Welcome to Baltimore! (We're gonna need your car.)

This was a big week for our family. I started my new job, so this was Aiden's first week with the nanny, Brent got slammed at work (this was probably his hardest week so far, with the longest hours) and then came down with a really nasty cold (woke up one morning and could barely swallow), which of course got passed to Aiden. Oh yeah, and our car got stolen.

Here's how it went down: Brent somehow gets himself out of bed on Wednesday morning (day 2 of nasty cold) and, as he's drinking some tea, begins wondering how much frost he'll have to scrape off his windshield before the morning commute. He gets up to try to gauge this from the front window. Good news? No frost. Bad news? No car. Yes, that's right folks. Our car was stolen right from under our noses, in our nice quiet little Jewish Orthodox neighborhood. So, there are some frantic calls--first to the cops, then to a fellow intern to see if she can cover him for an hour or so, then to the insurance.... Around 8am, the new nanny (on day 2 of job), the other dad and his little girl, and the cop all show up around the same time (Don't worry Rick, you're leaving your 6 month old in a safe place!). I can't imagine what must have been going through everyone's mind. Anyway, the cops, the guy at Enterprise, and the insurance claim agent each told us that the Honda Civic & Accord models that came out prior to the keyless entry (which shuts the engine off if someone doesn't use the remote to get in) are the easiest and therefore most popular cars to steal.

The insurance requires that we give the cops 30 days to find our car. Meantime Brent's driving a 2008 Camry rental to work. At this point we don't know what to hope for--our Civic was a '97, and we know that whoever stole it isn't taking good care of it. Do we really want it back? Without a garage, it seems likely it will just disappear again. On the other hand, that little baby was completely paid off. Anybody interested in selling one of their cars? Looks like we're going to be in the market.

Welcome to Baltimore.