I'm working on the description of my current job for my resume. I need to clear my brain here, so I'm going to list everything I've been doing here. Some of the stuff Jan and I both do.

I create the tv schedule every week, send it out to local papers and post it on the web site. I am the person people need to speak to in order to have something aired. (technically, it needs to first be approved by board members, but they never tell me yes or no, so I generally have to make my own decision.)

I take that schedule and use it to program the VHS and DVD decks in the broadcast rack, every week. I need to use a specific program to input very precise timings.

I update information for the web site. (resisting my desire to totally redo it). I post the airing schedule, the upcoming taping events, and a "what's new" segment.

I do video editing for our tv programs, as well as side projects for the Police Department, the Town, and Parks & Rec. (and whoever else needs help!)

I maintain the televised PowerPoint slide show, creating slides, updating current slides, etc. I am the person people need to speak to in order to have something posted.

I schedule use of the studio and editing room.

I provide IT support for all the computers in the office. I also look after the FAX machine, the printers, the network, the postage machine, currently 5 SVHS players, 8 DVD players/recorders, 2 RAID drives, 4 professional cameras, a sound board, the switcher, and some cable output devices.

I answer the phone and emails. *cough* yes, really, I do! most of the time . . .

I provide training for using the editing equipment.

I provide support for studio tapings. I have been known to serve as camera operator, director, audio, and floor manager.

I create forms and publications to be used by the station.

I create ads for local papers.

I send out emails about upcoming taping events to our list of volunteers.

I clean the basement, since the cleaning crew doesn't seem to ever do it.

I maintain the stuff stored in the storage room.

I maintain the tape library.

I update the email list of volunteers.

I handle the purchase of program copies from viewers.

I oversee summer interns and put them to good use.

Run the office while the executive director is on sabbatical. I'm generally here by myself!

That's all I can think of at the moment. Now to decide what to use in a resume and how to word it JUST right. Wording is very important. *nod*

"Administrative assistant that's serving as an office manager, seeking to get her ass out of the rut she's in before she gets completely buried by the dirt everyone else keeps throwing in."

hmm. How's that for a resume objective? Pity you can't be brutally honest on a resume.

Dan's asked me twice in the past few weeks for my resume. I'm taking this as a sign. (an exit sign!) Of course, he doesn't seem to be real sure what he's going to do with it, but I figure if it's floating around the cable company building, it's SOMETHING. However, it makes it a bit awkward to rework my resume into something suitable, as I don't even know what I'm aiming for.

I haven't redone my resume in a while, and discovered that I had taken over a LOT of duties in the past year. Everything else should pretty much stay the same. I suppose I can add a few odd bits, like web site maintenance (I seem to be doing two and a half sites now!) I just need to add a bit of fluff as an attention grabber.

and it's off to google ten million and five resume building sites!

I keep having to retrieve files from my old hard drive. I have to admit it's pretty interesting to boot up a computer without a monitor. Eventually it works. All's I have to do is figure out when to hit enter to log in. of course, I was having problems with XP loading properly so the computer keeps rebooting itself.

Now to figure out how to get the bookmarks . . .

My trip to the Natural History Museum

Ok, here's a few pictures. For the real deal, visit The Smithsonian's website.

In the past two weeks, I've been told by three different people who haven't seen me in a few months that I'd lost a lot of weight. I tried to convince the doctor who commented on it that I only LOOKED thinner because I had gotten a haircut. She gave me a look, but didn't pursue it because my weight was the same on the chart as it had been three months ago. (we won't comment on the heavy soled shoes I was wearing at the time.)
I saw a picture taken of myself recently, and couldn't help thinking, "Whoa, my arms look BONY." I'm getting scolded constantly. I know I need to do something. I don't particularly LIKE shopping in the Juniors section. Even my shoe size has dropped. (Or maybe it's just that the shoe companies have renumbered the sizes.)

A cursory search online shows me nothing useful. All the weight gaining sites are aimed at men. (I find this hysterical. Women want to lose weight, men want to gain?) I think I've blogged my weight problems earlier, it seems to be the same rant as before, so blah blah blah.
I have no idea what to do.

Movie Review: The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi

Interesting, very interesting. Zatoichi is a blind nomad with lightning reflexes and a sword hidden in his cane. He gets involved fighting against the gang politics of a Japanese village and helps two geishas avenge the murder of their parents.

