Month: October 2005

Hey, I am very excited! We went to the Boston Museum of Science Halloween Party/Star Wars Exhibit preview and our family won second prize in the costume contest. Well, 2nd prize in the group category. We were, as I may have mentioned, Harry Potter’d up. Junior was KILLER as Harry, I was Hermoine after a growth spurt, and Mr. Dump was a Dementor. He was freaky scary looking with the mask. I believe the pictures they took of us will end up on the Museum’s web site.

I am thrilled we decided to dress “the same” this year, because that’s the only way we won. Not that Junior wasn’t a kick-butt Harry – I think he probably could have won a solo prize.

Here’s Junior standing with a few of his close friends. Some of the museum employee [Star Wars] costumes were KILLER. I assume the museum paid for them for the gala they had last night with George Lucas. That was $750 per person. We did not attend that party. Then again, my BIL probably would have given Mr. Lucas $750 worth of opinion on how he screwed up the franchise. So that would have been a good investment.

I am just full of despair. One of the big things I live for is the fall. I love everything about it…bringing out the sweaters, the smells, the apples, the pumpkins, mentally getting cozy. But the foliage…the foliage is just what makes New England a place I could never leave.

My favorite trees are the sugar maples because they turn fluorescent orange and red. I mean on FIRE. It’s an amazing sight.

Except this year.

Basically, the trees are going straight to brown. They stayed green about 2 weeks longer than usual, and then…nothing. Junior, Mr. Dump and I had to go to a thing up in New Hampshire this morning/early afternoon, and I was psyched to be able to just enjoy the view (as opposed to when I’m commuting, and I tend to keep my eyes on the road). But there was no view. There were yellow leaves, but they weren’t even that lovely bright yellow; they were more a mustard color.

I have the guy from San Francisco sitting next to me at work, and I have to explain to him that like the 9 straight days of rain he experienced his first 9 days here (“No, it’s not like Seattle here”) that the trees are usually so bright and colorful you need protective eyewear. He’s really going to think everything he’s heard about New England over the years was BS. *sigh*

My car, a 1992 Maxima with 105k miles on it (just a baby!) is acting up. And the local Nissan garage had it for 2 days, and because it didn’t act up when they had it on a test drive, they said it drove perfectly, and there were no issues that showed up on their computer. For all of this, and me not having a car for 2 days, they charged me $85. Now I understand that for someone to take the time to drive the car around waiting for it to act up is time that person could be fixing another car. But if you charge me $85, you’d better find something, y’know?

I even gave them a service bulletin from 1993 that seems to be describing the problem exactly. But they didn’t want to do the suggested repairs because they couldn’t confirm that anything was wrong with the car. There is something wrong with the car, and I am giving you permission to try this repair, knowing that it might not fix the problem but they still wouldn’t do it. So I’m out 85 bucks, didn’t have a car for 2 days, and the car was acting worse than ever this morning (you little poop, you knew it wasn’t the mechanic driving you!) and now I have to find someone else to fix it for me.

Thanks, Nissan dealership!

Okay, can someone here tell me how to speak the following in dog language so my pupster will understand me?

Please stop crapping on the floor. It’s not nice. The living room is not your personal toilet. And while we’re at it, who taught you to jump over the wall of your pen? You’re not supposed to be jumping while the stitches heal. You could get a hernia. We put you in the pen for your own good. Stop escaping in the middle of the night and crapping on the floor. Thank you.

Um, so guess what we’ve been up to?

Oh, and the link to my nano blog is the same as it was before, even though I haven’t written in it for 2 years – you can enjoy walking through the archives while you wait for Nano 2005 to begin. Also, if you are a regular here at the dump (there will be a quiz if you respond to this and I don’t know who you are) and would like write access to the nano blog so you can post too – we can make it a group blog! Just let me know in the comments, and I’ll contact you offline.

Ya, I’m going to put myself through this yet again.