206th St, Des Moines, WA around 5PM on October 2, 2006. We entered the church to register for the LWML Puget Sound Rally and meet our contact person, Elaine Nelson. Over the course of the next hour, we went to the car to get our display supplies from the trunk and set them up, probably at 5:20PM. There were people coming and going in the parking lot until at least 6PM, arriving for the rally (about 50 women, mostly over 60), leaving from having worked at the church during the day and leaving handbells practice. For about 1/3 of the time that we were in the front area of the church waiting for the rally to start at 6PM, we were sitting or standing in rooms with glass walls overlooked the part of the parking lot where our car was. The car was parked in the section of the lot roughly parallel with the church wall that was closest to the church, about 50 ft from the church wall. Between the lot and the church is just a bit of grass so if there had been any breaking of glass, I assume we would have heard it through the glass walls. Rob and I sat down for dinner at 6PM with the rest of the ladies at the rally. About 5 minutes before 7PM, we finished dinner and I went with the ladies to the sanctuary for the business part of the rally. Rob went to the restroom on his way to the car as he was going to leave during the business portion. When I sat down, I heard Elaine Nelson in front of me saying, "Do you know someone here with a Chevy Cavalier?" I told her that I did. She came back to my seat with a Post-it note and asked me if that was my license plate number, 695 UHY. I told her that it was. She said that there was some broken glass outside the car. I asked if my husband, Robert Veith, was around since he was supposed to be leaving. She said she hadn't seen him. I rushed out of the sanctuary and through the foyer, left the building and headed down the ramp toward the parking lot. I saw him headed towards the car, about 20 ft in front of me. I rushed to catch him so that we arrived at the car at the same time. We saw that there was glass all over the ground outside the passenger side door of our 2 door red 1998 Chevy Cavalier convertible. There was also glass all over the passenger seat and on the floor of the passenger side. The passenger side window of the car was broken. I could see immediately that my work laptop was stolen. After the glass was cleaned up, we were able to assess exactly how much had been taken. Here's the current assessment:

Lutheran Bible Translators' (of PO Box 2050, Aurora, IL, 60507) stolen property:
* Toshiba Tecra M3 [serial number: 45081476H] - $1600

Eshinee Veith's stolen property:
* Age of Mythology game cd - $30
* laptop briefcase - $30
* Streets & Trips with GPS - $100
* car power adapter into cigarette lighter - $30
* telephone cord (in the briefcase for dial-up access) - $8

Eshinee Veith's broken property:
* cassette adapter for mp3 player - $10 (cord pulled out of the cassette while it was stuck in the tape deck)

Not a tragedy ... just bad

We were in Des Moines, WA tonight for an LWML rally and, during dinner, someone broke into our car and stole my laptop. Argh. I had almost everything backed up to one of our friend's hard-drives, except for all work done in the last 3 weeks or so. Still ... someone stole my freaking computer! Argh! My "arghs" get louder.

Part of me thinks that they might feel bad, even afraid, if they realize that they stole a missionary's computer. Then, I remember that they stole it out of a church parking lot.

If you're out there and you have my computer, it's not too late for you to make this right. You can return it, right back to the church you took it from. They'll return it to us and you will be forgiven.

More to come, as things develop. We've got someone coming to replace the passenger window tomorrow. It was a cold drive home.

Happy Birthday, Sammy!

WELCA convention

We drove down during the lunch hour on Friday and set up our display at the Red Lion convention center in Olympia. Then we drove to our hotel, the Comfort Inn in Tumwater, just a few miles south. The convention started at 7PM. I went to the convention and Rob sat at the display table, talked to people who stopped by. He also had speakers set up, quietly playing music that he had recorded during his Africa trip this past summer. After the opening meeting, there was a choclate fountain in the room next door to the meeting room. Yumm! Strawberries, pineapple, cherries and dried apricots. There was a bunch of food left over so, knowing that the hotel staff was going to have to chuck it all when we left, I grabbed a napkin-full of dried apricots for snacking later. We got back to the hotel after 10PM ... long day!

Saturday, we got the the Red Lion at about 8:30AM. Again, I attended meetings and Rob sat at the display table. In the afternoon, there were workshops for the ladies. I learned how to make cards and photo albums from paper, glue and ribbon; very fun. The dinner was a banquet; prime rib, veggies, chocloate cake. I had been pretty much vegan since the the meeting with the naturopath on Wednesday but I figured, hey, when in Rome. Well, when I got up Sunday morning, my face and neck were covered with what I call "beef bumps". Guess that meat wasn't as hormone-free as I had gambled on. Still trying to decide if it was worth it ...

We left our hotel Sunday morning and drove to Bonney Lake to speak at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church. Rob did his now-normal Keynote (Mac version of Powerpoint) presentation during the sermon slot, about what he did this past summer in Africa. People really liked it, told us so. Then, they took up a door offering. After the service, we stayed and talked to people a long time. It was a good morning.

Got back to Woodinville later that afternoon. We went to dinner at Black Angus in Bellevue with the Buerers. Got to play some Neverwinter Nights with each other in the evening.

Rob's at a Firestone right now, getting a tire fixed. Yes, you read that right. Another flat. Are we seeing a theme here? I think he took it to Firestone because it's still under warranty but I'm thinking we may not be in such a rush to get Firestone tires anymore after this. It seems like we're having to deal with flats more and more in the last few years. Of course, that could simply be because we're on the road so much but, hey, who can say? We could try another dealer and see if it makes a difference.

He dropped me at the library so I could work. Also, there's a payphone here so I could call the family in Newfoundland, check on my sister Lily and her family. Both she and Nonny/James (my 8 month-old nephew) were in hospital in Korea, hooked up to IVs for rehydration, last time I checked (Saturday) so I wanted to get the update from home. They got some kind of bug, source and nature unknown. Well, the word is that Nonny was well enough to go home with his daddy Matthew but Lily was kept in a little longer, probably home by now though.

[from when Nonny was first born]

The Chromagen Forte may be giving me stress dreams because I've been taking it about an hour before bed and having stress dreams every night. However, Rob says that I've had stress dreams every fall since he's known me. Thinking back, I think he's right. Still, I'm going to try to change when I take the Chromagen, see if that helps at all.


When I take them, I think of that old George Lucas movie: