August 2008

Yes I’m talking about the Prius again

5 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Money Talks /

Ya know if Toyota was social media friendly, they’d be paying me for this shit but they aren’t so I’m doing this just because it’s fun and I really do love my Prius. (If Toyota ever wakes up to social media and offers me money, I’ll let ya know – transparency and all that ya know.)

Anyway, I got y’all all excited with my 62.9 mpg photo last week and that was sort of unfair… it was the highest I’d ever seen my mileage and I knew it would go down – and it did, so let me tell you about that.

Right after I filled up, TW went to the doctor which is really close to our house and the next day we went to Starbucks which is also really close to our house. Then on Saturday we picked up Joy in Skokie which is not close to our house. When Joy got in the car, she can attest to the fact that the MPG had dropped significantly from where it was on Wednesday night – it was at 46.7 or 47.2 or something like that. Big drop right?

If you read my blog regularly, you know that we went to Evanston for brunch and then we drove around all over the place on Sunday. And then Monday was coffee day. Tuesday was a trip to the post office and to take the little kids back to their dad’s house. Wednesday was coffee day too… and today, I made my weekly trip to Great Lakes Naval Base for cheap gas & groceries…. and when I pulled into the gas station, this was what was on the display. Not 62.9… just my average 50ish MPG.

prius2.jpg




























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Hood

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Queer, Women /

When I started reading Hood I felt like I’d read it before but quickly realized that all of Emma Donoghue’s books feel that way to me. Her characters seem familiar, like I’ve read more of their stories in some other book. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or if it means she’s recycling characters and I should be annoyed.

I lean toward not being annoyed but that might be due to my willingness to give authors who write good lesbian fiction a break – there are so few good lesbian fiction writers, Donoghue is one of them.

Seems sort of kharmic or something that I finished Hood on the day Del Martin died, doesn’t it?

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We don’t get lost anymore

3 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day /

I think that’s going to be my response to people who are still asking me how I like living in “Chicago” or how the move is going. Because really, that’s a high point in any move to a new place. When you don’t really get lost or you can pretty much manage a detour without thinking you’re never going to find your way to where you’re going – or home again – you’re settled.

On Saturday when TW and I picked up Joy and headed for Le Peep to have brunch with Lara I was worried about the construction. I knew Emerson was closed and parts of Ridge and sure enough, there were detour signs so I thought I might not be able to make it all of the way up Church. I asked Joy (lifetime resident of the area) if we could go x, y to z and she said yes! We didn’t need to do x, y, z but I was glad I knew what to do if we had to. (Brunch was terrific and I am no longer a gooey bun virgin. Next brunch, I hope more Chicagoland bloggers can attend.)

Today, we went to our beloved Skokie farmer’s market (Cheese Curds!) and then found our way to the Half Price Books in Edgewater Park Niles. (edited to add: WTF is that Leaning Tower of Pisa YMCA??? What’s the story? Suzanne, do you know??) From there we went to the Northbrook Apple store where the Apple website SAID they would have iPhones. They did not.

We hit The Container Store because I’ve never been to one and I was heading down Skokie toward Old Orchard. That was interesting. Overwhelming also. (To sales people required to ask for phone number when making a sale, don’t be so surprised when someone provides you with a Florida area code. In the land of cell phones, we don’t always have to change our phone number to a local – no roaming plans are more common than not. Sheesh.)

From there, I kept going down Skokie and found myself somewhere that I’d never been. I really didn’t have a clue – ok I had a small clue and sure enough, I ended up on East Lake with only a tiny doubt that I wasn’t where I thought I was. I wasn’t lost, just a little tiny bit unsure.

And, we can mostly navigate the Old Orchard Mall now. That’s a huge accomplishment. That thing is a madhouse and it’s confusing as hell. Or maybe we just avoid malls and no longer inherently understand them? Whatever. Apple Store near Macy’s, next to the very bright Pink Vicky Secret and in the wing where the rabid children play in the funky dragon looking park. Though now that I have Chris’s iPhone in hand, I hope to not visit the Apple Store again until Christmas. Damn Apple for forcing you to go into a store for the 3g. I much preferred being able to order my original iPhone online and activate it in the comfort of my own damn home. Oh well, at least I know my way around two malls.

