Beest bought a wingmirror for the Windstar for $40ish and fitted it. Quotes from the "professionals" were parts >$100 plus labor..... go beest! :D

Nap... Post... Nap... Post... get off the fence will ya. :haha:

Oh, and kudos on the win.

Ye Olde Zengum-Wagonne: a 1992 Toyota Corolla hatchback somewhat similar to this one, but showing more signs of age.

Attachment 27034


Z-wheels 2.0: a 2001 Subaru Outback, trucked in from interstate because they are cheaper there. I paid $10,900 - the insurance company say it is worth $13,800!

Attachment 27035

Congratulations on your z-wagon steal. Did you trade in the other?

A friend of mine here has an outback just about like that. Nice vehicle.

DRIVE FAST, TAKE CHANCES!

I got an F-250 today. We needed a truck. Bad.

Congrats on the car stuff y'all!
@Zen: Your car looks like it has plenty of room for scrogging. Let me know if you want help testing it out.


Today I'm happy because I finally submitted my application to be an SPCA volunteer, I hope to hear soon that I'm accepted! Also the IRS approved my tax return, wooooh money!

1st thing:

this morning I took a walk before work, and the Daffodils were all blooming....and it was warm enough for shorts!

2nd: I just threw a customer out that was a complete hocker. We were $822 under invoice on a lease....AND using one of my few remaining tier bump vouchers (saving him $20/month) AND he rudely refused any extras from me..... by rudely, I mean... I go over a whole menu presentation of things we offer for this and that....and he listens...and then says "NO." Not...."No Thanks" or "I don't really want to get any extras" just "NO" like a dick.

So, we come to the contract, and he asks.... is there a lease end fee? And I say Yes, it's $395, and point to it on the contract..... so then he starts trying to negotiate THAT.

nope. get out.

does not make sense to lose money for a customer who is a rude prick that doesnt know (even though it's been demonstrated to him) when he's gotten a good deal. He'll go to another dealer and find out that they are $50 more per month and then come back.... and we won't do the deal.

just for clarity...the deal he passed on was $1000 out of pocket + 38 payments of $415 to lease this 2010 Nissan Maxima that Stickered for $39,700.

dumbass.

Yep! And I inherited Hobson the Van! My little Kia also known as 'Bertie the toy car' gets to enjoy the rest of her life as a play car.

Victor will be graduating from puppy school. :yesnod:

Woo Hoo

Oh that is a jaunty cap for a darling little dog! Bravo Vic.

Back from Amsterdam this morning. Well, last night actually - I left at 19.30.
With a couple of muffins under my belt.

Spent today unpacking, washing, settling in - which was great.
On the one hand I know I can't stretch the returning-from-hols-vibe any further. I am expected to be a full participant of the household by tomorrow. On the other hand I totally milked it. Diz and I have had special treatment all day and I've loved it.

Love and peace to you all....!

There was a knock at the door today and there were two women there that I'd never seen around town before. I dubiously made my hellos wondering if I was about to be preached at or have something sold to me, but to my overwhelming surprise, they wanted nothing of the kind.

One of the women was in fact the sister of a car accident victim I had helped several months ago. The other was his sister in law.

I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but I was first on the scene of a single vehicle accident just after Christmas. The man had not been wearing a seatbelt, and was thrown from the vehicle and landed more or less on his head about 10 metres (30 feet) from the car. I didn't really do much other than to turn his body into the recovery position to clear his airways (he was choking on his own blood) and just held him there talking gently to him till the ambulance arrived.

Anyway, it really affected me a lot, not only because of the horrific nature of his injuries, but also because of the personal struggles I've been managing with over the last while. I couldn't help but try and keep tabs on his progress, so I bugged the police until they gave me a name so I could call the hospital directly. At first I found he'd been placed in an induced coma and all they'd tell me was that he was critical but stable. I called almost every day for the next few weeks hoping for some positive news. For some reason it was just so very important to me that he didn't die. I don't know why I felt that way. I've never really dealt with an accident vicitm before, so I don't know if that's a normal reaction or not, but in any case, that's the way it was for me.

After almost 3 weeks, I called one day and got put right through to the man. They'd woken him up and he was able to talk and function more or less normally. I couldn't believe it at the time. I was shocked all over again, but we talked for a while and I told him where we lived (turns out we're fairly close neighbours) and what my impressions were of the accident and so on and that was it. I didn't worry him any more after that. I was content to know that he was going to be ok and really didn't think I'd hear from him again.

So you can imagine my surprise when his sister knocked on my door today. Apparently he's been home for a few weeks now and is getting about and has been trying to work up the courage to come and see me himself but each time he's walked past the house he's gotten so emotional that he's felt unable to take the last few steps, so he sent his sister to ask if my family and I would share a meal with his family so that they can thank me for saving his life (for the first time) that night. I found out today that he did actually die on the way to the hospital, but the ambo's were able to revive him.

So, it was an emotional meeting this afternoon, and I imagine there'll be tears when we all sit down and share a meal in a couple of weeks.

It makes me happy to know that he's doing well...and even more so to realize that there are still people out there who will go out of their way to say thankyou.