There was a lot of CGI in the film, at one point I was trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't. Some of it was obvious, others I would need to see again. It was generally during fight scenes, so it went so fast it was hard to register. I'm pretty sure a lot of the blood was added later, and I believe at one point the sword might have been as well.

There was some unusual elements to the film. There were several scenes added in for dramatic effect, workers in the field, moving in rhythm with the music. At the end was a bizarre Japanese Riverdance type performance. The dancers were good, but it just had no place in the movie and seemed ODD.

I just did a search on IMDB to see what it had about the film, and discovered that it seems to have been a series done in the 1960's. Netflix has several different ones. I have no idea which one I just saw. There was one version done in 1989, if it was done around then, then it would explain a lot about the way the editing was done.

It was a good film, limited as it was. If you can find it, go for it!

Look! See! I went! I was there! The Natural History Museum!

I wish I had taken better pictures. I was just so enthralled with everything, and I knew I couldn't take pictures of everything, and we didn't cover half of it as it was.

We got to see lots of dead things, lots of rock-like things, and lots of tourists. ;-)
(I'm being silly. A combination of a long day, a lot to see and do, and a headache. I'm tired now!)

We also saw the Hope Diamond. I thought about posting the picture I took, but it didn't turn out that well, and supposedly it's cursed, so maybe I won't. Most of my pictures turned out kind of blah. I've never been one for photographing every event of trips the way my family does. Photography's a big thing for them, but I seem to depend on what I experienced rather than what I photographed. If I decide some are better, I may post them, but there wasn't much. Mostly of bats. DOn't ask, I don't know.

I haven't had anything to look forward to in ages. Work. Work. More work. No one being AT work but me. Car's trying to die. Growl at the predatory commissioned car dealers and hide behind the 800 pound gorilla that is my father. (his term, not mine.) Buy a new car for twice the amount I wanted to spend. Take it back. Pick it up. Take it back. Pick it up. Work.

You realize this was my entire summer, right? Of course you do, you've been using my blog to cure your insomnia. So when a polite offer was made for a trip to the Smithsonian, I pounced on it and am holding fast. I have no pride.

I'm so used to so-called promises from my family to do things together that end in "soon", "later this week/month/summer/century" and "someday" that never, ever happen. And with such inarguable excuses, and, on occasion, there's guilt trips and other such misunderstandings. Even Karen's promise to work out together never happened. She keeps working out in the morning or not being home when I call. and, of course, she's working 4 jobs, so I should understand, right?

What I don't understand is why people say they'll do things when they know they can't follow through. I show up when I say I'll show up, and if I can't, it's due to illness or some major crisis. Then I let them know I can't show up or continue whatever. I try not to leave people hanging. I'm on the other end of it waaaayy too much.

In any case, I'm excited about this excursion. It's nice to have something to look forward to for once. I intend to make the most of it. I've only been to the Air and Space Museum (4 times?) and have never seen the other museums that make up the Smithsonian. I've seen parts of DC no one else has seen (and in the current state of DC events, never will) but I've not often had the chance to play tourist.

Of course, me being me, I'd be just as happy to just ride the metro.

Movie Review: Raising Arizona

Hang on a sec, let me try to get rid of the accent I got while I was watchin'. Yargh.

Ok! Fun. Bizarre. Different. The Coen Brothers. I know this one came first, but it reminded me a lot of O Brother Where Art Thou?. I like Nicholas Cage. He has such a serious face, but can do comedy so well. But - why did Cage and the bounty hunter have the same tattoo? They didn't explain that. Nor did they ever specify whether Edwina was still a cop. She had her uniform . . . but the envelope describes her as an ex-cop. Oh, well. I'd like to point out that this is the first movie I can remember in a long, long, long time that mom and I have watched all the way through, no interuptions. I knew if I kept trying, one day it would work out that way. (maybe I should just put the phone back on the hook, right?)

Came home this afternoon and saw a "For Sale" sign in our next door neighbor's yard.

They've been here for over 20 years. I grew up playing with their kids. Nice, quiet, friendly people, who also owned and rented out several other houses on this street, to other nice, quiet friendly people. They've also sold the other houses.

I shudder to think of what could replace them. We'll miss you!

