Year: 2003

The Miata is getting long in the tooth (I know some will feel it is just getting broken in at 124k) and this is the longest we’ve gone without owning a “New” car, so I’ve been contemplating replacing the Miata with one of the new Mini Coopers. They are about the same size in wheelbase and track, but the Mini is a foot shorter overall. Not a convertible obviously, but they are available with a big ol’ sunroof. Trouble is they are still a rare bird after two years in production. You can go to the MiniUSA site and build one to suit you, but then there is the couple three months wait (some say a lot longer.) We have scheduled a test drive next Saturday in Charleston, SC. I’ll let you know my impressions.

I wanted to go to Greenville, SC to test one but I had a bad experience trying to arrange a test drive over the internet. Maybe I’ll detail it tomorrow, because it is definitely rant-worthy, but I don’t want to do it tonight, I’ve got to go wash the old beast for a Miata event tomorrow…

Our old towels had turned to sandpaper these last few months, so last night when we went to replace them I insisted we get some real soft ones. Donna had some nice ones in the cart when I joined them, but I thought we could spend a little more than the $10 each and get something more cushy. I jokingly said let’s spend double that oughta do it. Little did I suppose that they actually had $20 each bath towels. Well we picked up 2 a piece and that shot pretty close to a whole Ben Franklin. But man, they are soft as velour and suck up the water better than a Bounty paper towel.

This is our extra hour a day week, so we can get Friday afternoon off. After work tonight we went to do a short workout at the health club, about 30 minutes of weights, and when we got home had spaghetti for supper. When we were done eating it was only 6 o’clock, but it was as dark as midnight outside. I can barely muster the energy to post and as you can see I can’t think of anything constructive to rant about…

I think I have a slight case of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

This weekend I did not watch a DVD all the way through of the five attempted.

1) The first of the Sopranos, Season 4 discs was ejected after 2 of the 3 episodes it contained. Maybe it was the long layoff between seasons or maybe I finally figured out it was just a soap opera with cuss words, killing and an occasional naked breast. The rest of Season 4 discs were then removed from my Netflix queue.

2) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was turned off after 47 minutes. I consider this a major failure in my Science Fiction fanhood. I could never read past the first couple of chapters in the books. I tried several times in my youth to do it, but failed. I did manage to watch the first movie all the way through and figured now that I got all the characters down and was somewhat interested in them I would make it through the whole series. Nope.

3) The Emperor’s Club lasted 16 minutes, 17 seconds. I went into this with a bad attitude. I can’t stomach Kevin Kline, I’ve almost never liked him, A Fish Called Wanda was the exception. And I knew that it was going to be something like The Dead Poet’s Society going in, but I just couldn’t get into the story.

4) Read My Lips. This one was the third movie I attempted to watch Sunday afternoon and it stayed playing the shortest 5:25. Perhaps if I had given it more time…I cringed at what was happening to this poor woman in the beginning, but for what ever reason I didn’t really care. I didn’t find her likable, sorry. I started painting the kitchen cabinets instead.

5) I did eject The X-Files Season 1: Disc 4, but that was after watching Episode 1×14, Lazarus and this disc will go back in next Sunday to watch the 4th and last episode on it. Disc 5 is #2 in the queue and will be here shortly.

On this morning’s errands I tired of constant classical music from my MP# player, so I ventured onto the radio dial. One of the local stations was having a continuous Christmas music weekend. There are almost 3 weeks until Thanksgiving already! It was only a matter of time I suppose, we are now used to seeing Christmas merchandise make limited appearances on store shelves along side the Halloween decorations. There is already a “holiday movie” playing at theaters near you, Elf.

Making matters worse is that today I compiled and burned a Christmas Music CD for a swap…