That's Gneiss! #78 ~ A very exciting purchase!
Hello friends! I’m so excited to tell you about what we bought yesterday…
A new vacuum!
That’s right, we just sauntered into Lowe’s and bought a Shark Ion X40 Cord-free Ultra-light Cordless Stick Vacuum right off the shelf - just look at that baby!
Is that hot or what? Its got up to 40 minutes of cordless runtime in Ion Power Mode, weighs just 8.7 pounds, and comes with a crevice tool! You can even detach the stick, pop it into Conspiracy Mode, and use it to suck up chemtrails!
Modern technology is truly amazing.
Other than that, it was a pretty dull week.
On Tuesday I visited one of our south county libraries, and as I was getting onto I-5 to head home a police car raced by. No big deal, I figured there was an accident up ahead. Traffic was moving at a slightly sluggish pace, and soon two more Lynnwood police raced by on the shoulder. After traveling a little further, I could see all of them parked in one of the turnaround spots in the median, and one cop was standing outside his car, looking north up the southbound lanes (I was traveling north). As we crept by, I saw a ratty looking white car speed by on the southbound shoulder, with numerous police vehicles in hot pursuit! The Lynnwood police joined into the chase, and a couple of Everett police dropped out.
I HAD JUST WITNESSED A JURISDICTIONAL HAND-OFF IN THE HIGH SPEED PURSUIT OF A MURDER SUSPECT!
I did not know exactly what was happening at that moment - other than an obvious car chase. The rest of the drive home was hellish, as I chose to get off of I-5 to avoid a slowdown. Have you ever made bad decisions while driving, thinking you’re going to outsmart the bad traffic and use back streets, only to drive straight into the vortex of traffic hell? That’s exactly what happened to me, as I unwittingly drove right into a spot where the chase had zipped through Everett. A major arterial was closed due to there having been a smashed up police vehicle. It required a lot of patience to get through the area, and I will never forget the sight of an angry man screaming in his car as he saw the road closure ahead,
“How the f*@&! am I going to get to Lowe’s?!!!!”
I’m sorry sir, you will have to circle the area for two more hours to get there, even though you’re only a few hundred yards away…
When I finally burst free of the traffic and made it home, I checked the news and learned the details of the high speed chase.
Okay, so maybe that was a little exciting.
It seems like there was something else I was going to tell you about… what the heck was that?
.
.
.
Oh, I remember!
We went to Harbor Freight for the first time ever today!
Wait. That wasn’t it.
I know! We drove to Harbor Freight in our NEW CAR!!! And later we went out for Chinese in our NEW CAR!!!
Buying a car is exhausting, even when everything goes smoothly.
Earlier this week we decided it was TIME. Michael started doing his research (as he does), and found a couple of cars of interest. My initial color preference was plum crazy, and the nearest available car was in Olympia.
I contacted the dealer, and we were tentatively planning to drive down there and look at it the next day. Madness, I know, but it was PURPLE. The saleswoman sent me text to call her right away the night before we were to go, and oh my, she was so sorry but that car had been sold! Would we perhaps be interested in this one instead?
NO! It was of course more expensive, and I am not into aggressive stripes. Thanks anyhow. Things were starting to feel a bit bait-and-switchy. Never mind that driving to Olympia was just silly.
Then Michael found that lovely blue car not far from us, so we decided to go take a look on Saturday. We arrived at the dealer and were greeted by an earnest young salesman almost before we stepped out of our car. We said we’d like to take a look at the blue Challenger, and his voice literally squeaked as he said, “okay, let me get that pulled up and ready for you!”
We took a look under the hood, then took it for a drive and I won’t lie - I loved it right away! I’ve wanted a Challenger for a long time, but having never driven one I wasn’t sure if I’d even like it. Banish that thought! This car is going to be fun, though I will have to be careful not to drive too fast! It is quite powerful.
