Meteors, rite?

The man friend and I are heading out to the desert tomorrow.
The desert in August?
Yep. We are hoping to get away from the city lights and get a good look at the Perseid meteor shower. It is supposed to be at its peak late tomorrow night/early Monday morning.
Since I am from the desert, I figured I would take mf out there to the land of my people. Of course all my people live in the South Bay now, but whatev.
There are a few little inns and motels and hotels out there in that area, but I settled on the Harmony Motel. I used to go by this every day on my way to junior high and high school.
The claim to fame they boast of most is that U2 stayed there while working on "The Joshua Tree."
It looks like they have done a fair amount of work on the place since my high school days, and I am really looking forward to staying at a funky little place instead of one of the budget chain places out there.
I plan on taking a lot of pictures. I haven't used my digital camera for long exposure times, so that might be interesting. And I need to dig up and dust off my 35mm slr for the occasion.
Alas, poor mf will have to suffer through the tour of my childhood haunts.
Oh wait, it is the middle of the freaking nowhere desert. That tour will take all of about 30 minutes.

That will be $406.75... plus parts and labor

Well, I got my car fixed.
Apparently one of the four engine coils had gone bad.
Whatever the hell that means.
So the guy tells me that when one goes bad, the others usually follow suit in short order. He suggested replacing them all now.
What the hell? It's only money, right.
So I went for it. I just need my car to be in excellent working order since I drive 70-plus miles a day to and from work.
They had it done in a couple hours and I was on my way to work.
I did a little checking on the Kelly Blue Book site and found out that a car in excellent condition has a trade in value of about $15,475. A car in good condition has a trade-in value of about $14,465.
I think my car falls somewhere in the middle.
It does have a few more miles than the average, but all the service has been done at the dealer and the car itself looks pretty good. There is only one little ding on the passenger side.
Kelly Blue Book gave the private-party resale value as $18,000 and the retail value (what a dealer would resell it for) was $21,450.
I really would like not to have a car payment in all this.
I liked my Honda. It was reliable and good on gas, but the Civic seems a little too small for me now that I have had the Audi.
With gas prices what they are and the drive I do everyday, I don't think I want an SUV.
Anyone have any cars they just love?

No love for Audi today

Piece of shit car.
Broke down on my way to work today.
I was exactly halfway to work when the check-engine light started flashing and the car started shuddering and running rough.
Luckily there was an exit right then and there was a hotel at the end of the ramp.
I pulled in planning to just chill for a minute then figure out a plan.
Then I saw the sign for the rental car place in the hotel.
So I left my car there and drove to work in a rental.
I am going back to get my car tomorrow. I am having it towed to the dealer so they can figure out what is wrong with it.
Seriously.
AAA informed me that, after the great tire debacle of 2007, this was my last free tow for the rest of the year.
Swell.
It's not like it is an old car. It's a 2004 that I got in September of 2003. It has had all its services at the dealer since it was under warranty.
There are 56,000 miles on it. The warranty expired at 50,000.
Of course.
I am seriously thinking about trading it in for something other than an Audi.
But man is it nice not to have a car payment right now.

Barstool philosophers (did I spell that right?)

It's 10:31 a.m. and I am really just waking up now.
I know. Slacker.
I went out last night with some people from my last job. They are a fun bunch of guys to hang with and I just feel like one of the boys when I am with them.
Of course, I was the only one of the boys wearing a ruffled skirt and 4-inch heels. But they don't seem to mind.
Now, none of us are the philosophical type, but we are all pretty intelligent people.
We also all work shitty hours and have had various problems trying to have a real life outside of that.
So we got to talking about relationships. Nothing specific to any one person there, just some general questions we all have asked ourselves at one time or another.

Is it possible to work nights and weekends and holidays and still have a good relationship?
And what does that mean?
What does it mean to each of us to be in love?
What do we expect from a partner and what should a partner expect from us?

I don't think any of us had any answers. Of course, this conversation also started after last call, so that may have been a factor.

Here's a little love for my cardmaking friends

I made these last night for a swap I am in on Splitcoast.

For non-cardmakers who read this, sorry. You have to put up with my crafty side once in a while.

Anyway, the swap was for a base color scheme of black & white with one other color for pop. I signed up to make one set of full-size cards and one set of 3x3 cards.

First up, the 3x3. This is just what it sounds like. A 3-inch by 3-inch card that are good for little gift cards, with flowers, etc.

I had seen this little black dress idea in a magazine and decided to mock one up to see how I liked it for real.

I thought it came out great.

I gave a lot of thought to the color I added. I considered red, pink, purple. But decided to go for something a little different.

I really like the green. I think it is somewhat unexpected to see such a soft pastel with the b/w base.

The dress does have a fold at the top to open, so I snuck a little greeting in there. The card also opens from the top.

The frill at the bottom of the card is two layers of mulberry paper, one white, one green.

For the full-size card I knew I wanted to use this taupe as my accent color. I know it isn't very colorful, but I really like the contrast.

Plus the color goes great with the French-inspired image I chose and the "Bonjour" greeting.

The photo corner detail was done with a heart-shaped scallop punch that I folded around to make the corner.

The vellum on the front is a tiny envelope. I got them in clearance and figured I would think of how to use them later. I cut off the top flap so the greeting tag just slides in and out.

I really love this card. I think it is fun, but elegant.

And I have a bunch more of those vellum envelopes. So you are likely to see more of this type of thing.

Wow. What a smooth talker...

I got my first semi-creepy comment on my blog.

But since I think this person is only writing the truth, I am not going to delete the comment.

Here it is:

Anonymous said...
You have a NICE rack!Post more pictures!
August 6, 2007 11:27 PM

Would you remove this comment?

Oh by the way...

My deck is all done. My man friend finished the steps on the other side Thursday.
There are some little details left, such as putting on the wood treatment stuff and replacing the backdoor threshold.
But major work is done.
Thanks man friend! You do great work. Feel free to build more stuff at my house. I wouldn't mind a walk-in closet.