Not a lot to report these days. Working hard. Going to see MacHomer tonight; hope that it's good. At the least, a trip to Canada should be fun and exciting.
I'm *finally* back on the weight loss train/wagon/boat/generic transportation analogy. SIX POUNDS. That's it. I just need to lose six pounds, and I can start transitioning to maintenance. Oddly, I've been essentially in maintenance since about November ... but not on purpose; it just kinda happened that way.
In other news, I'm staying at the Walper Terrace hotel in Kitchener. I had to call them today to ask them about something, and noticed that, on their website, they advertise that they will have availability for the Elton John concert on March 3. "Huh," I thought to myself, "You know, self... Elton John, he has some pretty good musical chops. Perhaps I will invite my wife up and we will watch him tinkle some ivories (and ebonies, too. And, for that matter, I'm sure that Sir Elton would never touch actual ivory keys; I'm sure that he would agree that elephants needn't lose their teeth for him to play ... but I digress) ...so I looked into tickets. It's sold out. Which means that not only will I not be going (which isn't a terribly big deal), but that parking is probably going to be hell on earth that night. Yee freaking haw.
Happier stuff:
Today's 3 beautiful things:
Feline Affection. Studies come out fairly regularly that promote pet ownership as being correlated to good health. And if you've ever woken up with a cat smugly purring on your chest, you know why.
Winter Children. Couple of days ago, I was leaving the hotel in the morning, and there was a little girl -- she was three or four -- crossing the street, bundled against the cold. She was wearing a sky-blue down jacket that was a little grubby, and mittens dangled from the ends of her sleeves. She was wearing a jaunty, brightly colored winter cap [1]. Her nose was red from the cold. She was walking with her mom, in that "I'm almost tall enough that my feet can touch the ground and my mom can hold my hand without stooping" way. And she just looked really, really happy to be out stomping around in the snow. Unabashed childhood joy makes me happy.
Eclipse. Coming back to the hotel a couple of days ago, heard about the eclipse on the radio. Dutifully trudged outside to see it at 10pm. And ooooh, it was pretty.
Oh, and one more thing: I'm in the process of putting up wedding pictures -- I think I did a good job.
Showing posts with label 3bt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3bt. Show all posts
Friday, February 22, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Snow, Cheap Car Parts, Contessa Coffee
Inspired by some fellow bloggers, I'm going to try to do a periodic Three Beautiful Things post. It's a nice idea -- first, because describing the beautiful things in my life helps remind me of their existence (which I need), and second, because I should post more. I should post more, not because I have a great readership [1], but because I want to be a better writer. And, just like photography or cycling or running or knitting, one of the best ways to get better is to do it more. So:
Snow:
I hadn't been really paying attention to the forecast yesterday, but there was snow last night. When I woke up this morning and glanced outside, everything was covered in a blanket of white. Unexpected snow always makes me happy. Even when it means shoveling, even when it means scary dangerous driving ... it's just so lovely to look out on a frosty, snow-covered world. I think that some part of me will always be seven years old, face glued to my bedroom window with the lights off, watching the pool of light cast by the lamp-post at the bottom of my driveway, hoping to see snow falling, knowing that that would mean a snow day, and breakfast in my pajamas. I miss that lamp. It made me think of Narnia.
Cheap Car Parts:
I have a 2001 Volkswagen Golf. It's a diesel, which means that it gets fantastic mileage - usually in the mid-to-upper 40s on the highway; I once broke 50 mpg with highway driving. That's great, and saves me ... oh, probably $10/week on gas over a similar car that uses gasoline (it would save me more, but diesel is pricey these days. Yes, I've heard about the veggie oil kit. No, I'm not going to drop $2600 on a kit to get "free" fuel. $2600 [1500 for the kit, 1200 for the install] buys a LOT of fill-ups.). Anyway ... the car has been getting expensive lately, to the tune of:
Early December: New snow tires, $450. Yeah, those are important.
Late December: New front brakes, plus rotors, plus a fluid flush: $400.
Early January: New glow plug controller module, plus three glow plugs, plus labor ... $500.
Early January #2: New battery, $100.
Last Thursday: Rear wiper motor.
The good news on the latest problem: I said, "Dammit...this CAN'T be that complicated. I'm going to try to fix it myself." I was right. There's a motor; the motor drives a gear; the gear turns the wiper. The gear is made of plastic. The plastic teeth on the gear had been reduced to a fine dust. So I called the VW dealer ... they don't sell the gear. They don't sell the gear assembly. They sell a new motor assembly, and it's $150. So here's the beautiful part: I got on vwvortex.com, and had a couple of people offer to sell me used ones for "best offer". Here's hoping that that's a lot less than the $150 the dealer wants. And if it isn't ... well, I found an online source (1stvwparts.com) that'll sell me the part for $100. Yay!
