beloved is snoring, and i slept until .... geez, 10:40 a.m.? so now that it's 12:40 a.m., i cannot sleep. so i came out to the living room to read (The Secret Life of Bees - engaging in the story, if not in the language) and am sipping some wine (in hopes that it will make me sleepy - i DO have to work tomorrow) and between chapters perusing my favorite blogs. *some* people have had the nerve to take much time off for some nonsense like a holiday. pshaw.

today, beloved and i had another day off together - alone. i made us some oatmeal, and then he made our week's food plan, including our new year's eve schmorgasbord which he and the Things planned one day in my absence. i know he's making me a cheese ball. actually, it seems there will be much cheese. b/c we're having cheese fondue in the evening, as well as a cheese ball ... at some point. we're also watching 3 or 4 movies, playing games for many hours, and perhaps, depending upon the weather, going for a walk and a stop in a park.

but today - we were alone. we went to the new Massachusetts IKEA, in search for a pot for his new Cat Palm which he received as a gift from my mother. we found the perfect pot.
of course, that is not all we purchased. we were laughing at the odd assortment of things we found. alarm clocks - 3, at 99 cents each. cacti. 2, for me. b/c i think it's the only type of plant that will survive without being turned over to him. a cat food dish. b/c i dropped a pot on the dry-food bowl some weeks ago, and they've been forced to eat dry food out of a little miso soup bowl (with very pretty flowers on it, so they should be pleased). some curtains from the as-is department which we are turning sideways, and using on our living room window. some pen and pencil holders for the girls' desks. some spoons. we never have enough spoons.

i found myself oddly drawn to kitchens. WHY? I don't even cook. but we've been playing the "some day" game ... about houses, and open floor plans, and large kitchens, with an island in the middle, so i can sit with a glass of wine and talk his ear off while he chops and sautees. or perhaps, in my dream world, where the girls can sit and complain about how hard long division is while he chops and preps dinner way ahead of time at 3 p.m. while i'm still at work but he is not b/c he is my house husband who works on his creative projects all day, and is the presence in the house that disallows my children from inviting their friends over after school to explore the Wonderful World of Cannibis b/c their parents work all day and aren't home until 6. as Wonderful of a World as I may find it to be, i believe my daughters should wait until the same age their mother was when she first explored ---- 28. Mature, responsible, able to apply self control. that's the rule. i'm sure they'll follow it.

but by far, the high point of my day was the Toyota Prius, a la zipcar. It's a hybrid - my first time getting one. it has these little diagrams that display while you're driving - shows how charged the battery is, shows where the current power is coming from - shows your current mpg, and if you like, you can push another button and see what your trip's average mpg is. sometimes, while driving, our current mpg was 99.9. can you imagine? 99.9 miles to the gallon? i bet it was higher, but they only could show so many digits.

so we played even MORE of the "some day" game, and started to think that when we're
ready to own a car again (like, when we have a DRIVEWAY and don't have to pay another $200/mo for a parking spot in this crazy anti-parking town -- no overnight parking on the street. period.) I've been saying a Civic Hybrid will be my next car - if there is a next car. but beloved thought perhaps an Accord Hybrid is better. so when we got home, i looked them up. now i'm thinking of a Prius being my next car. if there is a next car. because the civic and honda doesn't seem to really take on the whole "using gas engines is bad" idea. they seem to just say, "how can we use this word hybrid that people are interested in, and sell it?" the Prius has better gas mileage, by far - and most importantly, it's MUCH better for city driving. we live in a city! also, it's default is the electric motor. and the honda one .... they're not so separate? if i understanding this mechanic mumbo-jumbo correctly - the electric just works to SUPPLEMENT the gas engine - whereas in the Prius, the electric functions alone - and often.

one of the best parts of ANY hybrid ... it's a constant challenge. apparently, it's very difficult to work out the gas and the brakes in a way that maximizes the mpg, and it's almost impossible to get the car to live up to the advertised best mpg. those who get paid to drive cars and write reviews said that they were CONSTANTLY watching the little mpg read out, and i know that would be me. i would be constantly trying to best myself, and looking to get the advertised mpg out of the car during every trip. i told beloved that we would keep a notepad in the car, and at the end of every trip, we would have to write our average mpg down WITH OUR INITIALS so i could do dances during dinner when mine was higher than his.

he he he.

posted by Zuska @ 12:42 AM

1 Comments:

At Tuesday, December 27, 2005 1:29:00 AM, Dr. X said…

I couldn't sleep the night before my first exam, so I tried warm milk. It was disgusting and I vowed never to repeat it. Now I use chamomile tea, fearing that wine will dull my instincts or leave me drowsy, and since pre-exam nights are the only times I ever have trouble sleeping, that obviously will not do.