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.

Yeah, that Tim could turn a phrase.

OK, I have ordered a manual mower that says it can adjust the cut height up to 4", so it should be able to handle grass that's a bit taller than that, right? I am kind of excited to try it out.

Meanwhile, I should be doing all the laundry. So far I have done none of the laundry.

I should have gotten the used adjustable height reel mower at the yard sale yesterday -- $25! Ah well.

Here's the review I just wrote of the motel I stayed in during the Orlando leg of my vacation:

Step back in time...

...to the 70s, when this motel was built and furnished. Do not let the bright, cheery rooms in the advertising fool you - those are the rooms in the part of the complex near the entrance and lobby that have been renovated.

I stayed in one of the older, more distant areas of the complex, where the central amenity was a massive garbage dumpster rather than the pools shown in the promotional photos, the door to the room showed evidence of past (thankfully unsuccessful, I guess?) break-in attempts, the living room coffee table was coated in sticky grunge that I hope and pray came from spilled food, the bedroom ottoman had a burn from an iron in the upholstery, and the bathroom had one half-functional flourescent bulb for the full walked-into-a-Saw-movie experience. Internet access was not free, and I ended up paying roughly $5/day for the privilege of having intermittent dialup-speed wireless access that cut out on me several times a minute. In any other location, where I might have intended to spend time in my room doing things other than sleeping and showering, all the above would have been good cause to demand a refund and book a room elsewhere.

Now for the much shorter good points section: complimentary shuttle service to the theme parks, comfortable beds that were thankfully several decades more recent than everything else in the room, a spacious and clean if dated kitchen, no evidence of the swarms of vermin that the outside of the building led me to expect and dread, and a very friendly and helpful staff.

The latter did everything in their power to make my stay a pleasant one, and can't help it that they're not the team of contractors/construction workers who would be needed to make this a desirable place to stay. Ownership really needs to get on the ball and bring this motel into the 21st century so it's worthy of the staff that operates it.