I like how Mazdas handle, but I'm not a huge fan of their interiors.

I looked at a Mazda 3 to replace my 19 year old Saab, but after 30 years of European restraint I couldn't get past the shiny zoom-zoom interior.

So new brakes and and new muffler for the Saab, in the hopes that it will last until the next generation VW Golf arrives in the US in a couple of years.

Thanks for the Ford C Max recommendation, ND. We'll try that one! & we were definitely going to drive an Impreza.

Growing up in MN, school started the day after Labor Day and ended around Jun 9. Here in CO, it ends the last day before Memorial Day and starts mid-August

So, I have this calendar that is pictures of surprising animal friends, and this month's is this picture: [link] Doesn't the dog look exactly like Benedict Cumberbatch??

why yes, yes it does.

Doesn't the dog look exactly like Benedict Cumberbatch??

It's a shame it's not with a hedgehog instead of an owl.

Overheard a sad conversation in the pharmacy. Two girls were out with someone who wasn't their primary caretaker--sounded like grandma, maybe. Upon hearing she could get *two* things, one of the girls (maybe 7?) rushed and grabbed a ball, about volleyball sized.

"No, not that!"
"You said two things! This is my second thing!"
"Isn't that Batman?"
"Yes..."
"I thought you liked princesses? What happened to princesses?"
"Nothing. But I want this too."
"No."

She did also later urge them to be skinny. The older one couldn't have been 13 yet.

My ex-team is slacking SO hard with boss and manager out of the office. They disappear for hours at a time during the day, come in late, leave early, and spend the rest of the time on the phone in Hindi while they surf ESPN.com, etc.

"I thought you liked princesses? What happened to princesses?"

Uuuugggghhhhhh.

"I thought you liked princesses? What happened to princesses?"

"Turns out, Gramma, that Batman KICKS ALL THE PRINCESSES' ASSES!"

Whatever. Princess Leia carries a blaster.

She did also later urge them to be skinny. The older one couldn't have been 13 yet.

The forces start early. My twins are in the three-year-old classroom at the university daycare. When I dropped them off this morning the teachers had a stack of cardboard folded "bricks" out. My boys and two girls ran over and started building a brick road to walk on. When the teacher saw them she ran over and said "Children, you can't walk on those blocks, they are made of cardboard and you are too heavy. You will squash them!"

One of my sons turned to me, beaming, and said "Daddy I getting heavy!" and his brother said "No!, me heavy, me very heavy!" and he took a muscle-man stance to illustrate.

Meanwhile, the two girls were looking at the teacher with tears in their eyes. One of them said "I not heavy, I NOT heavy, I NOT HEAVY!"

Where do these little information processors get this at age three?