Elementary

Somebody asked me if I had it to do over again, would I buy another Element.

Heck yeah.

It’s fun to drive. Six speakers and a subwoofer. A jack so I can plug the iPod straight into the dash and use the E’s sound system. You can also plug in a laptop and listen to the audio with that same sound system. Tres fun!

Capacity, unbelievable. Head room, leg room, and the most dog friendly vehicle you can imagine. First week I had it, I loaded up Jake the Yellow Lab and took him to the dog park.

If I’d been thinking, I would have thought, “Um, it’s been raining. Um, it will be muddy. Um, I have a new vehicle.”

Not thinking, I dashed into the dog park and Jake proceeded to have fun in the mud and I proceeded to have fun watching him, and when the few other people were using towels and blankets to wipe their dogs down, I just opened the door and let Jake leap in. Mud all over the floor.

But, of course, no problem. No carpet! So the floor got muddy, I took Jake home, took a shower myself, later on went and wiped the floor with a wet rag, end of problem.

Was it something I’d have done on purpose? Probably not. But as it turned out, it was just one more reason to love my E.

The back seats are higher than the front seats — stadium seating! Great views for everybody. The back seats and front seats all flatten so you can sleep in it should you want to, or so I’m told. I haven’t tried and don’t anticipate trying to. But it’s a cool option.

So, what are the down sides?

It only seats four. If that’s a problem for you, well, yeah, that’s a problem.

Mileage isn’t great. I don’t know how it compares to other SUVs. It’s definitely not designed to be aerodynamic, but I knew that when I bought it. On the road, the best I’ve gotten is 24 mpg. In town in the heat of the summer with air conditioning blowing full blast, it’s gotten as bad as 18.5.

The “suicide doors” (not really — they are totally safe, unlike the old suicide doors from whence the term comes) make it like a two door for people in the back seat. They can’t open their door unless you open the front door first. In parking lots, getting in and out of the back seat can sometimes be a bit challenging if the parking spaces are tight. You get used to it, but it’s different.

On the other hand, it makes it very easy to get things in and out of the E, especially large or awkward packages.

I would buy another E in a heartbeat.

And it’s orange!

Foursome

So I’m surfing and checking out sites and stop by ronniebee and see his link to biorhythms.

I don’t know what it all means, but evidently Barbra Streisand, Nicolas Cage, Liam Neeson and I are all quite incredibly compatible for the next 28 days.

I guess I’d better not turn off the cell phone.

Somebody might call!

Move Me

I need help, y’all.

Tell me what music makes you mooove. I’m putting together an iPod playlist, some from my own CDs, some from iTunes.

I’ve got some vintage rock (Hendrix, Cross Town Traffic), roadhouse blues (Stevie Ray Vaughn, Look at Little Sister), swing (Glen Miller, In the Mood, Tommy Dorsey, Sing, Sing, Sing), Latin (Ricky Martin, Cup of Life, La Vida Loca) (shut up), pop (Kelly Clarkson, Since U Been Gone) (shut UP) and more stuff that maybe I shouldn’t admit….

I’m really not a C&W girl, but beyond that —

Tell me what music pumps you up, moves your groove, energizes your bunny?

I’m trying not to be a lazy slug and need all the help I can get!

Hot Air

A picture from the 2005 Plano Balloon Festival.

Just because.

She Memed Me

Diane did it, so now I shall.

Four Jobs I’ve Had:

Concessions at a movie theater – Ah, the memories. I grew up around movies, and this was my first job ever. I put a guitar on layaway and paid for it each week with the money I got from working. I was in high school. And I had a target on my back and didn’t know it. My mother was secretary to the general manager of the theater chain, which is how I got the job. The other kids who worked there pretty much hated me once they found that out, but were nice to my face, and I couldn’t figure out the mixed signals, but what the hey, it was my first job and I was getting money and I felt very grown up. One night they were talking about the lie detector tests that were coming up in a couple of months — evidently an annual event. And the girl who worked the shift with me explained casually that when asked “Have you ever stolen anything,” it was important to say, “Yes.” And then explain, “Popcorn. We always grab popcorn and snack on it while we’re working our shifts.” She said you never get in trouble for stealing popcorn, and it covers you for other things. I didn’t get it. I mean, I understood what she was saying and laughed because it seemed more like a joke than anything. I didn’t “get” that there might be anything more. Then a few nights later when I was getting off my shift, she and one of the ushers handed me a bunch of candy. Said, “Take this, it’s free.” Well I wasn’t THAT stupid. But they kept insisting, they’d found a box in the storeroom that wasn’t on the books, so everybody was taking some. I finally took a couple of bars and gave them to the friend who was picking me up. For some reason the job didn’t last much longer — oh wait, I remember. The choir’s annual musical was coming up and I needed to be available to paint scenery and rehearse every night, so I quit.

