Jason Was Right
9:30 PM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments

If you didn't catch it in the last post, I am driving the Flex Fuel minivan, which takes E85 ethanol fuel.

So, Big Sister left a comment about her hubby saying that ethanol gets poor gas mileage. Of course, I didn't see the comment until after I put $25 worth of E85, but I figured, "What's the difference?" Well boy howdy is there a difference! My handy-dandy minivan went from a spry 19 MPG to a piddly 17 MPG in just 1/4 of a tank! So... Big Jay was right!

As much as I am really loving the van, today I started to miss my car when I couldn't get a good song on the radio and I couldn't plug in my jump drive to listen to new songs. But, hopefully I will have the car back at the end of this week.


Soccer Mom
7:00 AM - Posted by Shelly - 1 comments

I feel like a full-fledged soccer mom! Well, minus the "soccer" and the "mom" parts.

As mentioned in my last post, I was in a wreck last Saturday. The rental car company only had a minivan and a truck available, so I chose the minivan with the understanding that I could swap it for a smaller vehicle with better MPG the following Monday.

Well, on Monday, I called Enterprise a couple of times and it appeared to be much more trouble than it was worth to trade in the minivan. The agents seemed swamped and haggard-sounding, so I figured I'd just stick it out with the van and suck up (not literally) the weak MPG by not driving as much.

So as I was filling up the tank on Tuesday, I noticed that there was a E85/Flex Fuel stamp on the gas cap. I recalled seeing something in the owner's manual about this mysterious "E85/Flex Fuel" thing and so I decided to research it the next time I was on the internet (which, on a side note, where the heck would we be without the internet? I mean, how did people find this stuff out 15 years ago and does anybody go to the library anymore?).

It turns out that I can put E85 fuel, which is 85% ethanol, in my minivan... and... E85 is costs considerably less than regular gasoline! And, there is an E85 station only 11 miles from home. What a deal!

So, I am keeping the van until the car is repaired. I expect to have it back in about a week to a week and a half. Until then, Soccer Mom (or Hockey Mom, if you prefer ;) ) Shelly will be scooting around in her minivan feeling powerful and preppy!


Wreck
10:56 AM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments

Guess who got hit yesterday? That's right... it was me! I was on my way to La Vergne's annual Old Timer's Day parade when a lady came around a corner in a parking lot and hit me. So now I am driving a Chrysler Town & Country minivan. And I missed the parade.

If you haven't heard, Nashville and Middle Tennessee is facing a gas crisis right now. Last week the price jumped 70 cents in our area over the course of two days. This week, most gas stations in the area are out of gas and lines are usually long for the pumps. I have heard stories of police pumping gas to enforce limits and 45-minute lines at the stations. It's a touch scary, but Nathan and I have been fortunate both Friday and Saturday. We both were able to pull into stations and right into an open pump with no limits on purchases.

So, because of the gas crisis, and the aid and evacuations from Hurricane Ike, Enterprise Car Rental was pretty much out of, or very low on, cars when I called to get a replacement vehicle after the wreck. I talked to four locations in the area and my choices were pretty much a truck and a van. I chose the van assuming that it would get better gas mileage. And the gas issue even affected the rental company... there was only a half a tank in the van. Thankfully I don't have to return it full.

So, that's been my weekend. After all of Saturday's stress, I've been trying to relax. And I have been thoroughly enjoying the minivan. I hate to trade it in for a car next week, but I guess if it saves on gas, I must.

So if you see a soccer mom (minus the soccer and the mom part) tooling around town, enjoying driving way too much during a fuel shortage... that'd be me!


Here comes the bride... and groom...
5:30 PM - Posted by Shelly - 3 comments

Sunday, Nathan decided that he wanted to try on his wedding clothes. They had been locked up in a box in the closet for a good five years, but good packing and minimal moving kept everything in good shape.

So, since Nathan was going to play dress-up with his wedding attire, I thought I'd join him and see how my dress fit me after all these years. Well... both our outfits were too big for us!! It's difficult to tell in the picture, but I have dropped a good 20 pounds since we got married (+/- 90 pounds) and Nathan's weight had redistributed since he's been doing so much physical labor.

In some ways it's a tad sad to not look the way I did on my wedding day, but for the most part, it's awesome that we are in such better shape than we were 7+ years ago.

And, you can see the results of our State Fair excursion in our red faces!


State Fair
10:13 PM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments

Today Nathan and I went to the Tennessee State Fair and had a really good time. It wasn't very crowded, which I attributed to the high gas prices that jumped 70 cents in 24 hours in our area.

While at the fair, we saw the Krystal Square Off, which was exciting just because there was a debate about who actually won. Nathan and I suspect that the lady who was ultimately declared the winner had cheated. She was booed at the end of the contest. I am slightly sympathetic, but she really was acting like a diva (which is just funny considering that it was a Major League Eating contest) and did not have the crowd on her side at all.

Here are some pictures to enjoy from the fair. It was a blast... and we got sunburned.




Sushi and Old Friends
6:01 PM - Posted by Shelly - 1 comments

Last night I got to have dinner with two old friends that I met in high school. I hadn't seen these two guys since the mid-90s, so there was a considerable amount of catching up to do.

