You could use me for car shopping. I scare the salesmen cause I am FIERCE.

My mother bought every single vehicle my parents have ever owned. Every time Mom & Dad would walk into the dealership together, the salesman would talk to Dad. At which point he would turn to my mother tell her he was going across the street or to the nearest bar to have a beer and she could call him when she was ready to have him sign the papers. I love going car shopping with my mother.

The last time Joe and I went car shopping, they did the same thing. Guy tried to sell me a car for more that the sticker when it was brand new. I told him all of the mistakes they made, pointed out that the KBB someone left on the vehicle was $6000 less than what he quoted me, and then told him that he could go inside and drink his coffee and I'd let him know when I needed him. Poor guy. I've never actually seen a tail grow and promptly go between someone's legs.

Finally caught up on Natter--whew!

Happy anniversary to the Zmayhems, and happy birthday to everyone else!

Had a productive weekend, since I have almost all the apartment unpacked. Of course, I have boxes galore to discard, but that's what tonight's for.

Speaking of tonight, did you know that this evening’s address by President Bush is his very first one on domestic policy issues in his entire Presidency? I'm still guessing he'll manage to work in the phrase "9/11" at some point, though.

This is the first time I've ever owned a "new" car (2005, bought last September) so I should be a long way aways of having to worry whether to keep it or not. Even though that I've managed to put nearly 4.5K on it since I bought it, but that was 2 round trips to NJ and three round trips to PA during that time!

Timelies all!

Happy Birthday Megan!

Happy Anniversary Hec and JZ!

Went swimming for the first time in a month-and-a-half today. Did fewer laps than the last time, but my shoulder and neck were starting to hurt me.(The shoulder/upper back has been hurting on and off for the last few weeks. Wish I knew why...)

What's worse than Medieval Times' dinner and a "tournament"?

Pirate's Dinner Adventure, dinner and a pirate show.

Okay, actually I'm torn between thinking this is the stupidest idea ever, and wanting to go. Just once. Just to see what it's like.

My mother bought every single vehicle my parents have ever owned.

Mine too. Well, not dad's 'ghia, but I think that preceded her. My mom LOVES car shopping. She's been known to car shop with no intention of buying a car (I call her evil. "But I'm just trying to get an idea of what's out there! I might change my mind!")

I think she is planning on getting a new car soon. I'll get to hear all about it.

A friend of mine used to get the worst stereotypical "chicks don't know cars" attempted snow jobs when she went car shopping. I know it happens ( I tend to forestall it happening by knowing exactly what I want, so it's less shopping, more "gimme that and shut up,") but her stories are nuts. They stopped when she started introducing herself with "...and I used to build these." She was her own mechanic on her first couple of beaters and did, in fact, work on a GM assembly line. For 3 months.

Pirate's Dinner Adventure, dinner and a pirate show.

Somehow, the part of this that irritates me the most is that they serve you your piratical dinner on paper plates. What kind of lame-ass pirate feast doesn't serve its guests their meal on, at the very least, beat-up pewter platters or slabs of flatbread or pieces of wood from an old rum barrel, if not preferably gold-encrusted plates from the last Spanish galleon they swarmed, pillaged, and sank?

Lame, lame, lame.

Somehow, the part of this that irritates me the most is that they serve you your piratical dinner on paper plates.

The part that's irritating me is that they don't even make an attempt to justify their "pirate" dinner as something that pirates would eat. I'm not entirely sure what pirates would eat (though hardtack comes to mind), but you could convince me of either fish or some sort of heavily-spiced meat much sooner than you'd ever convince me that pirates ate brocolli.

Hil, heh. I didn't even notice what was on the paper plates, I was too busy being annoyed by the plates themselves.