I bought hair stuff today! Veganese from Lush (with a sample of Coolaulin, to see if I can get my hair re-moisturized because the water here is so hard it's turning my hair to straw), and Small Talk from Tigi at a shop in the Georges Street Arcade, as well as a hair conditioning mask for the same aforementioned straw issue. Also picked up some of the pink face soap from Lush, whose name I can't remember now. Almost fifty euro, yipes.

I sent the last car payment in last month.

Today, I receive the lien release.

Today, the car also decides--after five years of trouble-free service--that it's not going to start.

{{{{{{{{{Anne}}}}}}}}} Car~ma to you.

Oh, Anne! That SUCKS. I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry, Anne. Have you replaced the battery in those five years? 'Cause most car batteries last about 5 years, needing replacement is often heralded by the car not starting, and it's on the low-end (pricewise) of car repairs.

That could very well be it. It started again just now, but I'm leery of driving it anywhere until I know what's going on. Fortunatly, my local mechanic is the sort who will say "needs new battery" if that's the case rather than try to trick me into a more expensive repair. I took it in for brake work once, and they said "your brakes just need cleaning - we won't actually need to replace the pads for another so many miles."

Cars always seem to know when they are paid off (or when the warranty runs out). Glad you have a mechanic you can trust, Anne!

mean you'll be in Monterey in October?

That's currently the plan. I'm not sure if I'll have a place to stay, but I think they bought the tickets on Friday.

We have a new travel office that we are forced to use that is of teh suck. I have, so far, researched all of my travel information five times, with significant changes each time because of time lapsed. Now, they have gotten my airline tickets (I think), and some tentative hotel reservations. However, the hotel that I had originally checked out no longer has space available for the whole stay. My backup hotel has space for most of the time, but currently I have to move out - and apparently sleep on the street- for one night in the middle. I spent two hours on Thursday evening researching alternate hotels and other info they needed. They did find one alternative, but they have no idea where it is other than that it's in the county. When I was looking up convenient hotels (from the closest to the conference center to about 3-4 miles away), it didn't show up on the list.

I think I already told you how they have a rule (I'm not sure about how new it is, but no one in my office knew about it) limitingpersonal leave connected to out-of-state travel to two days. I had already promised to visit a friend in Oregon in the fall. I was planning to spend time visiting family and localistas before heading to OR, but now I'm leaving the day after the conference.

WindSparrow - do you know of a similar post/thread for IBS in cats?

Have a wonderful time Jessica! Remember to takes lots of pictures so we can be even more jealous.