Well, I tried to kill my new car today. Yeah, I filled it with love (and oil) too much and it started to leak oil and smell funny so I took it immediately to my corner oil change guys whom I love and trust and they told me I was an dork and put in too much oil because I checked the oil when it was hot.

I nearly cried! I felt so bad. You see, I’m not normally a car dork, but well, it’s a new car to me and in my defense, I was driving it yesterday and the oil light came on. Well, since I wasn’t sure about the car, having had it only a day, I stopped immediately at a gas station and checked it and it said it was low. So, I didn’t want to risk driving it back home and all to my guys, so I put oil in it. Well, turns out, too much. I put in 2 quarts, and it was about 1 3/4 quarts too much. Rats!

Well, all is well with the fine beast. Roman and his gang at the Quickie Lube know me and they did not rub it in, just nicely reminded me that they will always top off the fluids and check any of my cars and that I’m a good customer and they will take care of me. Roman used to work at a Ford dealer so he was very fluent in Fords. And he gave it a total check up! Everything. We talked about all the things he noticed, which were not much… gave me a little shopping list of things that might need attention. I trust them because they don’t do any of those types of repairs. And they are right on the money. He checked all the lights and such, but also checked the front end and the struts and tie-rods (I am cursed with cars with these issues!) and Gunny is all sound. He checked the exhaust and underneath, everything was a-ok. My transmission pan was dented so they pulled it and pounded it out with a rubber mallet and got it good and sealed tight. It was little low on transmission fluid, which I understand can be very common when it is replaced, as the tranny gets running, it can need a little topping off.

I told him that it was idling a little rough and he said immediately, has it been sitting? And yeah, it sat in the yard for 6 months before Bill bought it and then another 6 months while it was being fixed. So Roman suggested some fuel cleaner for the injectors and all, because gas over time can varnish and get kinda nasty. He suggested running a tank of mid grade or premium fuel through it and a bottle of cleaner. He was right on the money, by the time I got home, Gunnar was idling like a panther, all smooth and happy.

Oh, I’m so happy, I’m such a car dork at the moment. Sorry ladies! I’ll be back to eggs and cooking and home stuff, but right now, I’m in love and I’m just not seeing much of the world at the moment, save this beautiful black car that I have waited 6 months for!!! It’s the car of my dreams. I never thought I would have one and I do.

Funny, I’ve been surfing the web a bit about them, mostly due to not having a manual with him, and wondering what this one little icon on the dash meant (transaxle alert for possible trans fluid low! I thought so…) and I found so many people that were online gushing about their own Ford Taurus SHOs… Listen to this one review…

This is what this car was all about: performance. While it was no Corvette or Porsche, it was and still is a force to be reckoned with. At the time of its release, no other mainstream sedan could touch it. Now, only the best can surpass it in numbers, and arguably there is still nothing like it in terms of pure driving exhilaration. Piloting the SHO conveyed a soul factor of 10.

HAHA! Soul factor of 10! I say about 14 or so. It drives SOOOOO smooth and so fast, I’m still not used to the thing and sometimes I hit the gas a bit too much at a light and that baby lunges forwards without hardly a bit of hesitation. It’s like driving a hot rod! I remember as a kid driving my stepdad’s 79 Trans Am, you know, the Smokey and the Bandit car? This baby was midnight blue and had a Hurst flop over stick and that thing was a beast. This SHO wagon reminds me of that thing!!! Same kind of power without hesitation and just smooth to drive, like a jet plane… not that I know what that feels like, but hey, I can only imagine.

And Taurus People LOVE their cars…. they even have a Facebook page for them!

http://www.facebook.com/fordtaurus

Okay, okay… I’ll stop talking about my car. Ahem. It’s only because I had to wait sooooo long to get him in my life!!! I’ll try to refrain myself.

Well, here’s my new bench… it’s a little beat up, well, the wood is good and sturdy, but it needs a light sanding and new coat of varnish/sealer to really be nice. But that’s an easy job! Heck, Maggie would probably like to do it. And once we do that and tighten up a few screws, it will be good as new. Great Craig’s List find, if I don’t say so myself.

I was outside today in the sunshine, it was glorious. Walking around and looking at the flower beds as they emerged from the snow drifts. And LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!!!!

We’re saved! We’re saved!!! Spring is coming!!! A lone hardy daffidil tip emerging from the warm, sunny front flower beds! YAHOOO!!!! I was so busy admiring it, and Jack came over to look carefully upon it until Gypsy barged through and nearly trampled the little thing! Dogs! Shesh. This year I want to try and get some nice rocks to border around the front bed at least, to keep my beasts from running roughshod through them.

