Archive for Jul 2007

Sat Jul 28 23:53:59 2007

Well, so I put down a retainer on a car. I'm purchasing a 2007 Nissan Sentra 2.0 SL in "Sonoma Sunset" (red) and, as this color is not currently in stock at our local Nissan dealership, I had to put down a (refundable) retainer to get one fetched here. I'm only two weeks into this whole car buying thing and, as the whole process has begun to irritate the bejeesus out of me, it's best for everyone to get it over with as soon as possible.

I've test driven many cars -- Honda Civic Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid, Nissan Altima, Toyota Yaris, Toyota Prius, Hyundai Elantra -- and they've all seemed pretty similar when it comes to "driveability." As far as hybrids go, I prefered the Honda Civic to the Nissan Altima and the Nissan Altima to the Toyota Prius. I quite like the idea of driving a hybrid, but I also want to drive a car which, well, feels like a car. Driving the Prius made me feel as if I was piloting a UFO. Also, the hybrids cost too much and I don't have much choice as to what I'd get as the "availability is so limited" (my inner cynic has a lot to say about that).

If I weren't buying a Sentra and weren't dead set on a few necessary (to me) features and didn't dislike the Hyundai salesman we got stuck with, I'd be buying a Elantra. Here's a tip, Mr Hyundai Salesman: Don't tell me you're going to find out about an (important to me) accessory and then not call me back. Also, don't tell me that I don't need two of the accessories/features I want. Certainly, feel free to try to spin me on similar available features, but don't tell me I don't need what I want. That is not the best way to part me from my money when our area is full of car dealerships selling similar vehicles with the features I want.

Grr.

Anyway, I'm getting a Sentra and life will be good. I still have about two weeks on my rental, but I'd like to stop worrying about dinging a car which isn't mine (I park in a public lot which, not infrequently, doubles as a skater park and sports field). My insurance covers a rental for thirty days at $30/day and, surprisingly, you can get a pretty nice car from Enterprise for that amount. I've been driving a 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix and, wow, is it a nice ride. Shit mileage, but very plush and comfortable with all sorts of nifty little features that make driving it long distances quite nice. The engine also seems quite powerful (compared to my old Sebring) and there are no acceralation problems nor it does seem to strain. Honestly, if it got better mileage, I'd buy it in "Purple Haze Metallic" and be quite content.

After we parted with the Nissan dealership, we visited the local county 4-H Exposition. I never did 4-H as a kid -- my parents having signed me up for Girl Scouts at six without me having any say in the matter. Not that I would have said anything against it as I wasn't aware 4-H existed until junior high. 4-H just seems infinitely more practical than Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts, by the time I left it at age seventeen, seemed full of a lot of career planning (got enough of that in school, thankyouverymuch) and girlie crap I didn't care about and not nearly enough outdoor activities like hiking and canoing. Not that 4-H involves camping, but it does involve lots of practical and hands-on learning.

We saw sheep, goats, oxen, chickens, rabbits, and a whole lot of cows at the 4-H Exposition. Part of my brain kept pointing out that I was looking at things which mostly existed to be eaten and oughtened I be affected by that? But, I wasn't. Cows don't exist in the wild. We made cows. These cows we made feed and clothe me. I am not bothered about killing and eating them. That the steak we ate last night came from a CAFO cow does bother me, but that bother has more to do with concerns over industrial farming, quality of life, and environmental impact than it does with the murder of a fellow living creature.

I got too much sun at the Expo and it knocked me out. I slept in the car on the way back and took a two hour nap when we got home, but still felt draggy and horrible when I got up. Boosting my fluid intake seems to help with the draggy feeling, but I'm so full of sodium (soy sauce and miso soup) now that I've probably just undone all the good of fluid boosting. For dinner, The Husband had the brilliant idea to order a takeout sushi boat for two from the sushi place five minutes down the street. Our "boat" consisted of chef's choice nigiri (vinegar rice topped with fish) and maki (rolled kind most people think of when they think "sushi") sushi and was all quite yummy.

