Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

Perhaps the problem is that I don’t commute and thus don’t drive daily.

Perhaps the problem is that I’m oversensitive to the oblivious and stupid drivers on the planet.

Or perhaps… just perhaps… people should pay more attention while driving such as to whether their blinkers are on or not!

I ran errands this evening during rush hour and encountered no fewer than 8 different people driving in front of me with their blinkers on for long stretches for no apparent reason.

Could be coincidence. Could be an epidemic of oblivious people with their cell phones or stereos up so loud they can’t hear the blinker clicking.

Either way, why do they have to drive in front of me? Granted, I have an adorable little skull and crossbones magnet and jaunty driving lights on the front of my car which I’m sure would look adorable in someone’s rear view… if these drivers were paying sufficient attention to glance in their rear view mirrors. My car also has cute little racing stripes on its nose and a styling hood scoop, not that any of these drivers would have seen the epic cuteness of my car.

Perhaps the rush hour commute is saturated with these blindly blinking blinkers. Perhaps it’s an epidemic. Perhaps it’s a cultural reaction to the bad economy or unemployment or global warming. Whatever it happens to be, I appear to be a magnet for it. Save me!

driving, blinkers, cars, bad drivers

I don’t even know where to begin. Things have been busy, the world has been a little out of control and chaos has been a close companion. In the interest of being more amusing though, here’s the progress report without any of the causes, goals or even context in some cases.

Health and exercise:
- I still love the gym and see my trainer a lot.
- I’m still feeling better than ever and still shrinking.
- It’s entirely possible I’ll miss working out when we are at Pennsic. Handily there’s a big hill and a lot of walking.

House and home:
- The ceiling in my office and many of the cracks in the plaster walls have been fixed. My office is a different shade of green and my desk is setup again after a week and a half of working from less desk-like areas.
- The ceilings in the living room and porch are also repaired and repainted multiple times and the archway has had its plaster repaired.
- The house has been cleaned thoroughly to try to mitigate the mess the workmen made.
- Many of the broken windows have been fixed. (The windows were broken by hail, not the workmen. The workmen only broke a door to my stereo cabinet as far as I can tell.)
- There are roofing supplies (albeit the incorrect ones) in the driveway to replace the roof post-hailstorm. There will also be siding.

The Mini Clubman and cars:
- The Clubman is in the shop getting $4000 of damage fixed, also post-hailstorm. Paintless dent removal is an amazing thing but there are still dents to be removed with body work.
- The Mercury Grand Marquis has been returned to Enterprise because, despite how novel I found the feeling of driving my living room, it smelled pungently of cheap air fresheners over cheap cigarettes.
- The HHR is sitting in the driveway pretending to have the allure of the Clubman but without the appealing gas mileage or zip of the Clubman.

Pennsic prep:
- We are not certain where all the garb is but we do have hunches.
- Cute Project: supplies achieved. Construction likely.
- Fun Project: may bring supplies to Pennsic and do it there.
- Sewing: HAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
- Packing: Do we even need to go there? I bought a new basket in Media as well as some toiletries that landed in that basket, does that count?

Work stuff:
- Work has eaten my life lately.
- I’m going on vacation in a week.

Miscellaneous:
- I have wonderful, awesome, greatest of the greats friends and I love them dearly because they really are just that superlative.
- I want to spend more time reading.
- I bought Bejewled for my iPad which means time I would spend reading is actually spent playing Bejeweled. This was an error.
- If I owe you responses to email, voicemail or snail mail, I apologize. I’ve been terrible with that stuff this summer due to work eating my life.

cars, clubman, exercise, health, home, pennsic, work

This was the view I got when I tried to leave for the weekend last week. Sure, they’re cute, but they’re getting very good at being in the way.

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cats, comics, mini-cats, monster cat, silly, tennyson, travel

Ceiling collapse part one: wee hours of Saturday morning.

Ceiling collapse part two: noonish today.

My office is cleaner than it’s been in ages (except the inescapable gritty dust which is driving me nuts) and about 2/3s empty.
Plaster’s a bitch to clean up. I now have a large space of missing plaster in my ceiling that is vaguely reminiscent of a Peep.
I’d say I love my old house but today it was aiming for me. Monster Cat may have been hit with some of the bits too… poor cat. Tasha and Tenny were in my office at the time of the collapse… neither has been back since. Can’t say I blame them…

I did have a great customer service experience with my old-old insurance company. As the rep put it, there was a “goofy enrollment termination problem” that I confirmed to be resolved with multiple phone calls in June 09. After spending easily 15-20 hours playing phone tag with half the planet.

Hahahahaa… it’s apparently not resolved and no one contacted me after that. Bill was helpful, made all the phone calls that I made a year ago, and generally left me feeling like this issue might actually get resolved without me having to take a cricket bat to any computer systems. (Actually the problem was human incompetence at the insurance company and a dermatologist’s office, but anyway…) It’s a good thing Bill was so helpful, or this could have been a very different post… from jail.

My Mini Clubman’s speaker was fixed 3 weeks ago and looks like it might stay fixed. Fingers are crossed.

