danrphoto

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my Scion xB, and I thought I’d share a couple of stories, both from when it was pretty new.

I was never very touchy about getting my new car dirty or scratched or dinged. I just considered it would happen eventually so why worry about it. One day I had the iPod playing through the stereo and Susan was in the passenger seat. When the iPod is connected, the stereo displays text from whatever you have playing. It can show the song title, artist name, or in this case the title of the album. Susan was a lot more nervous about scratching the car, especially when I was backing out of the garage, since the xB is quite a bit wider than the Civic was.

So as I’m backing out the Shins are playing on the stereo and all of a sudden I hear Susan shout “Chutes too narrow!” as if my car somehow was telling me I was about to tear off my rear view mirror on the garage door opening. We both had to laugh when I told her “Chutes Too Narrow” was the name of album playing, and the xB proximity sensor would only be an option in the 2024 model year, but only if you purchase a flux capacitor too.

“Chutes Too Narrow” an album by The Shins

Shortly after I got my new car, the neighbor kid, Jake, came by to take a look at the Civic, which he eventually would buy. I don’t remember doing this, but at one point I must have said something about opening or unlocking the doors as I had my key fob near my mouth. He was all, “That’s so cool. Dan’s new car has voice activated locks!” That WOULD be cool, but again - only available on the 2024 model.

I was playing with iMovie for the first time and of course my first little movie is about Smudge. Susan discovered that the puppy really sounds funny when she has a Kong in her mouth and tries to speak. A Kong is a dense, rubber toy that you can fill with treats. Smudge is not much of a “chewer” so to encourage her, we usually give her a couple of treats every day in her Kong, and she gets really excited.

iMovie is pretty cool, and you can put together a little movie very quickly. I also wanted to try out Vimeo, which is kind of like YouTube with some extended features. Check out the staff picks. This one by BLU was on top of the list today.

I find eating some dairy products, especially yogurt and mushy ice cream, to be more enjoyable with a plastic spoon.

I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the occasional metal taste you get with real utensils that sometimes seems more pronounced when eating dairy. We have a nice collection of plastic spoons that were brought home one by one from Chipotle. We like Chipotle, so we have tons. I think a plastic spoon really let’s you enjoy the full flavor of a sweet dairy treat.

Yoplait French Vanilla

This Yoplait French Vanilla reminded me of this diminutive cyclist I used to ride with in New York. He received a flyer for a bike race that was sponsored by Yoplait and for some reason felt the need to read it to me. Each time he came to the word “Yoplait” he would substitute the word “yogurt” instead. “You should really do this race, sponsored by YOGURT!” I think if I didn’t know how to pronounce Yoplait and wanted to avoid looking like a fool, I’d say, “Here read this flyer yourself!”

Yesterday I was getting stuff ready for a trip to western Kansas to see Susan’s parents. I was gathering some freezer bricks for the cooler, which we either store in the basement when they are not being used, or in the freezer right before we are going to use them. At the bottom of the stack of freezer bricks, I made a horrible discovery: the one-pound pack of Sahlen’s hot dogs I purchased in Buffalo in December. I was saving these for a Cimarron trip since Susan’s parents enjoy them as much as we do, but somehow they managed to sneak out of the freezer and avoid detection until now. I think we were making room for actual food in the in there and the dogs must have looked like one of the bricks.

The spoiled weiners

It was so sad when I found them, and I was actually considering still eating them since they really didn’t look bad at all. If the Eskimos can eat Stinkhead and the Scandanavians enjoy Lutefisk, what would be the harm in throwing back a few hot dogs that have been sitting unchilled in a dark basement for a few months? But still, I was not brave enough even to open the package. At that moment there seemed nothing more tragic than an uneaten and now spoiled Sahlen’s.

The amazing thing was that this little package of heaven sat available in the basement right at Smudgey-level for months. Had her nose not betrayed her, it could have been a veritable dog-eat-dog situation.

A few years ago, I brought home some Sahlen’s from Buffalo - I think it was five pounds and Susan and I left them on a packed KCI parking shuttle bus. I insisted we make the 40 minute trip back to the airport to retrieve them. We had to dig them out of the trash inside the airport security facility, but they were intact and we did enjoy them that weekend in Cimarron.

We got a Nintendo Wii the other day. Susan has been calling around looking for one since last week and I happened to be in Walmart buying some potting soil and stuff for the yard and they had just gotten a big shipment. Wii’s are still kind of hard to find - you just can’t walk into a store and expect them to have them on hand like the PS3 (which I was lobbying for) or the XBox 360. The Wii doesn’t dazzle with super high-def graphics, but instead focuses on the “fun.” Part of that fun is creating game avatars or “Mii’s” that look like you.

My version of Susan; The one she created for herself; and my Mii

So I went ahead and created one for me and one for Susan. When she played for the first time and saw the Mii I created for her she asked, “Why does mine look like Michael Jackson?” I thought it was a pretty good likeness, but when she mentioned the resemblance to the King of Pop, I realized she had a point. She did, however, compliment me on my Mii, which she said looked a lot like me — At least I think it was a compliment…

Smudge and I took advantage of some mild weather this afternoon and took a walk along the Mill Creek Trail near Shawnee Mission Park. She ran into some barbed wire fencing while excitedly chasing some deer, and found herself with some nasty cuts on her snout, under her eye and the biggest, on her nose, right on the racing stripe.

Judging from the sound of her YELP when she hit the wire, I think she may take it a little easier on the critter chasing in the future, even though it didn’t slow her down too much right after it happened. Her wounds look worse than they actually are, but I know she’s hoping for some gnarly scars to augment her street cred.

The 26th annual Groundhog Run was this morning in Kansas City and Susan ran in the 10K. The race is unique since it is actually held underground in the Hunt Midwest Subtropolis, an industrial complex carved out of a bluff north of the Missouri River.

Susan and the friendly Groundhog Run mascot

As of this writing race results have not been posted, but her unofficial time was 50:08 from what I saw on the race clock when she finished. However, I estimate that it took her at least ten seconds to get to the start so I’m calling it a sub-50 minute 10K.

A study in contrasts

Susan ran sponsored by Hallmark. Being on a “corporate team” afforded us some perks such as VIP parking and sumptuous goodies in the VIP room, pre and post race. They even had real bathrooms available. The regular runners had to wait in line to use the Porta-Potties!

The weather here has been frigid lately, but started to get warmer yesterday. We emerged from the caves after the race to a beautiful blue sky and about 50 degree temps. Unfortunately for us groundhogs, that means six more weeks of winter.