Our nigiri consisted of:

I think our Kapa (cucumber) Maki and Tekka (tuna) Maki were actually Hosomaki ("thin" rolled sushi with the nori on the outside) rather than Futomaki which has more fillings and so is much thicker, but I am fairly ignorant about sushi and am just going with whatever the intertubes tell me. I'd love to try Temaki (nori cone filled with stuff), but it doesn't seem like a thing for sharing and what's the point of eating with someone if you're not going to share?




Sun Jul 22 23:57:18 2007

Mansfield Park has been my lunch read for the last two weeks. I've seen the (1999) film two or three times and enjoyed it immensely, but I've never managed to finish the novel. I like Fanny Price very much, but she is so passive she sometimes makes me want to grind my teeth and throw the book across the room. Probably her passivity annoys me, because I see how necessary it is and how little good fighting might do her. She has no wealth, no beauty, no talent or charm with which to acquire even the limited freedoms open to her cousins.

I know, of course, that she ends up with Edmund rather than the (reformed) rake, Mr. Henry Crawford, but I have difficulty reconciling myself to that "happiness."

Oh, Mr. Henry Crawford! How I wish you had loved Fanny a little bit more! Edmund is a good sort of fellow and will keep Fanny content, I am sure, but I would love to see her pushed to passion.

Who knows? I'm miles from the end yet and everything is still possible. Perhaps Edmund will push her to passionate speech?




Thu Jul 19 21:38:29 2007

I'm tempted to call it The Book Who Lived. At the time of my accident, I had a Very Important Book wrapped in plastic on my back seat. Pretty much everything else in my car was damaged or destroyed, but it (and my Ms. Bento) came through unscathed.

I know, it was very naughty of me to have it ahead of time and it's not even as if I was dying to read it, but I wasn't going to turn down such a kind gesture by our cataloging staff. I wasn't the only one to get an early copy, but there weren't many of us and we were all chosen based on our ability to keep our mouths shut (secrecy doesn't matter now, does it?).

Anyway, have read it and returned it so that it may be delivered into the hot little hands of one of our eager patrons who, I hope, will not regret their choice. What can I say? I gulped this book down in great chunks over two nights and, at the end, I was left wanting more. It's a huge book, but there's still not enough of it. Vast sections go on forever, with not much happening and then *bang* actionactionactionweirdbitimportantbittheend.

Which, come to think of it, is how I felt about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.




 Sun Jul 15 23:27:11 2007

For a few minutes today, I found myself reading a FAQ about removing tar deposits from cars and then I realized I don't have to think about the tar on my front bumper, anymore. I don't need to think about my car at all, anymore. Because I do not have a car.

Wednesday night, driving home from work, I rolled my car. At least once. Some of the witnesses said two or three times, but it just seemed like one long roll to me. The car ended up upside down, of course, but my seatbelt held me in my seat so I didn't fall forward through the windscreen.

I am fine. Bruised, sore, a bit headache-y and occasionally nauseas, but mainly fine. My car, however, is totaled. Allstate has assured me of this. One of these days, they'll cut me a check and I can go buy another car, but in the interim I am spending a lot of time on fueleconomy.gov looking for the most environmentally-friendly high MPG vehicle we can afford.

One, hopefully, I won't roll over.




Sun Jul 08 22:05:17 2007

For supper tonight, I had ice cream followed by clam fritters and more ice cream. Delicious and nutritious, no? Supper was supposed to have been "Greek Style Skillet Supper" from the McCormick website (made with soy crumbles rather than beef), but we were out and the summer fun foods were everywhere and who are we to resist?