Work is busy, despite my hopes that it would slow down this week with my developer on vacation, and resembles a full-time job more and more each day. I have mixed feelings about losing my free time but I’m generally enthusiastic about the flexibility and paycheck.

It’s hot. It’s really hot. I have popsicles. Pomegranate popsicles. I win.

house, lath, plaster, summer,heat, work

I love my car. It’s an adorable Mini Clubman. It’s the right size (though a little daunted by the unplowed roads) and the right amount of zip for me.

However… I’m approaching the end of my rope with my car and my car dealer.
I cannot in good conscience recommend Minis anymore. Sorry.

Last year, I spent multiple visits to the dealer getting things fixed or installed that shouldn’t have been an issue in the first place.

Today, I asked them to actually diagnose the problem that has blown a rear speaker twice. They installed the 3rd speaker in 14 months and failed to find an actual problem. But did jokingly tell me to turn down my bass. Uh huh.

Oh and they got to replace my gorgeous chrome hood scoop, a splurge when I ordered the car, because the bloody chrome was peeling off the bloody scoop. “Defective” was the note on the invoice. And now, it shouldn’t happen again they promise me. Uh huh.

All this work was done under warranty at least.

I did get a loaner car at least. The free dealer loaner was one of the nice features of buying the Mini. Of course, this morning it was not a feature. After pointing out to the service guy the puddle of ice water and slush making their entrance hazardous to say the least, I then stood in the cold (well, only 30°) and wind while the service guy futzed to find me a car with gas. This was apparently a huge challenge because the car I ended up with barely has a couple gallons. And I wonder if they knew the engine service light is on. Plus it was out of windshield washer fluid. I’d like to say “you get what you pay for” in this case but I really don’t feel like I got what I paid for with my Clubman at all, free loaner or not.

So let’s invoice the day in car ownership:
- Warranty repair but no diagnosis of problem that keeps blowing my rear speaker.
- Warranty replacement of the defective chrome hood scoop.
- Free dealer loaner for the day with very little gas (the warning light came on), no windshield washer fluid in the middle of a messy winter month, and the service light on. Good thing I didn’t have to commute into the City. At least the car was clean and only smelled faintly of cigarette smoke.

And all this is *after* Mini Corporate support got involved when I complained about the service in December.

It’s been a bunch of little things that have gone wrong with this car, some of which have been directly related to the dealer’s inattention to their job, but I didn’t have this many problems with my Subaru in 11 years. I’m lucky that very few have been safety-related but is that next problem that will come up? I’m annoyed because I don’t have much choice but to buy the extended warranty for this car because it’ll be cheaper than the intermittent repair of future defects that haven’t had time to surface because I only have 9000 miles on the car. Anyone know a good lawyer with Lemon Law experience?

ETA: I feel stupid complaining about little stuff like this, but I had hoped to keep this car as long or longer than my previous car. I just don’t know that it will happen now.

annoyance, bad service, chrome issue, clubman, lemon law, mini, problems, speaker problem

Gingersnaps and Russian Teacakes are baked. I think there are about 35 dozen cookies in the house at the moment. Irish coffee cookies and cut-out cookies still on the list. Note to self: Before next December I need to find a better Russian Teacake recipe. The Joy of Cooking one drives me batty. However, I did get some cookie scoops and using a scoop to portion and initially form the dough appears to speed things up. Hurray!

I went to 2 Yule events in 2 weekends – Bhakail and Coill Tuar. Both feasts were amazing! Bhakail’s Yule was entertaining since it snowed most of the day! YAY SNOW! The feast was epic (EPIC!) and executed better than any feast I’ve ever been at and the largest I’ve ever seen attempted, but most of the rest of the day felt awkward. No matter where I stood I felt like I was in the way of traffic and I couldn’t get from point A to point B easily. Everything I tasted that day – from the ample day board to the samples of tasty brews to the feast – was delicious. The Feast (I feel like it deserves capitalization now) was Alysten‘s first as head chef and she has no where to go but down. She was given an epic challenge, especially for a first feast, and she met it epically. She had a lot of help but she lead the team well sheer determination and perhaps inspired insanity.

Coill Tuar may have the edge in my heart because there were more people there that I’ve known for 10-15 years. It was wonderful to see people during the year whom I usually only see for 1-2 weeks in August. And Coill Tuar’s Yule actually felt more organized and that there was more to do, but that may have been in part due to not having as many “must have” activities shoved into the schedule by various parties. Plus, Fenice, our amazing Pennsic Lamb Feast Queen, prepared the feast and everything was just succulently amazing. Yes, I’m biased. I can’t help it. But there’s something cool about walking around the parking lot for an event thinking, “The last time I saw these cars we were all at Pennsic!” Then I caught the scent of the kitchen and thought, “Smells like Pennsic!” To her credit, Fenice’s cooking is even more amazing when she has a small, basic kitchen in the back of a Masonic lodge. And, believe it not, she brings even MORE cooking gear to prepare a feast than she brings to Pennsic.