So Mom asks if I wanted to go up to Brunswick for Andrew's birthday. Sure, why not? I had finally come up with a decent present for him (and one that would annoy Erin.) Of course, she NEVER tells me anything properly, turns out he was working, so we got to visit with Erin and her friend Brandy for a while. It was a beautiful day for a drive, and we kept passing large groups of Harleys. Groups? Packs? Gangs? Rumbles? Convoys? What do you call a group of motorcyclists? On the way home we passed a herd (I know this one!) of cows, attempting to cross the road. Deer are one thing to be nervous about, but cows are much bigger, and somebody else's property. Mom honked the horn a few times, and they ran back off the road. Hopefully their owner will find them soon!

Harold, the computer guy. [rec.humor.funny]

This goes right along with the PEBCAK error.

Movie Review: Ice Age

"We're the strangest looking herd I've ever seen."

I wasn't much impressed, except with maybe the hair on Diego the sabre-toothed tiger. Computer generated animation it was, but the characters were intentionally ugly. Basic premise was an annoying sloth and a woolly mammoth find a baby human and try to find his 'herd' so they can return him. a sabretooth tiger follows along, hoping to get the baby so he can turn him over to his pack leader for vengence against the humans that slaughtered many in the pack. Nothing surpising here, move along.

I'm back.

It wasn't as horrible as I was bracing up for, thank goodness. Then again, I avoided all junk food and did the whole vitamin/protein drink thing. And took it easy, more or less. I read. A book on scrabble, one on web page design, Laurell K. Hamilton's Blue Moon and started Obsidian Butterfly (which was shockingly full of typos). I watched tv. I finished my next segment of my interior design course. I cleaned. A lot. At work, too. Even dragged my mom with me so I could borrow her vacuum with all the attachments. Alas, the cleaning crew doesn't clean the basement. I get to evict the spiders. At home I went through my drawers and ended up with two big bags full of stuff that no longer fits or I got tired of. Most no longer fit. Unfortunately, that includes my leather pants! I couldn't bear to get rid of those. I tucked them away until I either gain enough weight to wear them again or figure out a way to make them fit. To compensate I went to Kohls and bought four shirts and a pair of pants. From the junior's section. It wouldn't be so bad shopping there if the styles weren't so . . . what's the word? slutty? Stuff I couldn't wear to work? I'm not the greatest on fashion sense, but I do know what styles I shouldn't be wearing in public. (this would be from the public's point of view) It really narrowed down the choices.

My car is still running well. I haven't bought gas yet, but it's got around 160 miles on it now. I have no idea where I've been to get that much.

My week offline felt like some sort of mini-vacation. It forced me to do something different, to look at something else besides this monitor. I rather enjoyed it. Hopefully I won't have to do it again next month. But sometimes it's just easier to embrace your monster than to fight it.

Well. Apparently it's not enough for Jan to go to Texas and the New Jersey shore. NOW she's going to Bangkok. THAILAND. Out of the country. Way, away over that way. For a week. Another week of answering the phone and telling people she ain't here, give it up and let me help you.

I can't even get to DC, and it's only 25 miles from where I'm sitting. Do you know how long I've wanted to spend a day at the Smithsonian? Just one day, even an afternoon. Is that too much to ask? Apparently it is. There's no way I'm going there by myself, and no one will go with me. So here I sit at work, covering for people who get to have vacations. One right after the other. in different COUNTRIES. Where she gets to see and talk to more than three people in her entire day.

Dammit. I'm sinking into blackness again. Why couldn't I have acne and weight gain as side effects? I can deal with those. I think I'm just going to go offline for the week until the mental sunshine comes back out. Otherwise I will just spread my misery wherever I go, and it's embarassing to admit I can't control my own stupid emotions. (yes, I admitted it, but I really don't want to PROVE it.)

Movie Review: Spy Kids

It was better than I thought, but totally bizarre. First, it's a movie aimed at kids, so I had to remind myself to expect it to be geared towards kids. I've never been much for potty humor and slapstick, I'm not sure why they do it in every kid's movie. Fortunately, there were quite a few elements to make up for it.

