Car. Transportation problems with the pickup truck yet, and the financing hasn't gone through the bank yet. No car yet.

Bebe Notes. This is kinda icky, but there you go.

Her bowels have made some kind of quantum jump in maturity. All of a sudden, she has poops that in no way resemble mustard. Ah, the holidays. My thoughts turn to gift-giving, good food, and TOILET TRAINING.

Grey Hill notes. I'm working on plotting. I outlined the novel; now I'm breaking it into chapters. Seems overly analytical, but it also seems to be working. And I think I'm going to send the first chapter to Banshee studios. It seems like kismet--karma--something. The story's set on Imbolc; I guess you could call it an anti-Valentine's Day story as I plan it. Next issue of Banshee comes out...what a coinkeydink.

Your trivia of the day, on a related note:

From what I understand (and correct me if I have this wrong), Imbolc is the celebration of the turn of the year, with Brigid (poet and blacksmith) the celebrated aspect of the Goddess. Creativity, renewal, conception, blessing of the tools of the year, and reawakening are some of the themes. Catholics may recognize Imbolc as Candlemas--you know, the time that the priest gets everyone to line up and holds a pair of white candles at your throat to bless you.

The part that cracks me up is that besides Valentines Day and Candlemas, the other holiday that Imbolc covers and embraces is...

Groundhog's Day.

I tell you, Bill Murry is part of a conspiracy. I don't know why. It just delights me every time I think about it. I guess it's just that I've been reading these dead-serious rituals for Imbolc for weeks now, and...it's groundhog's day.

Shopping for a used car.

If I were a superhero, one of my secret vulnerabilities would be cars. Specifically, car care professionals and salespeople. The very idea of taking the car in freezes me up. Why? I'm not sure, but what it feels like is that one of the few times I feel like a girl (in a bad way) is when I walk into an automotive repair shop. I feel like the guys are looking at me..."If you were a guy, you could do this yourself." "If you were a guy, you never would have let it get this bad." "If you were a guy, I wouldn't have to talk to you like you were an idiot."

So the car's dying. Transmission's going out, brakes are bad, and I don't like the damn thing. It's a sports car, two doors, and I can't count the number of times the overly-helpful cool weighted doors have crushed the legs of my passengers trying to get out of the suck-your-butt-into-the-road seats. I'm a geek. It's a sports car. Eh.

Thursday Lee and I drive down to Pueblo to look at Kias--the ads are all over the radio, they're cheap, they have a wagon. Sounds good, right? No. Every single one they had was a 5-speed, which Lee can't drive. And more expensive than the ads (natch). We test-drive a hatchback and go home.

Today we cleaned out the Beretta, did the laundry, took a nap (for de bebe), whipped out a blue book, and went car shopping. First place we stopped at, we found something that looks perfect (or as perfect as we can afford, same diff). It almost offends my sensibilities, but I think we're going to get it. The negatives are high mileage and a problem with one of the doors that they're going to fix before we take it. I feel...guilty. This was almost too easy. The salesman was almost too pleasant, in a "just leave them the hell alone" kind of way.

We'll see. We should know for sure how things are on Monday.

Dumb joke. What did the mushroom say after her blind date?

He seemed like a fungi, but I was still pretty spored.

How else is he gonna learn? The plans to install a server onto the home network are, at moment, on hold. Damn learning experiences, anyway.

Illegal Aliens. Check out Jon's (Captain Rooba) interview of Nick Pollata, author of Illegal Aliens. It's quite amusing. And there's other cool stuff, too. At Banshee Studios.

Snake Handlers.

The reason snake handlers handle snakes is Mark 16:17-18. They believe in the inerrancy of the bible--a phrase meaning that they believe that the bible, no matter where it came from, no matter who edited it, etc., is literally true.

17: And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18: They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

--More from Perspectives... by Williams. See below for link.

Turkey Day. Due to the overabundance of turkeys, we declared Turkey Day on Sunday. I cooked and got rave reviews. "When I say I liked the brussels sprouts, I mean, I didn't think they totally sucked. For me, saying that about a green vegetable, that's pretty impressive." --Joe.

Ooh yeah, ooh yeah.

Oh, yeah. One of the incidents of Thanksgiving day: Ray walked off with Matt's beer. First I freaked because it was a can--she could cut herself, you know. Then I saw what she had. AAAACK!