Yeah, but they're probably lousy cooks. ;)
Seriously though, it's nice to see a good deed not backfire for a change, and you got the thanks you deserve.

Wow Ali. That is a wonderful story. Thanks for that.

Going to Columbus to see my son!

We're going to lunch and then to see Alice. (He wants to see Alice, but he doesn't want to admit it - so he goes with me)

good times bri

and a great story ali

Spring is here! Through my partially open window the birds are singing. It's quiet and all is good right here right now.

That's beautiful Ali.

Thanks Ali, what a great experience - and well done you.
Bri - hope you have a marvellous time. Alice?

Diz won't leave my side today.
It's lovely.
He has me all to himself until Friday, when I'm back at school.

Ali, it's great that you knew what to do and were in a position to do it. Good job.

I got the shake-up I needed :P An email from uni asking if i wanted to apply for PhD study and informing of the 31st march deadline on all applications!

That's kind of brought it home to me that this year is speeding by. I need to up my workrate. At same time, rather fortuitously, I have broken through a really bad bout of writer's block/lazy inability to make myself work and done a decent amount of work this week.

I am feeling quite upbeat about this thesis. I am very excited at the prospect of a PhD. Can't wait to get this MA done and dusted now.

Dr. Dana - thats haz an expensive ring to it. Does that mean we'll have to pay for your posts?

I smell so good.
That is all.

After Ali's post, this seems rather trivial -- but I measured a 3.5 dB noise figure today... :3_eyes:

(Good for you, Ali! And I'm looking forward to 'Dr. Dana' hehee!)

You know, I only did what I could which really wasn't all that much and I'd think only what anyone else would do if they had the knowledge.

We see a lot of people off the road in the cane fields around here. Partly because the road is very windy, but also because there are a lot of idiots on the road who do stupid things. We always stop to make sure everyone's ok and every other time they've been fine. Just waiting for a tow out of the paddock. I like to think that if I were in trouble someone would help me. Karma I guess. What goes around comes around. Building up a bit of credit for the future or something like that.

I don't need thanks from this man or his family, but I'm happy to be thankful with them. I know there are many more people who would do and feel the same as I do, and that's something else to be thankful about in this world.

Aliantha: Thanks for the story. It's good to hear there are still good people in the world. Oh, I know there are good people around, we just don't hear enough about them.

I don't know what that means. Isn't 3.5 dB on the quiet side? It must be good if you are happy about it. What was making the noise?


Why am I happy? Last night I was a chaperone on a field trip to the Air and Space Museum. It was cool, I took my daughter and a neighbor kid to the school, we got on school busses with a bunch of other 4th and 5th grade kids and their parents, we rode into town through rush hour, and after the museum was closed to the public for the night, we got to look through telescopes, get a tour of the closed museum, hear a NASA astronomer talk for about 45 minutes, and see an IMAX movie.

It was really neat. We had been to the museum numerous times before, but the tour and talk were both really good.

The most interesting thing for me was when the astronomer was trying to give us a sense of the scale of the universe. If the sun is a grapefruit located in the IMAX theater of the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, the nearest star is a cherry located in Golden Gate Park in California. And if we wanted to travel there, and could somehow travel at the speed of light, it would take as long as it would take an actual ant to walk from the grapefruit in DC to the cherry in California.

The Cellar wise-crackers are cracking excellent wise these days.

The noise figure is a measure of the noise relative to the signal amplification. The lower, the better. A theoretically perfect optical amplifier has a 3 dB NF. the noise comes from what's called Amplified Spontaneous Emission (insert dirty joke here). In essence, the 'excited' atoms might emit a photon without waiting for an incoming signal photon, thereby creating a background 'hum' that has nothing to do with the signal to be amplified.

Anyways, my measurement was off -- it's really 4.02 dB. Still pretty kickin'.

Glatt -- have you been to the Udvar Hazy air & space museum, over by Dulles? We were there a couple of weeks ago. They've got the Enola Gay, the Global Flyer, and a SR-71 Blackbird. AND THE ENTERPRISE. The Freakin' ENTERPRISE. The U-H is also part of the Smithsonian. Highly recommended.

My swim team swimmed. For the second year. And this year we equalled numbers of the other teams. And we rocked.

Coolest moment, Hector (5th grade, technically too young as it's a Middle School /Junior high 6-8 team but we're a k-8 school so we can sneak 5th graders in to make up numbers....) swam a nice 100 IM, the high school boys were timing. He is tiny and skinny for a 5th grader, but an awesome swimmer. They were impressed already and then he did a bucket turn from back to breast -not for the novice- and the high school boys were all "Did he just bucket? he did! I don't believe it! Did you see that kid tunr? He did a bucket! He's my hero, he's my favorite! Did you see that turn?" so cool, so funny. They weren't half as impressed when my daughter did it same lane next heat and swam so fast she knocked two seconds off her personal best. But I was equally proud.

Athough i was even more proud of the swimmers who had never swum a meet before and whose parents were sure they would bottle out, and who didn't. We had 30 swimmers on the books, only one failed to showd rather than the three we expected. last year we had 17. I promised them chocolate, tomorrow I must pay up. :lol:

So Happy

So Tired


And beest is sick so i gotta make lunches for tomorrow. damnit

Bucket Boy !!