First off, it was directed by Robert Rodriguez. That's right, of the famous El Mariachi movies. Second, Antonio Banderas is in it. *drool* Third, Tony Shalhoub, George Clooney, Danny Trejo appear in it. Characters like these mean this isn't your typical kid's movie. There was minimal fighting, done on purpose, I think, which is quite a switch for Rodriguez. Lots of goofy spy gadgets. Lots of surreal cartoony effects. It felt like the 60's. I kept chuckling at the script, particularly the siblings' insults. They played off each other well. Suspend your belief in the real world and enjoy.

Movie Review:Immortal Beloved

The set was beautiful. The costumes were wonderful. Gary Oldman and Isabella Rossellini were in it.

The plot? Ah, well, the plot. I'm still not sure about it. I'm researching his life online as I write this, go do a google search yourself for your own opinion about its accuracy.

The plot doesn't matter. It was the music that carried this movie. I had chills listening to it throughout. I've watched movies before with the sound off, this one I could easily watch with my eyes closed.

Several times during the movie the audio stopped and gave an imitation of what he most likely could hear - a low, bubbling, murmuring noise, at best. There's deafness and then there's silence. It's like trying to focus your eyes on a fuzzy picture. It can't be done, and you only end up with hurting eyes. Imagine trying to focus on something you can't hear. How hard is it to tune that out, so to speak, and produce the music in his mind? I would think it would take a lot of effort, and a lot of time to get it right. And here were all these people around him, clamoring for attention, for his time, distracting him, making him lose his train of thought when all he wanted was to transfer what was on his mind into the MUSIC, so the world would have a better understanding of who he was and what he felt inside, as if those arrogant, selfish, souless people could possibly understand. His pride and frustration must have been incredible.

Pardon me while I go play Moonlight Sonata and then berate myself for even THINKING about attempting it.

Oh, Joy! Look like we're going to be visited by Charley. We sure do get a lot of leftover hurricanes in this area. I suppose it could be a lot worse. We could get the whole hurricane. This area's pretty lucky. We don't have tornados, hurricanes, major flooding, fires, mudslides, earthquakes . . . On the other hand, we've got a lot of annoying people. Sometimes I think I'd rather deal with nature than humans . . .

Joyce is visiting for the weekend, and true to form, she's experimenting with a new project. This time she's into fabric dying! She brought quite a few of her results, and they're quite beautiful - and such a range of colors! I think it was the next natural step in her love of quilting - creating your own custom colors to go with other fabrics. Sometimes they're so hard to match!

Here it is, sanded, stained and sporting brand new brass hardware.
I'm not sure why it's so shiny, or so incredibly red. It holds quite a bit, and fits perfectly under my window.
Before and After

I didn't touch the insides, except to clean it with soap and water and spray it with some wood polish. The two funny knobs you can see in the lid of the open photo several posts back? They were carefully cut and positioned to fit inside the handles of saws. A screw driven into the center of the lid provided support for the blades. I thought that was pretty clever. Wow. I'm glad I took before pictures! That's a pretty big transformation.

Mom thinks it may have been my great-grandfather's tool box from when he was a boy. She claimed that anything my grandfather would have made would have had either his initials or his devil drawing etched, burned, or drawn somewhere on it.

I'm not sure how to explain his devil drawing. I saw it only a few times, and always thought it was a fox face - several triangles to imply a head and horns, and then a pair of eyes. He drew it on his things to either be funny or imply ownership - rather like some sort of gang symbol! I do remember it being on one of the windows in my great-grandfather's workshop/garage. I need to see if I can find a picture of it somewhere . . .

Long day. My lack of transportation, Erin's car fiasco, being alone at work all day, dealing with stupid people on the phone who refuse to do business with me in spite of the fact that I'm the only one there that will get what they want/need done, Drew and Shane showing up in my office, one after the other, the looks on their faces meaning only one thing: cable internet's out (which I knew), having the lights go out during an afternoon thunderstorm and stay off til early evening, listening to the backup power supply go "beep-beep" every five seconds during said downtime, trying to deal with quite a few stressed relatives, trying to suggest something nice and simple to solve that daily dinner problem (only my parents could turn 'hey, why don't we just order pizza' into a horrible ordeal), and . . .just . . . ugh.