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The Magic Toyshop

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Women, Young Adult /

There I was, happily enjoying The Magic Toyshop when suddenly, I wasn’t. That suddenly part happened in the last three pages of the damn book. I really hate that. I think I’d rather read a bad book all the way through than read a good book only to have it disappoint me in the end.

I just don’t think that ending was necessary. I didn’t need a happy ending, but I did need SOME kind of ending. Wait, there isn’t a sequel right? Surely not… I’ve read The Bloody Chamber and it is not related to this. Is there something else I’m missing? Nah. The author just wanted to annoy me at the end. Gee thanks. By looking at the Amazon reviews, I see that I am not alone. Someone should re-write the ending, 50 pages should do it. Get busy with that, and let me know when you’ve finished. Thanks!

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Murder Most Crafty

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, short stories /

Darn it. I enjoyed the Murder Most Crafty short stories quite a bit but I’m disappointed because I’m dumb.

When I put the book on my From the Stacks challenge list, for some reason I thought it was one of the Maggody Murder Mysteries. Boo! TW has been enjoying that series for ages and I’ve never read one – I was looking forward to FINALLY getting a crack at one of them. Oh well, another time maybe.

Anyway, about these short stories, most of them were pretty good. Some were dumb. Some were good but felt rushed but that’s what happens with some short stories, isn’t it? I had some weird dream about candles last night after finishing the book – probably related to the one about wax being poured down the chick’s nose and throat. Yuk, not a good way to die, ya know?

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The House on the Rock

9 Comments / Family Funk, Friends & Family, Holidays, Kid Talk, Travel Log /

Since we didn’t have an opportunity to take the kids away for a summer vacation prior to the move north, we thought we’d use Liz’s 10th birthday as an excuse for a mini vacation. The problem we had was – where should we go that wouldn’t cost a fortune, we are after all still recovering from the move.

We considered one of those nifty chain hotels that has the indoor water park. We considered one of those funky towns around here that are trying to turn themselves into tourist destinations by having tons of mini golf and mini water parks. We thought about a lot of things but when TW said “How about House on the Rock?” and I said “Huh? A house? On a rock? Fine, whatever you want” I thought maybe we should just stay home. What kid wants to go to a house on a rock for her 10th birthday and what teenagers would want to accompany her on such a trip. Hah. I changed my mind as TW started explaining it and the minute I loaded the House on the Rock webpage I knew it was perfect. I booked the hotel immediately. Creepy, interesting, relatively close (though I did have second thoughts when I saw it would take 3 1/2 hours to get there) and inexpensive (less than $300 for a 2 room hotel room that sleeps up to 8 and full tour packages for 5.)

On the Saturday morning of Liz’s birthday weekend, we loaded everyone into the car and started to drive toward breakfast. None of the kids have even mentioned breakfast and none had mentioned a stop at Starbucks either. So, as we were approaching the last turn toward our breakfast destination… “Anyone want breakfast?” All three replied that they did. TW asked Liz what she would like to have for a birthday breakfast and she said “Pancakes or waffles” Huh. Weird. So I asked “If you could have ANY breakfast in the WORLD for your birthday, what would it be?”

KRISPY KREME

Hah, that’s more like it. I told her to look to the left and there it was… Krispy Kreme, her favorite. I think we could have eaten our doughnuts and turned around and gone home and she’d have been happy. But we didn’t. We carried on down the freeway until we reached the first rest area in Wisconsin. We used the facilities and then wandered around their travel brochure area where Prince J and I discovered the PERFECT tourist attraction for us… The Mustard Museum where the King of Condiments lives. Hahaha. Since I know the Prince would rather stay home for his birthday than drive 3 1/2 hours, even for condiments, I decided we should take a bit of a detour and head to the Mustard Museum before House on the Rock. TW indicated it was pretty much on the way so we were set.

Almost to Madison, we started thinking about lunch and TW said “Ella’s!” This is the restaurant TW talks about all of the time. It’s the restaurant she wants to recreate someday, but do better. So, we took another detour and headed into Madison for lunch.

Ella’s was totally packed but it was exactly what TW always said it was. Full of toy gadgets and fun things and we all enjoyed the food (and some of us enjoyed the desserts) and the girls enjoyed the carousel.

Then, it was condiment time! A mustard vending machine! All the mustard tasting a boy could ever want! Crazy mustard puns. And lots and lots of old fashioned mustard jars. They even gave us a little mustard song booklet when we left.

