Ashley recently mentioned that the Shamrock Shakes were back, so Tuesday evening, we decided to get one. I excitedly posted this update onto Twitter as Ryan and I pulled into the McDonald’s we’d gone to last year for the shake.

Ryan got out of the car and headed into McDonald’s while I played Pirates vs. Ninjas vs. Zombies vs. Pandas on the iPad. That game is just as addictive as Angry Birds!

Moments later…

At some point, between Ryan leaving the car and him returning moments later to inform me that there were no Shamrock shakes at this particular McDonald’s, I had managed to activate the silent alarm on the car. It had something to do with sitting inside, locking with the key and then opening the door from the inside. At least that is what we thought had happened. We couldn’t get the car to start no matter what we tried.

About 15-20 minutes later, AAA showed up. We thought we’d be towed to the nearest shop, but the guy came out with his battery pack and tried to jump start the car. It didn’t work on the first try, but after the second, we were ready to go. He suspected that it was a combination of the silent alarm and old battery. We thanked him for helping us out, and then headed out of the parking lot…

… to another McDonald’s to try our luck at picking up a Shamrock shake. You’d think that we would give up and go home after not only ending up at a McDonald’s without Shamrock shakes AND getting stuck in their parking lot. Nope, we were determined!

The second McDonald’s had the shakes. We didn’t dare park the car for fear that we’d get stuck again and went through the drive-thru just for the shake. Silly, but that’s what we do, and I returned home with a green shake.

Unfortunately, Ryan’s car had to be taken to the shop anyway. We had to jump it to start before our Tahoe trip last month, but we didn’t think much of it since we hadn’t taken his car out in awhile. Being stuck at McDonald’s and then having to jump it again this morning to take it to the shop, however, meant that it was time to pay attention and replace the battery. As it turns out, in addition to the battery replacement, there are a few other things that require fixing, and it added up to be a big chunk of change. :/ Considering that I just recently replaced all four of my car’s tires, the last two weeks have been big ticket expenses.

Time to tighten the reigns on the wallet again because this particular repair job is looking to be more than $2K. Yikes!