It was years later, many years, that I thought back on the few months I worked at the theater and began to wonder, what was going on there? I mentioned it to my mom. Oh, they had a big shakeup there within a year of me leaving. Lots of stealing and stuff going on. So either I was being set up to share blame if it happened, or take blame? I dunno. I’m sure glad I was in the choir.

Sold children’s shoes Ugh. Let’s move on.

Customer service, City of Dallas Water Utilities — Well, I’m good on the phone. I rocked at that. It got kind of messy when they figured out I was pregnant when they hired me, but they couldn’t say anything, and I set records for phone calls handled. Nobody who knows me well would be surprised at that. I mean, me. Phone. ‘Nuff said.

Videographer — Came up because of the resident storm chaser and the kinds of jobs he was offered regarding weather, video, etc. And somehow I started taking his overflow. Next thing you know, I’m a videographer. Who knew?

Four movies I can watch over and over again:

Yes, you’ve heard this before, but she asked! The Lion in Winter. And again, and again, and again. I bought the DVD before I had a DVD player.

About a Boy That one caught me by surprise. I remember seeing it in the theater and thinking the ending was really really really sappy. Thinking I wasn’t sure I liked it all THAT much. But then I got it from Netflix and watched it. And the next day found myself slipping it in again and watching it. And then (although I didn’t realize it at the time) I got anemic and found myself spending way too much time dozing on the sofa, and I’d plug in Hugh Grant and Toni Collette and they were just very comforting for me. I finally bought the damn thing, and I still like it a lot.

Moonstruck Damn, I love this one. I love the family dynamics, the over-the-top scenery-chewing, the “Snap outta it!” and the sugar cubes in champagne…. I watched this the first time loving every moment of it, but with a hard knot in my stomach because I didn’t know how it would end, and knew that if it didn’t end just right, with just the right wonderful emotional note, I would be so bitterly disappointed — and it’s one of the few movies that I know I literally would have gotten right back in line to see immediately, and in fact tried to convince my friend to do just that, but she had other commitments. I even loved Norman Jewison’s follow up film so much I own it in DVD and watch it more often than probably anybody else on earth. I didn’t do that well and nobody seems to remember it, but I love it, too. Only You It’s more of a guilty pleasure, but that doesn’t stop me from loving its twisty-turny plot and its gorgeous Italian scenery and its sheer romantic nature.

This is hard. Partially because there are a number of films that I like enough to see over and over, and I’ve named the three that stand out. (Think, think, think.) And no, I don’t count Only You because it’s one of the crowd, but I felt like mentioning it because of the Norman Jewison thing. (Think, think, think.) There are a lot of films that I love for many different reasons, but have some major element that ultimately stops me from actually wanting to see them over and over. Maybe they rip my heart out and I just can’t suffer that often. Or, like Bringing Up Baby I could watch the first half dozens of times but somehow the second half doesn’t hold up as well for me, or The Philadelphia Story which suffers from the time period and has some aspects of its resolution that are downright annoying.

Oh hell, I’ve named enough movies so let’s move on.

Four places I’ve lived:

Dallas
Dallas
Dallas
Dallas

(Yes, there have been a couple of others, but hey, Dallas simply trumps them.)

Four tv shows I love:

DALLAS COWBOYS FOOTBALL
HOUSE
BOSTON LEGAL
THE APPRENTICE

Four places I’ve vacationed:

Washington D.C
New Orleans
Colorado
UK

Four of my favorite dishes:

Sour cream chicken enchiladas
Jambalaya
Prime rib (or) ribeye steak
Bread pudding with lemon sauce and creme fraiche with brandy

Four blogs I visit every day:

43 Folders
Pamie
Defamer
Nobody Knows Anything My first online journal habit, and a habit still.

Four places I would rather be right now:

In a cottage in the Lake District.
In a cottage on the coast of Cornwall.
This place on the Olympic Peninsula

And another on the Olympic Peninsula (yes I’ve been surfing the area):

(Check back later — I may add links to the English cottages, too.)

Four bloggers I’m tagging:

The first four who email me and say, “Choose me!” And then I’ll link to you!

Okay, development hell — you’re it!