Update: New motor coming. $45 shipped. Hooray!
Contessa Coffee:
I love coffee. I *need* coffee to function. I'm an addict, and I'm OK with that. But, unlike some hard-core coffee lovers, I don't completely turn my nose up at flavored coffees. Flavored coffees are tasty! I found one I really like: It's made by for Barefoot Contessa (on foodtv); as far as I can tell, it's coffee with a little cinnamon. And it's wonderful. Especially on a snowy cold morning.
OK, OK. Enough with the blogging. I need to get up and be productive. On the agenda today:
Cleaning the house, acquiring black and white medium-format film, stretching my illiotibial band, doing some sort of exercise (yoga? Stationary bike?), getting groceries, doing laundry.
[1]In particular, it looks like (based upon the hits I get) my travel advice is pretty popular. Which is cool, and I hope it's helped some people get where they're going with a minimum of pain. HAVING SAID THAT... Google is great - they will tell you what queries people have run that returned links to your site. So, for example, my site shows up for a lot of queries on "flight cancellation" and some very specific queries, like "what to do when your United flight is cancelled on a Thursday in Chicago." On the other hand, I get some REALLY odd queries that return my page. My favories so far:
"lorna bagged latex" (?!?!?)
and
"traveling in turkey liquid" (It's the only way to fly!)
Snow:
I hadn't been really paying attention to the forecast yesterday, but there was snow last night. When I woke up this morning and glanced outside, everything was covered in a blanket of white. Unexpected snow always makes me happy. Even when it means shoveling, even when it means scary dangerous driving ... it's just so lovely to look out on a frosty, snow-covered world. I think that some part of me will always be seven years old, face glued to my bedroom window with the lights off, watching the pool of light cast by the lamp-post at the bottom of my driveway, hoping to see snow falling, knowing that that would mean a snow day, and breakfast in my pajamas. I miss that lamp. It made me think of Narnia.
Cheap Car Parts:
I have a 2001 Volkswagen Golf. It's a diesel, which means that it gets fantastic mileage - usually in the mid-to-upper 40s on the highway; I once broke 50 mpg with highway driving. That's great, and saves me ... oh, probably $10/week on gas over a similar car that uses gasoline (it would save me more, but diesel is pricey these days. Yes, I've heard about the veggie oil kit. No, I'm not going to drop $2600 on a kit to get "free" fuel. $2600 [1500 for the kit, 1200 for the install] buys a LOT of fill-ups.). Anyway ... the car has been getting expensive lately, to the tune of:
Early December: New snow tires, $450. Yeah, those are important.
Late December: New front brakes, plus rotors, plus a fluid flush: $400.
Early January: New glow plug controller module, plus three glow plugs, plus labor ... $500.
Early January #2: New battery, $100.
Last Thursday: Rear wiper motor.
The good news on the latest problem: I said, "Dammit...this CAN'T be that complicated. I'm going to try to fix it myself." I was right. There's a motor; the motor drives a gear; the gear turns the wiper. The gear is made of plastic. The plastic teeth on the gear had been reduced to a fine dust. So I called the VW dealer ... they don't sell the gear. They don't sell the gear assembly. They sell a new motor assembly, and it's $150. So here's the beautiful part: I got on vwvortex.com, and had a couple of people offer to sell me used ones for "best offer". Here's hoping that that's a lot less than the $150 the dealer wants. And if it isn't ... well, I found an online source (1stvwparts.com) that'll sell me the part for $100. Yay!
Update: New motor coming. $45 shipped. Hooray!
Contessa Coffee:
I love coffee. I *need* coffee to function. I'm an addict, and I'm OK with that. But, unlike some hard-core coffee lovers, I don't completely turn my nose up at flavored coffees. Flavored coffees are tasty! I found one I really like: It's made by for Barefoot Contessa (on foodtv); as far as I can tell, it's coffee with a little cinnamon. And it's wonderful. Especially on a snowy cold morning.
OK, OK. Enough with the blogging. I need to get up and be productive. On the agenda today:
Cleaning the house, acquiring black and white medium-format film, stretching my illiotibial band, doing some sort of exercise (yoga? Stationary bike?), getting groceries, doing laundry.
[1]In particular, it looks like (based upon the hits I get) my travel advice is pretty popular. Which is cool, and I hope it's helped some people get where they're going with a minimum of pain. HAVING SAID THAT... Google is great - they will tell you what queries people have run that returned links to your site. So, for example, my site shows up for a lot of queries on "flight cancellation" and some very specific queries, like "what to do when your United flight is cancelled on a Thursday in Chicago." On the other hand, I get some REALLY odd queries that return my page. My favories so far:
"lorna bagged latex" (?!?!?)
and
"traveling in turkey liquid" (It's the only way to fly!)
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