Once we decided to go ahead and buy it, the waiting around began. There was paperwork to fill out, and then we had to wait for a second person to finish up the final paperwork for payment. Car buying is a lot different than it used to be - there isn’t so much of the dithering back and forth over price, and it’s not too stressful. However, the “closer” as I will call her was the person who did some hard selling of aftermarket service warranties.
Michael and I agreed after it was over that she was a bit of a fright. Big wide crazy eyes, clicking fingernails, and stories about how her car had needed really expensive fixes for little things (maybe your car is a lemon?). Yikes. We stayed strong and managed to drive away without any more money getting sucked out of our pockets.
We are now the happy owners of a B5 Blue Pearl 2016 Hemi Challenger R/T!
Now I need to figure out how the radio works… and all of the other fancy computerized features.
Until next week!
~Anne
Tidbits
Film footage(!) of the 1914 Lassen Peak eruption
365 Books to Start Your Climate Change Library: The Classics, The Science, The Fiction and Poetry, The Ideas
Making: I’ve been doing a variety of things - carved three rubber stamps for a gift, and I’m working on two guitar pedal insides!
Recently eaten: too much! Due to the variety of activities happening in the past week, I ended up eating out a lot. Worth mentioning is District 1 Banh Mi - I had my first ever bubble tea! Yummy, but not something I would drink every day.
Reading: I finished Hope Never Dies, which was light and a bit cheesy. I also just noticed that the car on the cover is TOTALLY WRONG. Biden is driving a Challenger, NOT a Trans Am! Sheesh. I moved on to White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. Something more serious. The artsy-crafty book I’m enjoying right now is called Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art.
Video of the Week
Listen to that!!!
Question of the Week
Answer if you wish, and I’ll share next week - anonymously of course. Just hit reply…
Let’s stick with food again this week - what’s your favorite sandwich?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last week I asked about your favorite pizza toppings.
I am a pizza purist. I like pepperoni (on top of the cheese), and when I’m feeling adventurous I might add black olives, onion, pineapple, or mushroom. Not all at once, mind you, that would be madness. I never top my pizza with sausage, hamburger, bacon, or chicken, and anchovies are right out.
I'm a believer in pizza simplicity, being a proponent of the VPN. Fewer toppings of better quality: mushrooms, peppers, and/or artichoke, perhaps toss some arugula onto buffalo mozzarella pizza after it comes out of the oven. Goat cheese is cool, but EASY on the cheese--if you pick up a slice and the top falls off, you're doing it wrong.
My opinions about pizza are perhaps only matched by those about art and architecture. DON'T GET ME STARTED ABOUT STUFFED CRUST
Pizza toppings - I remember going to Shakeys Pizza when I was a kid and I think the pizza my dad liked to get was shrimps (the little ones), black olives, and mushrooms. And maybe pepperoni. It was really tasty.
And then there's the bbq pizza from Pizza Hut which was also really tasty.
I had a craving recently for green pepper on pizza, that's something else my dad used to get. I made myself an italian sausage and green pepper gluten-free pizza and it was tasty.
I think I said "tasty" three times without meaning to. This, kids, is why we revise. :D
But if I were to have one pizza topping, it would be pepperoni. On top of the cheese, so some get a little crispy.
It all depends upon the style of pizza. If it's a thin tangy crust, I like a margarita, heirloom or roma tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella or burrata, all drizzled with olive oil when it's served. Sometimes, I'll add some arugula when it's just out of the oven but the more simpler, the better.
Now if it's a Chicago style, ( I say style as I've never had a Chicago pizza in Chicago) I love mushrooms and garlic or sausage.
All that said, I do like a pepperoni pizza and will put anchovies on when it's served. I love the spicy and salty!
I love pizza and really won't turn down a taste of any topping.
I like to mix it up a bit, but when you get right to it my favorite pizza toppings are pepperoni, mushrooms, and black olives.
Current Temperature: 52.5 F (11.4 C)
Current Humidity: 64%
Wind (daily max): 13.6 mph
Precipitation: 0.00 in
Number of Subscribers: 99