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.)

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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.

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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?"

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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]

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

Mmm, I didn't drink that much. Maybe I just couldn't hear that across the table at loud restaurant. I do recall lots of crazy looks at me. Maybe all that streaking talk has corrupted the memory. Yikes!

So what's your Prius name?

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Cars and artificial trees, it's every awkward conversation I had with my parents tonight, all in one.

Actually the tree thing was mostly mocking. They have more trees this year than they have cars. And they've got Too Many Cars as well.

Also, the new glaze, I think it's Clairol, works to brighten up color that's gone dull.

I tried it and wasn't thrilled because it made my hair all greasy, flat and listless. But my hair trends to that anyway. The color part was nice. Turns out it's a known bug.

Have you looked under the couch? They probably smelled me on the lighter and didn't want me hissing at them anymore. (FYI everyone other than Cass, I only made hissing noises if they were Being Bad. Honest. What? It works!)

I have but I suspect Puppycat has found a new place to bat stuff under.

And Nicole is a much better cat mom than I am. Honest.

(Okay, I worked in the electric utility industry for 15 years. I'm a little touchy on subject.)

I only worked in it a couple of years but man, when the world went kerfluey, they stepped up. Also when most of So Cal was burning in wildfires.

Her name is Midori. The car is green in color

Tidewater Pearl?

I was happily asleep and then I woked up. Sucks. Not happily asleep now. Crankily awake. I preferred the asleep thing.

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