Jeepsters

Before

Today's project: Put a soft top on the Jeep. It's a '95 Wrangler that we have had for about a year -- it had belonged to Mike's dad, who trailered it down here when he got a new one. When we got it, it had an ill-fitting hardtop that leaked like a sieve and made it very cold to drive in the winter. Mike donated the lid to his Jeep club a few weeks ago in favor of this cool ragtop. Doesn't it look sharp? It took us about four hours to put the thing on. Now it is much quieter to drive, believe it or not, and not nearly so drafty. It also has a brand-new suspension (as of a couple weeks ago) which makes for a pretty good ride. A funny story about the Jeep: The first time I drove it to work, I came home demanding, "Hey, is there a secret Jeep club that I don't know about?!?" Mike about fell off his chair laughing. "They were waving at you, huh?" I had no idea, but apparently it's one of those road customs -- Jeepsters wave to each other when they pass. Pass it on.

After

Quidditch, anyone?

Gryffindor Quidditch sweater
Yarn: Elann's Highland Wool
Needles: 8
Pattern: Saddle shoulder crew from The Handy Book of Sweater Patterns

I thought I was making it a size too large, to allow for a little growth between now and October, but apparently I was making it two or three sizes too large. Oh well, cuff the sleeves and no one will know. He'll be able to wear it for a couple of years this way. I liked the saddle shoulder, a new-to-me technique; may use it again soon.

Play ball!

Hunter's summer baseball team is just getting started! They played a much more experienced team, with pretty predictable results -- final score was 15-2 -- but the boys are having fun & learning the game. Hunter has a pretty good swing and actually walloped the ball pretty well on his first at bat, but grounded out to first.

He played at center & catcher -- coach is still trying out various players at different positions. We'll see where he settles.

Toyota Yaris

With gas prices topping $3.00 a gallon even here in the heartland, and me with a seventy-mile daily commute, we crunched some numbers to figure out how much a new-car payment would be offset in fuel savings. Lo and behold, a new commuter car made way more sense than continuing to drive my old low-20-something-mpg van. We love our Toyotas -- we've owned four of them & have no intention of buying anywhere else -- so we zipped down to the local dealer today to look at the Yaris, Toyota's latest incarnation of the econo-box. Boy, is it cute! I haven't seen it advertised very heavily in this market, just a few TV spots last summer, but they are apparently selling like the proverbial hotcakes. According to our salesman, we bought the seventh one this week. At around 40 mpg, why wouldn't we? Add up the savings in gas & it'll break even in two years.

Disaster comic relief

I was chatting with a co-worker today about the crazy weather of late. Here in Missouri, of course, we're having severe flooding from the same storm system that caused all that trouble in Kansas. We're staying dry, but lots of folks in the river bottoms are in bad shape. Then she asked if I had any family being affected by the Griffith Park fire. I explained to her a little bit about Los Angeles geography, the thrust of the Santa Monica mountains into the heart of the city, and why there's so much wilderness in an otherwise crowded urban area. She told me next that her daughter in Tallahassee had just sent her an email complaining about the smoke from the Florida fires.

She sighed and shook her head. "The whole country is like my tuna casserole," she said. "Crispy on the edges, mushy in the middle."

Grin & Bear It

The local rib joint, which we hit for dinner tonight, has the usual assortment of junk on the walls: antique-looking bits of farm equipment, cheesy oil paintings of John Wayne & Clint Eastwood, antler trophies, that kind of stuff. They also have, rather inexplicably, a stuffed bear in the entrance area. Hunter always wants to pose with it... tonight I remembered the camera. What a goof.

Just in case you were still wondering, we came out of the tax audit owing nothing... what a relief. The only really disconcerting part was when the guy from H&R showed up to represent us, he looked an awful lot like Dick Cheney. No fooling.

The Tax Man Cometh

Two words that strike fear into the heart of any American taxpayer: IRS AUDIT. Apparently our home sale & moving expenses deduction in 2005 was enough to throw up a red flag in some government computer. We have all our paperwork in order, so it's not a problem, but still -- what a hassle.

This year's taxes are done & filed; at least that's out of the way.

The one bit of good news in this annoyance-fest: While going through the file archives to pull out the tax paperwork, I stumbled across my long-lost copy of the pattern for the very lovely Angelina. I ordered it & the yarn, oh, at least three years ago. When the pattern went AWOL, I assumed it had been packed up with my craft-room stuff & I wouldn't see it again until we got the dome finished & all the boxes in the garage got unpacked. But here it was with some old bills! It's now next on the stash-buster project list.