Ok, good things, good things. Um. It's almost midnight. That's a good thing. My teeth and mouth no longer hurt and I can eat again. I'm nearly finished with the tool box (although it's rather red). I just need to clean up the inside and put the hardware on. I'm using the same stain that I used on my antique desk. I also used that stain on the shingles on Rachel and Shelby's dollhouse. I still have over half the can left. What else can I stain? *glances at her hands* oh.

Well, I HAD a brand new car. For nearly a week, too! With luck, I may actually see it again. It's still at the shop, awaiting the 'arrival of parts' and probably being continually pushed to the bottom of the list because it's under warranty.

At least I didn't experience what my sister did. Apparently her fuel pump broke and they got stuck on an exit ramp - on their way to the vet about 20 miles from home. Andrew takes the keys and goes to find a gas station (at the time thinking they had run out of gas) and Erin's stuck in the car, with two siamese kittens who don't seem to enjoy travelling in cars. Then it starts raining, her window's rolled down, and she has no key to turn on the car to roll the window up. (Do you see WHY I don't want power windows???)
To add to the sob story, They get the car to the nearest Ford place. The vet appointment's been rescheduled, but she also had a dental appointment. Chris was fortunately around to pick them up, and I can just imagine Andrew and Chris stuck with two unhappy kittens in some parking lot. (a firefighter's life is never boring.) They get all the way home, are called by the Ford place that their car is done and to come get it, and go all the way back . . . only to find that now the car won't start at all. The Ford place offered them a loaner . . . a Cavalier.

At least someone in the family gets to drive one.

Picked up the car, drove it home, then ended up driving it back. Now the turn signal won't automatically switch off after I complete a turn! I tried to talk the dealer into letting me take home the SSR instead, but had no luck.

In my annoyance over the turn signal I forgot to test the horn. Remind me to do that before I leave the lot next time!

My intern has gone back to school, leaving me with several half finished projects. I now get to spend my days in the editing room. I've been staring at the walls, trying to figure out some way to make it more pleasant down there. Maybe some editing relevant posters? I need some ideas. Something fun but useful. hmmm.

Now the horn's just honking randomly. Highly embarassing, and around here, it will probably get me shot. I dropped it off at the dealership. Hopefully they'll put an end to it. I haven't even had it a week yet - and it's only got 68 miles on it!

Spent most of the day at my grandparent's house, helping go through stuff. Lots of stuff. Two households and 70 year's worth of stuff. Old tools in the garage, random junk in the basement . . . lots of spiders

I now have another photo editing project - we had to rescue photos from a waterlogged album. They were mostly of my grandparents in the late 1940's, early 1950's. I can't wait to restore them, there were some really good ones. and oh! That reminds me - my grandmother gave me a photo that my grandfather kept on the desk in his workshop office. It's of me and him about to go for a ride in his truck. Unfortunately it's glued into a homemade frame, and I'm hesitant to try to remove it. I did take a digital picture of it and trimmed it way down, but the quality's not what I'd like it to be. I'm going to have to try something else.
In the meantime, I think maybe I'll take it to work and set it on MY desk.

By Annemarie Dolls

Beautiful, beautiful work. I love the incredible details on the gowns. (remember, this is one inch scale! all of these dolls are under six inches tall.) It makes me want to shove my finished dolls in a small box, and hide in the closet. The website is not in english, but does have english translations on it.

Had my first er, incident with the new car. Pulling into a parking space outside of Lowes, I apparently hit the horn. And it stuck. And stuck. And stuck. I had to pull the fuse in order to get it to stop. It was rather embarassing. I tugged at the cover on the steering wheel for a bit, around the horn buttons, until I thought I heard a light click, and then put the fuse back in. Blissful silence.

I'll be staring suspiciously at the car for a few days.

Movie Review: Twin Warriors

I had seen this several years ago, and wanted to see it again. I rank it pretty high for a martial arts film. Since it's a Jet Li produced movie, you can expect to see lots of blood spitting. My only complaints are the dubbing and a few bits of sloppy editing where you can see the wirework. The fight scenes are well executed (ha HA!) and impressive, once you let go of the fact that they're also pretty impossible.

Quotes: "You're all wet." "That's because I am a duck!"
"Let go of your burden. Set yourself free!"

So the tool chest has a locked Yale lock on it. Big heavy thing, no key. Someone had unscrewed the screws from the bottom half of the box in order to get the lid open, but the lock was still in place on the lid. I needed it off, but how to do it? Everybody had different ideas.

