i should take up novelwriting.

Dang, I say. DANG.

Do I remember the end of last week? Marginally. Thursday, I got final confirmation on both fundraisers. Kismet! We’ll be at the IDS Center over lunch on Monday, March 13 (selling pink wristbands and ribbon-shaped cookies), and the bowling/raffle/many-other-fun-events fundraiser is on for Saturday, April 22. Fear not, I’ll remind you at least 17 more times about each of those before then.

I’m seriously dreaming about fundraiser-planning. It’s rewarding stuff, and I absolutely love talking about the 3day with everyone, but it consumes my brain! I have a headful of to-do lists. I’m also completely in awe of how much people have wanted to help. Not just through donations, but in offering their skills and connections. Kaye is our official team graphic designer, and Sean has been recruited as our printer. Thursday night, he printed up the 22×28 signs that she designed, so we’d have them at the IDS booth. They’re perfect, and we’ll be able to use them at all our events.

And since we’re talking about it, the update: our team has raised over $10,000. WOW. I sent 60 letters to local businesses yesterday asking for raffle donations. Jane has sent an equal amount, if not more. She got her first donation within two days of sending them. I hope that bodes well for us!

Friday night, HOCKEY!!!!!!! We saw Kellen Briggs get his 11th shutout, as they destroyed UMD 7-0. It was kind of amusing, since there were so many sad Bulldogs fans in the house. After the game, they presented the McNaughton Cup to the team. Now we get a break for two weeks, and it’s onto the Final Five. I can’t wait!

Saturday, I fell in love with Mahogany again while she cut my hair, and then I got to deal with car things. Oh, it was exciting, and I’ve already written essays about it on LJ, so forgive me while I copy from there.

so, chico was leaking coolant recently. i took him in and they replaced his hoses. then he was still leaking coolant, at a much faster rate than before. so i took him back in, and today they tell me it’s leaking inside the engine, somethingsomething head gasket something cylinders. take it to the dealer, they’re going to have to rebuild the upper engine.

so i call the highly-recommended nutty saab guru and ask him if he can look at it. he says they’re probably crazy, because the symptoms i’m describing don’t fit. like, if there’s coolant ending up in the cylinders, it shouldn’t be running very well. but he’s running fine, just going DING every day to tell me to add coolant. also, he’s leaking at the front near the radiator, not near the engine. because of car class, i know my head gasket IS on the driver’s side, but about 3′ back. this is not where it’s leaking.

i go to get my car from the shop to take it to saab guru.

mechanic dude: be careful, the brakes are funny. the pedal goes to the floor about every third time you hit it.
me: um. it wasn’t doing that when i brought it here yesterday.
mechanic dude: well, we noticed it was making noise, so we looked and somethingsomething caliper something.
me: so what’s wrong with them now?
mechanic dude: well…. the brake pads were installed backwards, so somethingsomethingsomething…
me: you guys installed them.
manager dude (appearing from nowhere): yeah, there’s something wrong with your brakes. the pads were installed backwards. the pins were right.
me: you guys installed them three months ago. and THEN just last month, you had to REINSTALL them when you replaced my wheel. remember that?
manager dude: yeah. well…
me: the brakes were fine when i brought it here yesterday.
manager dude: well…

this goes on for a while. they tell me i should take it to the dealer. i go to get the car. i drive it 10′ and the brake pedal goes to the floor and he doesn’t want to stop very well. i can tell from the feel of it that there’s no fluid in the brake lines. i pump the brake a bunch and still no fluid. i’m now IMMENSELY grateful that i took that autoshop class, because i know these things. i go get manager dude.

me: i’m not convinced this car is safe to drive.
manager dude: well, the brakes aren’t great.
me: what did you guys DO to the brakes?
manager dude: well, we reinstalled the pads. they were scraping against the rotors.
me: are the rotors shot now? what’s wrong with the calipers??
mechanic dude: they installed the pads wrong.
me: YOU GUYS DID MY FUCKING BRAKES!!!!!