Onto House of the Rock hotel, boy what a long drive. The last “six miles” were hell. Pure hell. The kids were ready to get out which means they were touching each other and yelling and screeching and just being generally idiotic and ridiculous. Once we released them from captivity and went in, they were fine. Thank goodness.

The hotel room, much to my surprise, was very large and very clean. 3 queen beds and a pull out couch. Microwave, fridge, very large bathroom. Only two problems – only 5 channels on the TV and no wi-fi in the room. The kids pool with the submarine – HUGE hit.

Finding dinner wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be – we ended up at Culvers and I got Culverized with a butter burger (never heard of it and don’t even want to think about how to “journal it”.) Fried cheese curds! Custard for the kids. Everyone was happy.

Next day – House on the Rock. I’m not even going to attempt to describe it. It’s not possible. It’s like Ripley’s Believe it or Not but better. The infinity room – the dude must have had some great drugs to come up with that. I didn’t really stop to think about what I was walking on (air) until TW mentioned the swaying and then RJ started to bounce and then… OMG amazing and frightening all at the same time. The Prince didn’t even get halfway and started backing up, which is good since I’ve seen him barf in tourist attractions before – it ain’t pretty.

We toured the whole place, we ate more fried cheese curd, we had to tear RJ away from the carousel. We had a super super time – obviously since as we were leaving the Prince said “We did a LOT of walking for fun and exercise and it REALLY was FUN.”

On the way home, we took another detour to Peck’s Farm Market, which we had passed on the way to House on the Rock. It’s a farmer’s stand with a petting zoo. Llamas! Goats! Pigs! and Carriage rides!

It was a fun weekend and a good birthday for the little one. (more photos here)

Preparing to enter the house on the rock

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A day in the life of the Prius

8 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Money Talks /

OK so I’m not going to blog about a whole day in the life of my Prius because that would be sort of boring. I don’t drive that much so mostly it just sits out in the driveway looking pretty. This will be the story of one typical trip in the Prius, a trip I make once a week at almost the same time every week (though the day varies a bit, depending on what we need or what our schedule is.)

I head to the Great Lakes Naval Base every week, it’s a 17.5 mile drive through the suburbs of Chicago somewhere around 4:30pm. The highest speed limit posted is 45, the lowest 30 (except on the base of course where it’s 25 or less.) The traffic is usually relatively light, for the suburbs of Chicago at that time of day. Relatively light means if I hit some of the traffic lights properly, I can maintain the speed limit for most of the trip. It’s rare that I can exceed the speed limit, there’s just too much traffic and too many traffic lights for that, except in a few spots past Deerfield and Lake Forest.

When I get to the Naval base, I hit the NEX gas station and fill up with the cheap gas (thank you NEX) which means I put between 2 and 4 gallons in the tank – usually 2 gallons. I reset the mileage tracker, pull out of the gas station and drive just under a mile to the NEX/commissary. An hour later, I head for home. And this is where the fun starts.

When I first fill up the tank and reset the mileage, it starts really low – somewhere around 30-32mpg. When I pull out of the NEX to come home, I’ll probably hit 34-37mpg pretty quickly and from there… I just watch the gas mileage improve. It’s fascinating to watch it move from 34 to 40 to 44 to 47 to 50 mpg!!! and beyond. When it goes beyond 50mpg it feels like we should throw a party or something but I don’t want to get to confident that it’s going to stay there, I’m always sure it’s going to drop again quickly. But when it doesn’t and it’s at 52mpg and staying there – wow.

When I pulled into my driveway after the 17.5 mile drive home…

prius.jpg

I love this car.

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First Among Sequels

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Fiction, From the Stacks Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

Who knew it would take me so long to get around to reading Thursday Next: First Among Sequels? And who knew it would take me so long to finish, once I started.

I enjoyed it considerably more than the last one, but not as much as the first one and I can only barely remember the second one. Or maybe I’ve gotten them all confused, I think that probably happens – all of that time travel or time travel that wasn’t invented, all of those characters. It’s a bit muddled. Probably mindworms. Fun, but muddled.

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Sorry, can’t help it

2 Comments / Daily Dose /

I love ‘Til You’re Dead but this might be the very best performance of the song. She gets lost, playing around, in the middle and then… just watch it. Awesome. Melissa Ferrick is awesome. You can see her play a million times and at each show, she’ll do something new with an old song, she’ll put this kind of energy into an old song and she’ll hook you all over again.

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