Mom tried to get a screwdriver behind it to get remove the rest of the screws. There's four of them, all blocked by the metal latch.

I tried to pick the lock. I doubted I could actually succeed, but hey, it was interesting - and you'd be amazed at the kinds of web sites that come up when you search for lock picking.

Dad comes home, thinks we're nuts, goes to the garage and gets the bolt cutters. Three seconds later, the lock is off.

I knew that's what would end up happening. I'm just not strong enough to use bolt cutters!

Now I need to track down the brass corners. I'd like to bitch and growl at all the online hardware stores that charge such excessive amounts for shipping. And for their limited shipping options. They should at least offer SOME USPS method for items that can fit in an envelope!

I have a new refinishing project!


It's a wooden tool chest that was in my grandparent's garage. She told everybody to come over and take what they wanted, because she had rented a dumpster and it was all going. I saw the chest, or it saw me, and I knew I should at least TRY to save it.

It's a real carpenter's chest, and obviously handmade. It's covered in paint splatters, wood stain, varnish, oil drips and glue. There are deep scratches crosshatched all over it - obviously used as a makeshift cutting surface. Screws were replaced with whatever was available, and possibly pieces of the wood, too.

It could have belonged to my grandfather, my great-grandfather, my great-great-grandfather, or anybody in between - my grandmother wasn't sure whose workshop it had come from. It's good wood, although it might be rotting in a few places, and some of the metal corners are rusted. I THINK I can save it. I need to find new corners, find a way to remove the lock, possibly add a new one, sand it a bit and possibly refinish. I need to gauge carefully how much refinishing to do. I don't want to ruin the dignity of a tool box by making it all fancy and shiny. It's a TOOL box! It EARNED those gouges!


Look! My first non-car related post of August!

Everyone say hello - to Lucy!

2005 Chevrolet Cavalier coupe, 4 cylinder engine, automatic, CD player, nice metallic blue, grey interior, room in the trunk for at least two bodies, and ~25 miles on the odometer . . . if you want to know more, contact me for the 10 cent tour!



I'm still getting the hang of driving her. It. Sorry. I realize I shouldn't anthropomorphize my possessions. I don't do it with everything, honest! The steering wheel is smaller, and so is the emergency brake, and the signals are in a slightly different place. I've poked around a bit, the gas cap is attached to the car by a little plastic thing (that made me laugh) it has two cigarette lighter plugs, but no cigarette lighters - even though it does have a removeable ashtray. And cup holders! I have actual cup holders!
Unfortunately it doesn't have power locks or windows. The windows I don't mind so much, but my Sunbird always automatically locked when I shifted out of park, and both doors locked when I pushed the button on one. I'm going to MISS those features.

Now I need to drive it around some and adjust myself to her quirks. I need to kidnap a few people, if only to get someone help me adjust the rearview mirror on the right side. (ever try doing that at a traffic light, leaning across to reach it? It don't work.)

She came into my life four years ago, just as I was finishing up my last college class. Teal with grey interior, two doors, sound engine, a perky spoiler . . . just waiting for me in the parking lot in Lovettsville. The color was perfect, the price was right, and the dealer was an older country gentleman who would only accept a hug as a down payment. We gave him cookies. She had her quirks, but was always upbeat, inquisitive, ready to go anywhere. I barely knew how to drive at the time, but she didn't mind.




Mollie and I dubbed her Ramona. Al, and then Erik, taught me how to drive. and I drove. I went all over Herndon, all over Reston, all over Sterling, Manasass, Centreville and Chantilly, to the movies, to family and friend's houses, shopping, work. I drove her to dance halls, bars, clubs, farms, down deserted roads in the middle of the night, and many, many trips out to Catlett. I took her to Brunswick a few times. I took her to parks and often sat in the back seat, reading or listening to music. I even sat in a Target parking lot in Manassas late one night for several hours. She bore my laughter, my singing, and my tears with great patience.

I once crammed four guys and myself into it, two of them well over six feet. She took it in stride.

Everybody was always impressed by her emergency brake. It was a large U shaped lever. Everyone also always laughed at her timid horn (meep!).

I locked the keys in it down at Burke Lake Park during the haunted house season. Had several volunteers to 'open' the car for me - I suspect they had a lot of practice. Ended up using a AAA man, who came out after dark, when the house was open. I was in costume, but had to be present as owner of the car, and scared him quite a bit when I showed up.