Kitty Island is getting bigger and bigger. It’s that green area around the big pine tree. That pine sheltered that area a bit so the drifts were not very deep with snow there during the winter. So it was like a little yucky green island of dead grass that everyone gravitated to. Mostly the kitties because they don’t like the snow. But the dogs as well. They all rush out to Kitty Island and nose around and of course, water Kitty Island and add their other deposits. Kitty Island is slowly turning into Nasty Island and I see that I’ll have to get out there with the scooper pretty soon! Ha ha. But it’s so funny to see everyone walking around on the island, sniffing and wandering, rolling in the dried grass and soaking up the sun. Now it’s reached the shed and that means that the kitties can climb up in the fort and use the lookout port to survey their kingdom. Jack demonstrates for us now.

I dashed over to one of my favorite thrift stores, mostly so I had somewhere to drive to, and well, because I hadn’t been for awhile. Found this cute little shallow oval pottery dishes for a dollar! Just perfect for my desk to hold all those little bits and pieces you end up with. Pens and stuff. I like the colors on it, that sort of rustic drippy glaze technique. I really want to consider taking a pottery class over at the Botanical Gardens… they have a potters guild and I hear that if you take their introduction class and join the guild for a modest price, you can then go in at open pottery times and use their kiln for your own projects! Oh, that sounds like fun. Perhaps in the later summer months after I get all the gardens and building done for the spring and early summer.

But the delightful thing, is that this Thrift Store is run by some lovely church ladies and they were giving out one pound bags of crushed walnuts to everyone! I tried to refuse but they insisted. Okay. I took one and now I’m thinking that a crusty sweet walnut breakfast cake sounds like a perfect dish for some of those free nuts.

Well, the last couple days have been a total vacation from any serious work! What with the car and all, I’ve just been having a blast. Errands now take me at least 3 times as long because I am driving all over the place and NEVER in a straight line or shortest path. I know I’ll calm down in a while, heck with gas about $3 a gallon again, I can’t keep at it forever. But well, it’s such a wonderful joy to get something nice that you have waited for and dreamed about and longed for. It’s finally here and I’m just so happy, I can’t stop grinning. I probably look like a big dork. But that’s okay, it’s a great feeling. Reaching major goals in your life really feel good.

Thank goodness my next goal is really fairly tame in comparison, but I would really like to get a nice DSLR camera for work and well, for blogging and for writing and all that. As a graphic artist, I use my cameras a lot, and the last year since my last nice camera died, it’s been rough on me! I have a little point and shoot and it’s nice, and actually, now and then it takes some nice photos. But it’s having issues with it’s memory card reader and I have to take two pictures of everything because one often won’t save and such. Just little things like that. And the DPI is not too high, so I can’t use it for work in many applications. I have my mind set on a nice used Nikon D40. I’ve read TONS of reviews and everyone seems to agree, that the D40 is a very nice mid level prosumer grade camera that has a lot of options and features I need, but it is also very user friendly and available as people upgrade to nicer DSLRs. I hope that I can save my gig money and such in time to get one before all the spring flowers start to pop!!! I think I have about two to three weeks max. Time to get cracking on saving for that next goal.

Oh yes, and I signed up for Twitter… although I suspect that it was being bad today and I’m sorry! I think I have it all fixed now. I’m not totally sure that anyone would be interested in my little twits… ha ha… “Oh, I finished a sock!” Oh! Jack is so funny!” “Oh, I love my car, I love my car, I love my car….” But it might be fun because I can text from my phone, so you guys can see what I’m up to when we’re out playing or whenever. Part of me thinks it’s rather foolish, but well, my daughters think it’s cool. So I will try it out and see what comes of it all.

I had to let the weasels loose for a little bit… they love to sleep and lounge in their three story cage for easily most of the day and night, but if you don’t let them have a little time to romp and play each day, they get cranky and start rubbing their little tin cups on the cage bars and otherwise become annoying. Of course, when they are out and romping around, they are fairly annoying, but in a kitten sort of way. Or like an repeat offender. They steal things if they can find them! And here is Loki stealing some of my little dark chocolate bars! Little fuzzy woozel thief! They are a hoot though, so I don’t mind. Of course, she didn’t get her loot, as I stopped her in mid-grab. But she did managed to find a cat toy and drag it under my bed in retaliation. Crazy little things!

Hope you all had a wonderful Saturday as well!

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