Overheard: Esperanza Birthday Edition

"Is the baby in bed?"
"Yeah. Should I even bring in the chocolate cake, or do you just want me to put it in the refrigerator?"
"Ohmigod. No more cake. The cake must stop."
"OK. It'll go in the fridge. Hey, you know what'll make you feel better?"
"No. What?"
"A hot shower . . . . and a backrub . . . ."
"I love you so much. NO. I just want to lie down."
"No problem, we can go lie down. Whatever works for you, baby."
"No, I'm going to bed. No one is to touch me or speak to me until morning."
(CRASH from the kitchen.)
"And you get to take care of those two."
"Okay . . . . but that's your birthday present."
"That'll do."

Happy Birthday, Esperanza!

You are the love of my life.

In Which Murphy Puts His Two Cents In . . . .

The acquisition of "Silvertip" (I'm still trying these out, so bear with me) didn't go very well yesterday. I called my insurance provider and switched the Camaro's coverage to the 850 ("Silverback"?) without any trouble.
"Heck," I thought to myself in a naive tone of voice, "this is easy. Now off to the DMV!"

Now, people love to be snarky about the DMV, and these people certainly weren't all that friendly, but it wasn't their fault that I couldn't register "Sterling." That happened because the seller and his wife are both named as owners on the title, but only he signed the sale box. The box with only his name turns out to be the address box. So the good news was that my trip to the DMV was very quick, and my issue was resolved. The bad news was the resolution: "Come back when you have the title signed." As I say, that wasn't their fault. On the other hand, they did seem to enjoy it more than I would consider appropriate.

The seller and his wife live over two hours away, and I can't make that drive this week, so I FedExed the title to him in a fairly secure manner. He says he'll have his wife sign it and send it back; I'm hoping to have it back by tomorrow or Thursday.

In other news, I have a Camaro tire thumping and making noise ever since I filled it with Fix-A-Flat; it's hardly noticeable at low or high speeds, but between about 50 and 65 miles per hour, it's enough to make me feel a little ill. So I took the car to a cheap tire place, where they very helpfully determined two problems:

1. My license plate sticker is expired; there's no sign of the new one we bought for September.

2. I never put the special locking-lug key socket back in the glove compartment, so they couldn't even remove the wheel.

So we've got one Ford Minivan that's working pretty well (since we paid through the nose to have the brakes redone on Saturday), one Volvo that runs great but has no license, one Camaro that runs but doesn't have a valid license sticker (If a cop runs my plates and they come back valid in the computer system, I hope that overrules the outdated sticker, because I'm really not sure what I did with that thing), and finally, the 1986 Chevy pickup sitting out back with a load of gravel in the bed. It's starting to get a little crowded around here again. But I got some repairs done on the Camaro last night, and once I get the tire situation sorted out I expect it to sell pretty quickly. There's no shortage of teenagers who want to look fast in something low and red.

An Embarrassment of Riches

Today:

• I got a silver 1994 Volvo 850 Turbo Sedan
  
• My Bride dropped what she was doing and drove across the state with me so I could drive it home.
• The Bears won, 48-41 in a nailbiter. I listened to it on the radio as I zipped between the cornfields in my new Turbo.
• The Vikings lost, 48-41 in a nailbiter. I listened to it on the radio as I zipped between the cornfields in my new Turbo.
• American Rifleman arrived.*
• Playboy arrived.*

Life is good.

*Well, technically, they arrived yesterday, of course. Nobody was home to get the mail.

Sunday Skepticationalism Will Have to Wait

UPDATE: I didn't much care whether it was an R model or not, and certainly wasn't paying extra for it, so I was perhaps too casual about that part. There was no R model in 1994; the actual race car they were based on was campaigned in the 1995 season. It's just a plain old silver Turbo model. I will cope somehow.

I just made a major (for me) purchase, and now I have to go back across the state to where I was yesterday to pick it up. It's a 1994 Volvo 850 advertised as a Turbo model, but it's not.

It's an 850 R.

And most importantly, it has a back seat and back doors, and I can put all three boys in the back, even with the baby's car seat.
"If you've ever purchased a sports car in a cornfield . . . it's just possible . . . you might be a redneck."

UPDATE: Oh, man, the sweetness. The sweetness envelopes and overwhelms. I wonder now whether a beneficent deity cast me into a Camaro so that I would understand this automobile in a way otherwise impossible, in the same way that a man must know evil that he may truly know goodness.

And now, random stuff that I swear people really said:

ME: "You know, guys, this car is faster than the Camaro, stops and handles better, and gets better gas mileage while it's doing it. Plus it has a nice big backseat."

KANE: "and we can put more guns in it!"

I Guess It Was Inevitable

Kane's class had a mock election yesterday. Kane voted for McCain.

The rest of the day, the other kids taunted him and called him a racist. It was a pretty good preparation for adult political discourse, come to think of it. We had a little talk about it, and I gave him the same advice I give grownups--if you know you're not a racist, what do you care what "they" say? Being called a racist is a sure sign that you're winning an argument, anyway.

Reboletti Responds

Don,

Thank you for your support. We are working on getting paypal up on the website, but until then checks can be sent to Citizens for Dennis Reboletti, PO Box 90, Addison, IL 60101. This is the second time they have done this. In my previous career I was a prosecutor. I didn't realize now I was anti-law enforcement, family and children.

Thank You,

Rep. Dennis Reboletti

Representative Reboletti, you might recall, is an Illinois state representative who voted against a redundant background check for handgun purchasers who had already undergone background checks. The Brady Campaign and their puppet groups in the so-called "Freedom States Alliance" brought their full political might to bear on him and another targeted legislator named Sandy Cole . . . which resulted in increased support for Representatives Reboletti and Cole. I know I, for one, didn't know who these people were until the Brady Bunch was kind enough to point them out. Both offices reported that the phones, FAX and emails ran about 5-to-1 in favor of their votes.

So there you have it. I don't know about you, but I'm sending Rep. Reboletti a check with a handwritten note enclosed.