Whee doggie!

Go meet Wally! (towards the bottom of the page). He's our foster dog that was rescued in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He's been through a lot since September and is now ready to find a permanent home.

Snug as a Bug in a Rug

Turned the Saturn Ion in on Friday and picked up my mini. It looks good and feels great to drive it again. I did manage to squeeze the Ion into the garage Thursday night - I did not want to clean snow off of it at 6 in the morning! It barely fit. Its nice to have the mini. Even used my seat heaters today! Its now parked in its garage - snug as a bug in a rug.

SS Smokestack sunk and Gnome Kidnapper on the loose!

The SS Smokestack was returned to the dock yesterday and exchanged for a Saturn Ion, which doesn't stink. So far I kind of like the Saturn. It at least drives more like a car than a boat. It doesn't have any of the features that my mini has, but I guess I can live with it for a week. One thing that really sucks, I can't get into the damn garage. I think this car would fit, but I don't have a garage door opener. We only have one garage door opener for each garage door and my husband has them both. The mini has programmable frequency buttons, so I never needed an opener.

Now that I'm driving the rental and can't get in the garage, I'm using the front door. I discovered something quite upsetting yesterday. My garden gnome was kidnapped! I'm so so so unhappy about it. Not to mention pissed off. And a little scared by it. There's no telling how long its been gone, but my husband thinks its been at least 2 weeks. The garden gnome was a gift to us when we moved into our house last year. He's always sat on one of the rocks in the garden area by the front door. He would occasionally hop from rock to rock, but he never strayed out of the front garden. I can't believe someone would take off with him! They took him, but left the solar turtle light. Whomever took him must have known he was there. That means someone came up into my yard and picked him up. I live on a fucking cul-de-sac people, no one should be walking by my house, let alone in my front yard. I'm a little freaked. I'm debating on reporting it to the neighborhood watch association. I doubt they could do anything, but at least they could put out an alert to other homeowners that there is a garden gnome snatcher on the loose.

At least we have a big scary dog to deter hamburglers, which they'd be out of luck since we have no ham. People avoid even walking on the sidewalk in front of our house if the dog is outside. We let him out unleased into the front yard and it tends to freak out people who don't know him. He knows his boundaries and has never crossed them (unless chasing my husband on his bike). Auggie's boundaries consist of our front yard and both of our neighbor's front yards. He likes both of these neighbors (although one of them recently moved) and they like him so they call to him when they see him out. Auggie used to go whine at their front door of the neighbor who moved so they'd let their dog come out or let him come in. It worked most of the time. After we watched their dog for a week over the summer, he was confused as to where he actually lived. So whoever moves in is going to be in for a big surprise if I can't break Auggie of whining at that door.

If anyone sees my gnome's kidnappers, tell them we want our gnome back!

SS Smokestack

Things I hate about the SS Smokestack (my name for the Dodge Stratus):

1. It drives like a friggin boat! Hence, the name - SS Smokestack.
2. It reeks of cigarette smoke. Again, the name SS Smokestack.
3. No outside temperature indicator.
4. More surface area to clean snow off of.
5. Too big to fit in the garage causing me to have to clean snow off of it.
and the big one that really ticks me off since I could really use this right now
6. No heated seats. Yes, I'm spoiled by my heated seats. I love them. And this damn thing doesn't have them.

The one thing that isn't so bad about the SS Smokestack - its a generic looking car so if I cut someone off in traffic that person isn't likely to remember the car so he can then his car into mine the next time he sees it. It COULD happen.

mini seperation from the mini

I got to the car repair shop at 7:30 because the Enterprise guy said they set up shop in one of the repair shop's extra offices and would be there at 7:30. Nope, nope, nope, nothing opens until 8. So I'm sitting my happy ass in the cold waiting for something to open. The repair shop opened their office early so I handed my sweet mini over to them for the week. I went back across the street to wait for the Enterprise guy to show up. And when he did I realized I left my license at home so he couldn't rent me a car. He wouldn't even do the paper work. The whole freaking reason I got there so damn early was to get my pick of the cars they brought with them. So, I woke up my sweet husband to bring me my license (he had it for a Christmas party we went to on Friday so I didn't have to carry a purse). I gave him directions and told him the building was on the right side of the street when in fact its on the left. He's learned that I confuse right and left, so he should have known, right? :) And then I snapped at him when he pointed out that I told him the wrong side. Poor man, sweet enough to bring me my license and I snap at him. Need to call him in a minute to apologize. So, got my license in hand and I get paper work done and they don't have any full-size cars left (which is what insurance will pay for). He offered me a free upgrade to an SUV, but come on people, I drive a mini for a reason. I like my small car, I don't like SUVs. I had to wait another 10 minutes for them to bring over more cars. So I got a Dodge Stratus, not much better than an SUV. Its a bit of a boat, but it accelerates nicely.

I was going to assume that anyone reading this would know why my car is in the shop, but just in case anyone other than my, what, 5 friends reads this they might want to know. If not, then why are you even reading this?

Anyway. I was rearened a couple of weeks ago by a scatter-brained person. I was sitting in traffic, we weren't moving and when we were it was less than 10 miles an hour. And somehow, this woman managed not to see a purple mini in front of her! Luckily, no one was hurt and no bad damage done to my car, at least it doesn't look like its bad. The shop folks will have a better idea once they get the bumper off. So until further notice, watch out for the silver dodge stratus with an "e" sticker on it.