I am going to make blueberry pie this evening. Finally.

I ate all my pudding. Okay, so it was more like a milkshake. I used this new stuff "Oat Dream" made by the same people who make Rice Dream, which unfortunately doesn't do a good job jelling up the pudding mix, but hey, it's the closest thing to a vanilla milkshake I've had in the past 15 years or so.

You all inspired me to post some photos.

My highly entertaining great niece.

wee me!

Timelies all!

Back from the Getaway. It was fun. Didn't stay up very late either night, but am still tired. Ugh.

I'm so glad to be home this evening. DH & the kids drove down to Chicago to pick me up.

I'm just hoping the estimates on fixing the truck aren't too bad. Replacing a clutch on a 2001 chevy s-10 can't run any higher than $1K or so, right?

Replacing a clutch on a 2001 chevy s-10 can't run any higher than $1K or so, right?

Dunno.

Somewhere there is a website that lets you enter the make, model and year of your vehicle, select what needs to be repaired and it will give you the price range for the repairs for the area you live in. I don't remember the URL, but I think I posted it to Natter a few months (or half a year) back....

eta: Ah, here it is: [link]

Replacing a clutch on a 2001 chevy s-10 can't run any higher than $1K or so, right?

Parts and labor shouldn't run any more than $500. I asked Hub what he thought and he was sure the parts would only run $150-$200 and the job should be able to be done in 8 hours.

The guy sounded honest. He said he couldn't give me an estimate until he saw what needed to be replaced but gave me a realy rough estimate ranging from $400-$1100, depending on parts. The high end included the hydrolics or something.

I got to look around his shop when we dropped it off. He didn't sound like he wanted to screw me over and his shop was full of other vehicles, decent looking vehicles. It wasn't in too ratty of a neighborhood, just blue collar. It wasn't the AAA shop that was recommended, but that one was pretty far from my breakdown and I would have been a big tow bill. The tow driver knew the shop owner and the towing place was nearby.

If I don't feel comfortable with the estimate, we'll get a trailer and run down and bring the truck up here and have it fixed.

Interesting visit with Matilda at my dad's place today. Next week we will be dropping by for a short visit, then driving him to the airport, as he's hopping to Denver for a brief business meeting.

Which doesn't sound that interesting, except...the meeting is a "succession planning" meeting between my dad, some other managers and owners in the company of which he owns two franchises, and some tax people. They're meeting because he'd been planning to sell the business and retire in the next couple of years, except now their collective belief as businesspeople is that he needs to make a new plan because it seems increasingly likely that Obama will be the next President and the subsequent increase in capital gains taxes will make outright sale of the business impractical for my dad.

He didn't indicate to me that he felt one way or the other about it (he's still one of those rare mythic undecided voters, with savage disdain for the current incarnation of the Republican party but not yet convinced of Obama's foreign policy chops), just that it was the likely outcome and therefore a change in retirement plan was necessary.

Interesting.

There's an enormous banner here in Cincy on the side of one of the buildings downtown, of Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo. The way the picture is taken, with his sandy long-hair sticking out from under his hat, and the way the hat is shading part of his face, and his little almost-smile, that reminds me so much of Emmett, both physically and in terms of attitude, that it spooks me every time I drive by it.

Arroyoesque Emmett

1. Jesus, he looks just like you in that picture.

2. I gotta take a picture of the giant banner while it's still up. I googled it, and checked Flickr, but no love.