In other news I got spam today that might not have been spam – someone in Central California wants me to buy ammo. And even at spam prices, ammo is more expensive than I expected. Right, to the trash with ye!

My Mini Clubman has blown out another rear speaker and a new one is on order. The service department wants to blame all my riotous NPR News listening. I think this is b.s. since this is the second time this speaker has been replaced and the first time was within a month of buying the car. (And the latest rattle has been going on for most of the year since, honestly, but I couldn’t tell if it was the speaker or that they reassembled the seat belt assembly wrong.) I suspect there’s a wiring problem that they’re not taking the time to investigate. I promise next time it rattles I’ll take it to service sooner. I miss my Subaru. I never had any of these problems with my Subaru. I adore the Clubman but today’s service visit brought back unpleasant memories from a year ago (when I had to have my new car back at the dealership multiple times for installation of ordered features, replacement speakers and realigning the 3rd door – 3 separate trips unfortunately). I dislike being irked by the service on something I paid so much money for. (At this point, the Fop will be shaking his head, sighing that such frustrations that I dwelt on for so long a year ago have reared their tiresome heads and that I’m likely to dwell on them again for a bit. Probably I will. Sorry, love.)

I’m not ready for Christmas or any other holiday. I haven’t even started making caramel corn! But I’m too tired to keep going tonight so caramel corn will have to wait for another day.

baking, car, clubman, coill tuar, mini, service, spam, yule

Monster Cat is an amazing creature, but the kittens really do adore him. They often flank him when he wanders around the house, they use him as a playground and a pillow and nothing is more fabulous than playing with the Big Cat’s tail. Tennyson is 7 and a half years old. He’s not exactly all that excited to have all this attention from two rather energetic kittens All The Time. But he survives. When he gets cranky with them, we let him seclude himself in the bedroom. Karma, Tenny, really did come bite you in the butt. Miss Evil is laughing her tail off at you from the Tuna Bar in the Sky.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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cats, comics, kittens, mini-cats, monster cat, napping, silly, tennyson, warmth

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

Become a fan of Monster Cat on Facebook!

And… follow Monster Cat on Twitter!

cats, comics, kittens, monster cat, paper towels, silly, tennyson

…for muffins. Yum.

I spent the weekend at my parents’ house in Maine. It was lovely. The weather was gorgeous and considerably cooler than down in PA. The company was entertaining. The blueberry muffins were divine thanks to Mum’s blueberry wrangling skills. I consumed tasty Italian sandwiches (Real Maine Italians, thank you very much) as well as steak as thick as my arm from Dad’s grill. We also made a boatload of peanutbutter cookies for the boys. Yes, they are spoiled.

Saturday we saw a Tasha Tudor exhibit over at a little museum in Bridgton. Tasha’s art is really tiny! Perhaps it’s because Tasha’s images were omnipresent in my childhood that I have this weakness for simply but intricately depicted scenes and illustrations. Totally worth the drive. We also stopped at Korner Knitters on the way home where I got to impulse shop some lovely and some silly yarn. (It was so nice to meet you, Darrin!)

I did not impulse buy a lake house, not that it was really a realistic option, but I was tempted. There are a lot of For Sale signs up in the Lakes Region. There are even some For Sale signs on some curiously tempting classic cars. Again, I was tempted.

Oh and the driving! The Clubman and I did not get any tickets nor were we even stopped! I’m pleased to announce that we can get get from the house in PA to the house in Maine on one tank of gas. Just barely, mind you, but it’s a huge mileage improvement over the Subaru. The Mini does like to speed though… I’ll refrain from mentioning numbers here because my mother reads this blog and will scold me. I will say I am very grateful for its visibility (super-duper fog lights) and maneuverability. On multiple occasions I got to zig and zag out of the way of impending stupidity. Why is it that people in New Jersey don’t look before changing lanes?

The drive up to Maine on Friday took me probably 8.5 to 9 hours. I hit traffic in Connecticut and accidents in Massachusetts. The drive back to PA on Monday took me 8 hours. I hit a little traffic in CT where 91 dumps onto 95 and a bit of an accident on the Garden State Parkway, but other than that it was a pretty easy drive. Totally worth it for a weekend in Maine. And while the drive tired me out each way, I think I recovered fully on each with a good night’s sleep.

Except that I’m reading books again (as in novels as opposed to short stories) and not getting to sleep as early as perhaps I should.

I blame you, Miss Juli.

blueberries, driving, maine, mini clubman, photographs, travel, road trip, books

My very gray week needs a little more color! So here’s an older photo of very orange Japanese lanterns.

I tire of this gray, damp and not-cold-enough-to-snow weather. I want snow! REAL snow! This rain with a smattering of snowflakes just to teas me has gotten rather old.

In other news, I took the Clubman to the dealer today to have some manufacturing defects fixed. The service guys replaced a speaker and fixed the door that wasn’t quite hung right. I like it when my car doesn’t make noises it’s not supposed to.

I finally feel like I’m recovered from my cold of doom. I’m still coughing, but that’s just a small detail. I feel better and that’s the most important thing, right?
gray, japanese lanterns, orange, photography, weather