Thanks, Zip -that it totally the paper plate award he needs at the end of season!

I'm even happier now I've made the lunches and can crash in peace.

heehee

bucket boy, I like it.

Yeah, I was there a year or two ago. It's really cool. I loved the Enterprise, and I was also blown away for some reason by the dirty Apollo space suits. They used tape to get all the moon dust they could out of the white fabric to study it, but they couldn't get it all out, and there's still dirty moon dust ground into the fabric. It's both so mundane and so fucking awesome at the same time.

I have over 1000 posts.

Today is the 1st day of my 20th year at my current employer's.

Congrats to both of you! Glatt, does this mean you have the seniority to go kick dirt on your boss' shoes when s/he pisses you off?

I haven't been here 20 yet. My 19th anniversary was yesterday. The big one will be in one year.

Being here this long means that every mystery gets brought to me because I remember shit that happened a long time ago. "Whatever happened to those files ten years ago?" "I dunno, ask glatt." And I usually come through.

These days, most people don't have that kind of longevity on a job. That is awesome! Congrats.

Oh, and another reason to be happy? Netflix is finally shipping us their streaming disc for the Wii today. So tonight I might be watching instant stuff on the TV instead of the tiny laptop!

The sun is out !!! :)

Did it snow anywhere else? I had a couple inches of snow on my car this morning, and parts of the interstate were pretty treacherous. Slide offs and accidents everywhere.

Silly Ohio.

Silly NEPA as well...

I am buying my text books today! I am humming with excitement.

Victor's sister Kyrie finally has a nice home! :) I am not sure whether it makes me happier that Kyrie has a good home or that it made someone very happy to have a new pet after theirs died of cancer on Christmas eve. :hug:

This morning, Minifobette actually fed herself with a spoon for the first time in her life. She won't do the scooping part yet, but if I get a bite ready for her, she'll actually pick up the spoon and move it to her mouth, which is huge for her.

HURRAH! Well done you!!

Just had confirmation that I'm accepted as a volunteer in the local independent theatre. It's a very small place - I've appeared on stage there in three productions myself - and on the same site as the pottery classes I was taking through Occupational Health.

They want me to work behind the bar, but it's not the kind of place where people will be offering me drinks, and a great opportunity to meet people.

My first show is on Saturday 17 April. And I'll be able to exchange sessions worked for workshops - I'm going to go back to pottery.

What with this and volunteering at the school, and also volunteering to work for the LibDems in the run-up to the elections (as an intern, wonder if I'll get to have sex?) I'm really beginning to get myself back together.

The other morning I was itchy and twitchy because I had nothing to do. I put on Torchwood and did the ironing. Mum was blown away when she came back. I think I'm getting my mojo back.

Oh and I have 12 eggs to decorate as a table centrepiece for Easter. Even if it's just Mum, Dad and me (the other rotten lot refused to commit to a proper sit down dinner - boooooo!). I'll let you know how I get on. It could be a disaster or course. The kit I bought from eBay is American. I had intended to blow the eggs (oo-err) but this assumes that you will hardboil them, and cautions about only using the eggs while they are hot...? I don't know if it's something to do with the dye working better when warm? If all else fails I have a bottle of pink food colouring in the cupboard.

WTG SG!

Nice weather in Chitown.

Finally.

Woo Hoo way to go Clod & Minifobette!

Tip top, Sundae!

And go, go, go Minifobette!

A little boy in my class who came to us unwilling/unable to talk at all or participate in anything social was super chatty yesterday and followed one of the other guys in doing the leg hug sitting on my feet thing at playground. We were getting eye contact and everything. AWESOME!

Bloody hell Griff. That's fantastic! You must feel like you're walking on air when something like that happens.

What's making me happy today: Pilau! he's being very delightful and making me laugh. He's in a really good mood, even though he has a poorly leg.

Wow Griff - that sounds extremely cool. What is it you do? Are you a teacher? I must have missed it somewhere.

I'm an early intervention Special Ed teacher. It is exhausting, but every now and then you witness something very cool.

A little bird sitting on the ledge outside my office window, singing.

Z_let #2 comes home from Italy tomorrow.

I just had a lovely long soak in the bath. I have a freshly brewed cup of green tea, a sesame and honey snack bar, a small bar of butterscotch chocolate and a ready rolled smoke waiting in the ashtray. Pilau is flaked out on the sofa (clearly having a riotous dream given all the paw twitching) and I have a really awful, cheesy, Jeffrey Combs flick from the 90s, downloaded and ready to go.

Oh, and a new Doctor Who audioplay on my ipod to listen to in bed later.

Yeah. It doesn't get much better than this.


[eta] Pilau is flaked out because we went for a long walk down into the valley and through the woods, earlier today, during which we met up with Ma and Dante. The boys ran about together, playing tag and generally frolicking about. Mum and I both had out cameras and had a laugh recording the beardie revels. Followed by a smoke *ahem* and a good natter at her house, then food shopping. Just one of those days where i seem to have spent three quarters of my time laughing.