Desperate to get out of the house and away from the cries of woebegone housebound Catzilla, we had hied ourselves off to the farmer's market. She's making us crazy with her poor plaintive cries to be allowed out (she has got herself a nasty infection and is not allowed outside until she is quite well again). On the way back from the market, the highway was overrun with Summer People trying to get home to their various inland urbs so we escaped onto the side roads as soon as possible and ended up idling our way to the comic book shop.

Mmm ... comic book shop. Picked up Girls, Volume 3: Survival , Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order, Re-Gifters, and P.L.A.I.N. Janes. Those last two are part of DC's newish tweener girl graphic novel line, Minx. I think they're supposed to be comic books for girls who don't know they like comic books. The two I bought are really nicely put together and the stories seem a lot of fun, but I don't know how much they'll inspire their readers to explore the rest of the DC universe. Some of the Vertigo products look attractive, but how will tween girls find them? DC doesn't seem to be doing any cross-promotion.

Anyway, after the comic book shop we took a little walk down to the piers and watched the ferry come in with all the returning weekend islanders then walked up the street and stumbled upon a ice cream place. Had to stop in, of course, and sample a cup of "monster mash" (vanilla ice cream with crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, chocolate malt balls, and m&ms). Then, after I voiced a yearning for clam fritters, The Husband took me to the fish place in the boatyard where I ate fritters and "lobster tracks" ice cream ("vanilla ice cream with red colored chocolate caramel cups and chocolate cookie ripple") and where The Husband fed his french fries to the sparrows (who were obviously anticipating this).

Can we properly call them french fries once again? Or are they still "freedom" fries? Why do we dislike the French so much, anyway? Weren't they our allies during the Revolution and the War of 1812?

Oh, god, I think I've just stumbled onto a new nonfiction reading topic. Goodbye, 599. Hello, 303/4/5 and 973.




Wed Jul 04 23:03:48 2007

We had my parents over for Independence Day and there was to be much croquet playing and firework lighting, but it rained. It rained, people. It is not fair.

We played lots of Skip-Bo and Phase 10, instead, and my mother beat the pants of everyone which is not particularly surprising, but it is infuriating that I did not inherit her card playing skillz.

We sent The Husband out into the storm to grill things lest we starve and he did a pretty good job of it though he complained bitterly at the time. Did he melt? No. Look delicious all speckled with rain? Of course.

With the obsequious burgers and dogs, we had "Tortellini Salad" from Jan Mann's Cruising Connecticut with a Picnic Basket (Hillside House Publishing, 2006). I had made this salad before with quite tasty results, but this time I used dried parsley instead of fresh and I won't make that mistake again. While it's still a tasty salad, it needs the sweet tang of fresh parsley to give it that extra edge.

I also made "Corn Relish Salad" from the Crisco website. I was looking for a corn salad recipe like my mom's and stumbled upon this one. It's nothing like my mother's, but I had to try it as it combined something I had a lot of (corn) and something I love to eat (sauerkraut). It was pretty good, but I would use less sugar next time. It tasted like I had mixed a jar of corn relish with my mom's sauerkraut salad and, while that may sound disgusting to you, it made my mouth so very happy.

For dessert, we had sugar-free brownies (mix from the King Arthur Flour Company) with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. The brownies came out quite nicely -- light and fluffy with an interesting kind-of whole grain texture (I presume from the almond flour) and I must remember to pick up some more of the KAF sugar-free mixes for when we have meals with the parents. I think it pleases my mom to know she can eat dessert, but it's not a special dessert "just for her." She gets to be like everyone else which, I guess, is a big deal when you have dietary restrictions.




Mon Jul 02 23:47:09 2007

Currently listening to Barbara Kingsolver read her essay collection Small Wonder and (somewhere around the middle of the first disc) she asks "How much do we need to feel blessed, sated, and permanently safe? What is safety in this world, and on what broad stones is that house built?"

After discarding a bunch of foolishness, my answer turned out as simple as this: the circle of my husband's arms.




last updated: Sat 17 Nov 2007 08:19:03 AM EST