{{{Nora}}}

We were lucky with a babysitter when Jake was born -- Stephen's mom. She was 65ish, and desperate to play with a baby, so, since we were young and I was bottle feeding, we went out a LOT when Jake was under six months old, often drinking and to hear live music in Hoboken. Ah, good times.

In PA, we found the sweetest,most responsible high school girl EVER, who lived a block away, but we still couldn't afford her very often -- that whole dinner, movie, babysitter fee thing = a lot of money. We usually did with dinner or a movie, and always took one night to do both around the holidays, for our anniversary.

Nice thing: once, she had play practice on a night I called last-minute because we were taking three-year-old Ben to the ER (bashed-open head requiring stitches). We didn't want Jake to have to hang around the ER, but when Katie couldn't come, her older brother Ed offered -- he was the one who actually introduced us to her (long story). He sat for the boys quite a few times after Katie abandoned us left for college, and the boys *loved* him, because he'd bring his Nintendo or Playstation.

Car history:

1981 Pontiac T-1000
1988(?) Nissan 280ZX (hand-me-down from brother-in-law -- it talked!)
1993 Ford Taurus (hand-me-down from dad)
2002 Hyundai Elantra (new!)

We now have my mom's old Ford Escort, too, which is shoebox on wheels, but runs. I don't even remember what year it is.

I did a lot of babysitting as a teenager. My most lucrative client was a couple who was always going to the dog races. Their little girl would not stay in her crib and she wanted to be naked all the time. I spent most of the time chasing her around the house trying to get her back in her diaper and back in her crib. She was also being toilet trained, and her idea was to sit on the potty and "read" every book she had. I learned to immediately hide most of her books when I came in. She was very cute, though, and they paid $2 an hour. I always told her parents that I didn't have any trouble with her.

2nd Librarian not as good as the first, but still quite fun.

Must put away laundry and go to bed. Way past my bedtime.

Ciao, Bitches. (I don't believe I've ever said that before.)

It was silly fun. . . but needed Bob Newhart and his ninja fighting skills. (So unexpected last time.)

'Night Zenkitty -- I am going to go check the furnace and then head to bed myself.

From a news link:

"The Indonesian volcano Talang on the island of Sumatra had been dormant for centuries when, in April 2005, it suddenly rumbled to life. A plume of smoke rose 1000 meters high and nearby villages were covered in ash. Fearing a major eruption, local authorities began evacuating 40,000 people. UN officials, meanwhile, issued a call for help: Volcanologists should begin monitoring Talang at once. Little did they know that, high above Earth, a small satellite was already watching the volcano. No one had told it to. EO-1 (short for "Earth Observing 1") noticed the warning signs and started monitoring Talang on its own. Indeed, by the time many volcanologists were reading their emails from the UN, 'EO-1 already had data,' says Steve Chien, leader of JPL's Artificial Intelligence Group."

[link]

eep.

"What are you doing, Dave?"

I have a Christmas confession: I prefer artificial trees.

And right now, I'm drooling over this impossible one: [link]

Sigh.

What I realistically want, of course, is a 6.5' aluminum tree (I have a 4' one that my parents bought up in Vancouver when my sister was 3 or 4). I mean, to the point that I'm tempted to buy one now and just make big eyes until I get my way.

Sadly, Paul wants a tree that was once a living thing.

Sigh.

Cars question. MiracleMan, NoiseDesign and KristinT looked at me like I was mad when I revealed the name for my current car. Surely I can't be the only one who names the car?? Any others out there?? The practice came from my Mom, who had a tendency of buying clunkers, and would coax them into starting in the cold NY winters.

Anyhow, my cars:

• 1982 Volvo 242 DL Named Looney Marooney cuz it was maroon in color, and my mom was crazy to let me get it it at 18. I paid for half, and she wouldn't let me take it to college for the first year, so she drove it instead that winter.
• traded that in while in OH for a 1989 Nissan P/up truck with king cab. It was grey. It had no name, just "truck" Great for hauling gear around to summer stocks. Woot.
• Traded that in when I moved to CA for a 1994 Chevy Astro Ext van. It was Huge. It was grey. It's name was Whale.
• Current vehicle, my fav of all time. 2002 Toyota Prius. Her name is Midori. The car is green in color, and "green" for the enviornment (well, more so than my previous car), and Made in Japan, so I named her Midori, which means Green :-)

All cars were purchased used. The first was from a cousin who had MS, cuz at the time NY state said I needed hand controls, and her old car had them. My aunt & uncle drove it across country for me as a Grad gift from HS. The Prius is the newest car I've had. It only had 38K miles on it, and 2 years old (almost exactly). All others I got around 88K miles or so. Ironically, where my Prius is at now. Hmm, go figure.

MiracleMan, NoiseDesign and KristinT looked at me like I was mad when I revealed the name for my current car. Surely I can't be the only one who names the car?? Any others out there??

I so did not! I told you that I've named every single car I've ever owned!

LIAR! LIAR!

I know all cars are girls but my '91 escort refused to be one so I had to accept that he was a he and named him Bobo. The little rat who lived on the dashboard was named Bobito.

My '87 Cabriolet came from my sister already dubbed Stella.

Also in my past is a big red truck named (how original) Clifford and a white Probe named Gay Deceiver.

Our current car doesn't have a name, but mostly because it's never really manifested a personality.

The Miata was named Tybalt (usually called Tybs). We tried to make a personalized plate for it that said "RATCATCHER" but no matter which letters we dropped it always came out looking like "RAT CATHETER" so we just went with TYBALT.

The Subaru Loyale wagon was Subarashi, because she really was.

Plei, that pink tree is adorable! We had a 1950s aluminum tree in pink and silver when I was little, and although it was pretty I hated it as it bit. I lost a lot of blood to that tree.

I prefer artificial trees now too. I just can't deal with watching a tree die for a month - takes the cheer out of the holiday for me. And artificial tree technology is getting really good. And anyway, our lifestyle isn't conducive to a real tree.

Mal decorating our tree: [link]