My 2000 Toyota Echo has lasted thus far without not much more than regular maintenance (it did need a new flange in the mid-pipe part of the exhaust system, but on a 12-year-old [at the time] car, that's not bad). Although the "regular maintenance" can have a hefty price tag (radiator flush and fill, transmission service, stupid brakes).

But I still love it and it still runs great, and averages somewhere in the 30-33 mpg range.

HOLY CRAP, I entered that living room at the speed of light, to find, thank all that's merciful, that she was looking at a box of small-to-medium overnight diapers.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

The two worst types of drivers I encounter are Range Rover Drivers and Prius Drivers. My friends who drive Priuses claim that the reason they always cut people off is because there are horrific blindspots.

We have a a friend who has a diesel passat and she can drive from LA to Mammoth and back on a single tank.

That is good to know!

One good thing about the Costco program--it moves fast--I already got a call back from the VW people, so I may go see them tomorrow.

Right now though, I am going to go put a cup of beer in the back yard, so I can test the theory that slugs are what is eating the leaves of my lime tree.

I've been spraying soapy water on aphids and mealy bugs, and seeing their still (dead!) bodies is oh so satisfying!

Had a great volunteer turnout and got more planting done than I'd planned for. Of course, it took almosst as long as the volunteer session to clean up all the tools used and tidy up all the work areas. In the pouring rain.

I planted half the lobelia out front in a spot that just struck me as blank. It's technically an annual, but I've had them come back in pots, so we'll see.

I just love how when I dig in my dirt, I find bazillions of earthworms. It's not the fanciest dirt ever, sorta grey with a higher sand component (which is a good thing b/c we want the water to sink to below basement floor level faster rather than trying to come through the walls) but good god, the worms are happy. I rarely found worms in the g.d. clay.

Apparently our earthworms are not native, and that all earthworms native to at least the eastern seaboard were made extinct by the glaciers 70,000 years ago. And that they do not in fact improve our soil, but eat up the fallen vegetation on the soil surface at a rate that is comparable to feeding trees Red Bull. And that they actually cause soil compaction and not soil improvement.

I remember two years ago doing a project in the woods at work and the earthworm activity (probably induced by our constant walking back and forth over the area) was so extreme that it looked like the ground itself was moving.

Thanks to the generosity of neighbors and the barter system, our container garden is gorgeous!

H has done a lot of work for the neighbor across the street: repairs, plumbing, carpentry. He was up on her shed roof not long ago, removing the house-eating moss. She's a landscape gardener, so when she saw us arranging pots in the planting strip along the front of the house, asked if we'd like her to do the planting for us. She bought most of the plants (a fraction of what she'd have paid a handyman). She's moving this summer, and won't take all the plants from her garden. Rather than leave them to an uncertain fate, they got tucked into our pots. We asked the grown children of our neighbor who died if we could have a couple of her pots, to remind us of her. "Take all you want." So we wound up with seven of her oversized pots.

I'm thrilled. And apparently the rest of the neighborhood thought the house looked horrific before, as they've all stopped to say how much better it looks now.

Great. They sure were doing a shitty job of eating the fallen vegetation before.

That's gorgeous, Bev. I love that kind of skill sharing.