For a week or two, a small white spider lived in the car. (That really upset my passengers for some reason . . .) I finally found the spider a new home in a nice shrub.

a toy Cri-kee from Mulan lived in the car. He chirped when you twisted his wings. There was also a tiny Buzz Lightyear and a tinier Mike from Monster's Inc. Oh, and Snoopy as a WWI Flying Ace. For a while a plastic 8 ball rattled around in the back. An acorn resided in the change drawer.

I received as a birthday present a spray bottle of raspberry car scent. (a favorite smell!) It leaked in the glove compartment, so it always smelled good when you opened it.

I learned how to check and change the oil, the air filter, the coolant. I figured out how to remove the headlights, replace the light bulbs and the horn. I learned what motor mounts were. I installed a nice set of speakers and a Pioneer CD player and used them to their full advantage.

I made sure I always had a frisbee in the trunk. You just never know when you're going to find a good friend and a great field.

She never quite forgave me for the deer incident, the slight dent in the corner remains. Her belt squealed when she was cold, a strange quirk I could never solve. She always started when I turned the key. Always.

I found a fishing bobbin in it soon after the purchase. I made sure the bobbin was still there when I traded her in this afternoon. We covered over 13,000 miles together.

Farewell, Ramona. I hated to do it, but it was time. Thanks for the memories.

Got the loan! Go me . . . didn't even need a co-signer this time. I also have an appointment this afternoon to test drive that Cavalier. It's worth a test drive, at the very least. It appears to have a very similar layout as my Sunbird, which is a plus.

I keep thinking about my Sunbird. Sooo many memories, some good, some bad. I have the feeling I'll start waxing poetic about it soon . . .

I found out that Melissa just bought a 2004 Cavalier. She's been raving about it, owned a previous Cavalier, and she works a lot with cars so I would imagine she knows a bit about them. There's a brand new 2005 Cavalier up at Sterling Chevrolet, metallic blue, around 14k, 2 door, 4 cylinder engine. Dad claims technology has improved and that it should have the equivalent engine power of my Sunbird. I say, HA!

A brand new car . . . Part of me objects, I don't NEED my car to be brand new. So long as it goes from point A to point B without problems or bizarre noises, I'm content. Yes, well, my car requirements in looks and performance are slightly important, but my reasons for what I want are perfectly valid. A Coupe - I don't want to have to worry about four doors being locked and functioning properly. I rarely have passengers, why have all that extra space that I don't need? (Maybe I should get a motorcycle. Or how about a truck?) The engine - I want the car to go when I tell it to go, not to hesitate, think about it, struggle to comply. It's bad enough I get tailgated now - a weaker engine would make it worse. Color - I don't want a dark car, as it makes it hard to see at night. I like my teal car because it's always easy to spot in parking lots.

I'm rambling. With a brand new car, most of the things that go wrong with it will be MY fault. I can't blame the previous owners for whatever strangeness happens. I'm hoping that there won't BE anything that goes majorly wrong.

I know I won't be able to get a good trade-in value for my Sunbird. I'll most likely donate it to a charity. Or else I'll keep it and take it apart, see if I can put it back together again. That would be fun.

I've applied for a loan from my credit union, hopefully I'll get it. Now to find a car . . .

Movie Review: Dick Tracy

I've mostly seen it before, never all the way through, in one sitting, without commercials, though. Classic comic book camp, much lighter than normal, though. 40's detective story, the plot was simple, but rushed. I think the actors were mostly picked for their resemblance to their characters. I kept recognizing actors. The boy from Hook. Dustin Hoffman. (also in Hook!) Christopher Lloyd. I did miss Mandy Patinkin, but saw his name in the credits. (Inigo!) And, of course, Madonna, doing an excellent impersonation of Marilyn Monroe. When she gets into a role, she really throws herself into it.

Not one for the collection, but fun for a cheesy flick for the evening.

No luck in yesterday's search for a car. I've listed my particulars. I just can't find them. I may have to search more online.

That's the bad thing about cars. You can't have them built to spec like you can with computers. Wouldn't that be nice?

My mouth feels like I've been trying to chew on sharp rocks. Just thought I'd share.