oh, then then there was this:

manager dude: well, your front right tire was flat, too.
me: WHAT? (because i check that shit constantly, i’d know if it was flat)
manager dude: it had a nail in it.
me: and…
manager dude: we took it out.
me: and you patched it, right?
manager dude: right.

they had the car towed to the crazy saab guy, who i fell in love with over the phone. he’s so crabby! and so obviously a guru. as someone who works with computer programmers, i’m very accustomed to the socially-inept genius.

crazy saab guy (who wears a rubber tube around his forehead, presumably a car part) said the hoses weren’t tightened, so coolant was still leaking. he was pissed in general about some of the repairs in the past, and i told him a lot of it was done on the road, all over the country. he thinks the head gasket may in fact be cracked, because he sees an oil and coolant leak he can’t identify yet. i’m to drive the car, watch the temperature, and see chico he tells me he’s low on coolant again. if he does that (and i suspect he will), it’ll cost $800 for the head gasket.

he had to replace the brakes. i’m going to fight the auto shop over that one, since they installed and RE-installed them just a month ago.

so, today, chico isn’t asking for coolant yet, which is good. i go to target, and when i park him, the patched tire seems maybe a little bulgy. when i leave target, the tire is totally flat.

i sit in my car and laugh. i used to get irate about this stuff. i’m only irritated by the inconvenience now, having to ask people for rides, and having to wait. he’s an old car, i’m not surprised that he’s costing me a lot now. all in all, i’ve gotten my money’s worth out of him, and more.

i use google sms (i’m not sure how i lived without it) to find the nearest tire shop. i fill up the tire next door, and drive the few blocks to firestone. my sister came and picked me up, and we went shopping. it was awesome: we picked up some gear for alaska at REI, i bought the gifts i needed for people at gallery 360, and she got to see the co-op gangsta. firestone called and chico was re-patched: it only cost $28. whew.

funny thing is, in the past i’d have been really bummed about all this. somehow it’s not a big deal to me now. like, i get more than my fair share of AWESOME as it is. this is nothing.

OK, that’s the Chico news. I may be having to decide soonly if I’m going to trade him in for wholesaling and just buy a new car. Blech. I want to keep him around for a while. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but buying a new car right now doesn’t feel right. I’m sure there’s a reason why I’m feeling that way. We shall see!

The non-car part of yesterday, Kaye and Stephanie and I walked from my house around Lake Calhoun, the first day of the year it was nice enough to do so. We walked out on the lake! Across the ice!! We got a little scared sometimes when it seemed thin, but all the windsurfers were still out, and people were running around on the ice with their dogs. Of course, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s to not necessarily think something’s safe just because everyone else is doing it.

Afterwards, we went to the Mall, which is always an adventure on Saturday. I bought a hockey jersey. I am so totally, nerdily prepared for the WCHA playoffs. While we were there, the boy I met at Myth called. And YAY!

We went to dinner, then Gameworks. I’m starting to love that skateboarding game, because Kaye gives good pointers and then I can do pretty well at it. I like that it’s more physical than just pushing buttons. We shot zombies and played DDR. We hung out at the bar. I wanted to dance, but nobody dances there. I always want to dance, dammit. Then they were offering free races, so I drunk-drove an Indy 500 car into the wall a lot, and flipped it so often I had to go in for a pit stop. I totally rule.

Today I did round-the-house and erranding things, and the aforementioned car items. This weekend I also reserved everything for Alaska: hotels and the cabins at Denali (SO CUTE), the day-long glacier and whale-watching cruise in Kenai Fjords National Park (henceforth known as puffinboat), the 13-hour shuttle bus into the depths of Denali, and a vehicle to transport us to and fro. June 30 seems painfully far away right now.

And now, my standard closing: photos! OF CATS!! I can’t help it, they’re so damn cute.

lazy cats, more lazy cats, neko x 4, chloe kiss, ‘i want to bite the camera strap’, lazy cat, superlazy cat, and oh! WIENERS! My newly-expanded collection now takes up two shelves.

Ok, I should maybe wash this red goo out of my hair and get me some sleep. Niiiiight.

Jenni