Also, she ate most of our cookies that night.

Back just before Christmas, Oldest and her boyfriend ran into car troubles-- in that they had no cars to get around in. The boyfriend's car had broken down (much like the boyfriend) and they were relying on Oldest's car as their sole source of transportation. Then Oldest's got a flat tire.

Now, I don't know why she doesn't have a spare, just like I don't know why they didn't go get the boyfriend's car fixed up. But I do know that the whole deal found us going to pick up Oldest late at night at her apartment on the bad side of town, with the Babies! in the car, and then driving her out to where her boyfriend was visiting his parents to drop something off before she came to have dinner with us. (No, I don't know why she wasn't having dinner with the boyfriend, either. I've learned not to ask.)

What I do know is that one of Payday Tree's payday loans might have helped them out and saved us the drive. Payday Tree's site is an easy-to-use website that connects borrowers to lenders; fill out the form and for 99% of you, they'll hook you up with a payday lender who could put cash into your bank account in 24 hours.

Payday Loans need to be used carefully; they're for emergencies only and they charge, generally, more interest than banks or credit cards, so if they're not used right they can be expensive. But used correctly -- used for emergencies and borrowing only what you need -- they can get you through a tight spot until you get paid this week.

And they can keep you from having to have your whole family pile into the car and come pick you up just to have some pork chops with them.