We went to a great sushi place that my sister Spam introduced me to a few weeks ago called Ru San's. I decided yesterday to download the menu before dinner so that I could really look at my options and so I wouldn't spend a lot of time looking at the menu once I got to the restaurant. What you see above is my Godzilla Maki (the one with the sauce) and my Sweet Potato Maki. The Godzilla Maki consisted of chopped macadamia nuts, rolled with red snapper and then fried. after that, it's rolled again with sushi rice and topped with aioli and masago, and then baked. I had to look up what aioli was, and it is an egg, garlic and oil sauce. It was very spicy, but quite tasty. Masago is actually capelin roe, or eggs from a capelin fish.

The Sweet Potato Maki was simply grilled or baked sweet potatoes rolled in sushi rice.

Although the Sweet Potato Maki was on the dry side, overall it was a very good meal with great company. I would recommend Ru San's to anyone in town looking for not only good sushi, but a good variety (thanks Spam!).

Oh, and my friends said I looked just like I did in high school... what affirmation! I would have said the same, except they looked better!


Bingo and Pink Medicine
5:51 PM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments

In the midst of all the cat trouble, I still had an opportunity to have a little fun. On Friday night, Best Friend Anna invited me and the girls (her usual crowd of women) to the PTO Bingo night at her son's school. BF Anna is very, very competitive, and it's always fun to watch her get worked up over losing. She knows how competitive she is, and she gets a kick out of it as well.

But, guess what? I won Bingo! Five times!!! After the first win, I let the others in the group pick out a prize for themselves, but I did get a great prize on my first Bingo win. Starbucks coffee... does it get any better?

On the medicinal front, the pink liquid nightmare is proving to be all that and then some. None of the cats like the medicine, to the point where one has actually looked at me with her big sweet eyes and let the pink goo drip right out of her mouth. So, I have taken to making a tuna/antibiotic slurry that I have convinced three cats to eat up. The other three have got to be pinned down and force-fed medicine. The last one, well, I just gave up on him and I have been praying that he will kick this on his own and not get sick/get the others sick.


Epidemic
10:49 PM - Posted by Shelly - 1 comments


I have a full-fledged epidemic on my hands. Well, in my house... Sick cats are everywhere!

Poor Rahab started sneezing her head off on Wednesday night and to ease my worry, I took her to the vet this morning. This picture is her riding shotgun on the way to the vet.

Turns out she, and Tika and Samson and Jacob (and most likely the rest) have upper respiratory infections. So I am up to my elbows in pink liquid antibiotics and cat scratches. The cats do not like their medicine, and poor Jacob won't let me touch him when it's time for the pink nightmare. I just have to shoot the liquid into his mouth as best I can when he hisses at me.

On the positive side, at least for the cats, I do give them a treat right after their medicine. I have to buy back their love somehow.


Vacation, Rest & Death
5:54 PM - Posted by Shelly - 0 comments

Since I knew I would be off work for five days following convention (yea for getting rest!), I made sure to water my office plants. I have nothing close to a green thumb and the only things it appears I can keep alive and thriving are the 14 or so stalks of lucky bamboo I have lovingly tended for nearly three years.

However, my kalanchoe apparently decided that either life wasn't worth living, or it was worth living, just not with me, and it kicked the bucket while I was gone.


So, my once beautiful kalanchoe got its picture made and then tossed in the trash. I tried very hard to take care of it and water it properly. I really didn't talk to it (not like I do three of my lucky bamboo, collectively called "Vader") but I did research on it, tried to water it like they said, and I tried and tried not to kill it.

Oh well... this is why I also have wooden roses in my office. I can't give the real ones a will to live, either.


Waitress
1:47 PM - Posted by Shelly - 4 comments

I just finished watching the movie Waitress and while no one is asking for my review, I'm going to give it anyway.

Overall, it was a good movie. The direction and cinematography were beautiful, and the plot was well-written with interesting characters.

Still, with all I liked about it, I get frustrated with the perceived notion of bias against men. Or probably better said, the unnecessary-ness of men. I suspect it probably stems from the idea that it is weak for a woman to want a man or to feel incomplete without a man. If a woman wants to have a man in her life and feels like something is missing, I don't find that to be a weakness, but rather the natural order of things. Men and women were made to be together, so why is it such a weakness in either one when they miss having the other?

The other thing that I was frustrated with was the affairs being had all around in the movie. Really, just about every character was having an affair. I feel angry when the adulterous characters are played sympathetically so you can't help but want them to leave their terrible spouses and run off to happiness. Yes, I know that movies are an escape, but please... do we really need to see over and over again how terrible the idea of marriage is? Is that really the message we want to send? I prefer movies with a more realistic view of marriage, with the ups and the downs. I want to see a movie where the couple really enjoy each other and are really committed to the marriage. Where they have the stress of life and temptations, but they work on those things because they really love each other and that love is why they married each other. I hate seeing movies (and people in real life) get married to escape something or to try to achieve a false reality that they think will make them happy. Long story short, I am tired of the sorry, depressing marriages in movies these days.

With that said, I am firmly convinced that Andy Griffith is an underrated actor who has been pigeonholed. Now granted, I have never seen Matlock, and he may have blown it out of the water in that series, but in this movie, he was unlike any character that I had ever seen him play. The whole movie is worth watching just to see his performance. He was excellent.

And, if the movie has done nothing else, it has made me want pie. So it's off to Target I go to get some pie!