Mind The Gap

My car decided to stop starting up for me on Sunday, regardless of how long I left it to run after I jumped it…so I thought…Good lord, what does an alternator for a Volvo cost, and oh my gosh what if it’s one of the car’s 5-6 computers causing the problem? I hope it’s not as much as the headlight assembly ($567 total cost, apparently the glass is hand blown in Austria and the assembly is constructed in Sweden by gnomes) or the computer on the throttle body ($1300 or so, under warranty thank god).

The following morning, Ryan helped me get the car jumped off, and we caravanned to the Volvo dealership to drop her off for a checkup. Half of the technicians were away at school, so the car didn’t get looked at until today, but fortunately she also got fixed today…the downside was that I spent all day yesterday obsessing about what the cause might be, and what the repair cost could swell to.

The cause of her immediate ailment was a battery that gave up the ghost, $146 — she also had a serpentine belt with cracks in it, so I thought best to go ahead and get that fixed before it gives while I’m driving the car, $172. What the hell, while I’m there anyway, recharge and service the A/C, $99, and change the oil, $41.

Almost $500 later, I have my car back, and as much as I would like to, I can’t complain much…the Volvo people were very nice, did the work quickly even though strapped for staff, and the car is at just the right age for all this stuff to start needing maintenance/replacement, she is 6 years old after all.

Fair enough…You won this round Volvo, you got me. I expect you to straighten up and run right for at least another 20,000 miles before you drag me to the dealership to spend half a grand on you for anything other than a luxury item or a filter/fluid change.

I’m not one to hold a grudge, but a warning light about the battery not holding a charge anymore would have been nice — you have a billion sensors, can’t you see when these things are coming? I really thought you were more self aware.

You’re lucky I love you.

Friday night at the Top!
I was out with Suzi Tattuzi and Ryan, and this place was the final stop. Before that we spent some time chowing down and drinking at the Pontiac, then hit up Speakeasy for a drink, Silver Q for some beers, jager and billiards, Durty Nelly’s for a brief spell, and finally the Top.

What Kind of Pirate Am I? Go here and vote! Now! Ok, well read first, then go…

What kind of pirate am I? You decide!
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Now for the regularly scheduled programming:

Ok, so last Wednesday, after a somewhat depressing round of trivia at Hooter’s (we did not win, but at least it was livened up by Hoff and Theresa winning the men’s and ladies’ (respectively) beer chugging contests, they are such a cute couple) we headed over to the Ale House to drown some sorrows and people watch for a bit. After much goading, Ryan and I talked Paul into bringing his fire helmet into the Ale House….here are pictures of us taking turns wearing it.

Paul:

Theresa:

Me:

Ryan:

Today has been a busy day, but I’ve gotten a lot done. I finished sanding, grinding and rewiring some light fixtures (they are the big outdoor insitutional lights that look like giant cylinders, I’m setting them up to be used as wall sconces in the loft). They are all primed up and ready for paint, which I’ll hopefully get to this week. I also did some work on the packaging for the Strawberry Shortcake custom doll I’m working on for Ryan’s friend Katie.

Pictures of the finished coffee table are here.

Some time ago, I was in Paige’s office at work, talking about some project or other, and while I was in there, I doodled a picture on one edge of her white board. I drew a column with a grape vine winding up it. She left the picture up there, and a few other people whose whiteboards I had drawn on also left their pictures up, which was sort of cool. We recently did some reorganizing, and so her office got moved. She left the picture up, and Virginia, who inhabits that office now, has also left the picture up.

Shortly after Paige settled into her new office, she asked me to draw her a new picture to decorate her whiteboard, and she had recently brought in many new dry erase markers in lots of colors (they had been for her children, but the fumes were too much, so they came to the office to be used by adults instead of small children, for safety’s sake). Since Paige is so nice, I tried to spend some time and draw her a really nice picture over the course of a few days during my breaks. Below are a couple of pictures of her drawing. The picture takes up the entire height of the whiteboard on left edge, and is a trellis with a morning glory vine climbing up it.

After it was finished, Jacquie, my boss, asked for one on her whiteboard, and cleared out some space for me to work in, so I’ve started her picture up and have finished a portion of it. As I have time, I’m going to add more plants across the bottom of the whiteboard and up the left edge.

I’m also going to do a new picture for Virginia’s office, to replace the previous picture, which is just a sketch and not of the same level of detail I’m putting into these things lately. She has asked for some frogs, I’m excited to draw some of the more interesting tropical (and often poisonous) frogs. These whiteboard drawings are a lot of fun to do, and it’s nice to think up some design that would suit the person who has asked for it, and then seeing if my estimation of their likings was accurate or not. This weekend I bought lots of dry erase markers and a box to carry them in, so that I can do pictures anywhere with a whiteboard, which I think will be neat.

I also finished the coffee table I had been working on, so hopefully I’ll have some pictures of that up soon. This weekend Ryan and I found some neat canister shaped lights at a salvage yard, so I’ll also be rewiring and restoring those, which promises to be a fun project.

Update: When I initially drew the picture with the red flowers, I had found the source picture with an image search.  Today I stumbled across where the original picture actually came from (yeay).  It came from here: http://xkcd.com/34/