Planning for a trip to Europe in late July (yay!) and called the credit card company to find out what their foreign transaction fee is and what index they use for calculating exchange rates. The second question has utterly befuddled the CSR.

I've been on hold for a while.

Yeah, mowing in the morning is what I am after. You are freaking me out with that mowing barefoot idea, that's crazy talk! Though I was also figuring that being able to have the dog in the yard with me while I mow would be a nice bonus.

I have a pretty small yard but it does grow fast (stupid high water table, grass is supposed to die back in California if you don't water it all summer!), so it sometimes gets tall and often looks scraggly, but I'm thinking I would mow more often if I could do it when it's cool and I have time, so eventually it would look better, on average.

What happens if you try to mow when the grass is too tall?

Ooh, fun, Dana! The vacation, not being on hold.

If you try to mow the grass when it is too tall the reel mower just bends it over but doesn't cut it

At commencement at ucsb. A young woman had a gutted book on her mortarboard that when opened said Thanks Mom and Dad. Very charming. Small ceremony but nice.

Thanks, Rick, that's very helpful.

hey lisah, want a cat???

Not yet! Hope you find his people soon.

We tried to go re-test drive the Prius today and all the Toyota dealers were closed. That makes no sense. Sunday seems like prime car shopping time!

I can't figure out what to make for dinner and suddenly i am exhausted. Big neighborhood festival this weekend that we try to avoid but had legit neighborhood shop errands to run. I did get some new sandals on super festival-special sale so that was worth it. And got a dark and stormy at my friend's shop. But am so very tired now and have plenty more Sunday tasks to do including making a car spreadsheet so we can make a decision before Bob leaves town tomorrow. And I have to make something for dinner.

Car dealerships are closed by law on Sunday in Wisconsin and Illinois - probably the same in MD.

Car dealerships are closed by law on Sunday in Wisconsin and Illinois - probably the same in MD.

There was at least one open but it was too far to travel to test drive a car we've already driven. It could be a county by county thing, though, like the liquor laws here. That's nuts, though! How is car buying different from any other retail?

ETA yup, car sales only allowed in 3 MD counties on Sundays. CRAXY!

Teavana's "sorry you had to see that" gift arrived. A large Teavana tin containing 2oz each of Youthberry White and Maharajah Chai Oolong.

Odds of them randomly sending me two samples of teas I've bought from them in the past? But they are both currently their most-promoted blends of their categories, but still--it did feel all creepy, since I've only bought those flavours in person, and I used a different email address from my e-commerce anyway.

IS PRISM IN MY TEAPOT???

You know, that Minear guy wasn't half bad, back in the day when he hung out with us. I use two of his expressions still when evaluation TV shows: "Show not called Multi Ethnic Street Kids" (while watching Spartacus "Show not called Crixus" guided my hypothesising about future plotlines) and "More gay than some gay porn" is just a general refrain in the face of much television.