Do We Live in the Same Nebraska?

The Mini salesman said that I could drive my motorcycle 8 months out of the year. I think he was trying to sell us a low mileage lease (5,000 miles per year).

I’m not sure what part of Nebraska he’s from. It must be a sunnier part, with warmer temperatures and no rain, where no one has to drive or walk a little kid to school.

Nice try.

I like Mini. The dealership was low stress. It was a “Hey, want to look at our cars? What options would you like? Want to take it for a spin?” environment. It was kind of fun to even be in the dealership, to be honest, and they vended FREE Starbucks coffee. What more could you ask for?

The Mini was a fun drive. The model we drove was priced at $21K, which is within market prices for a brand new car.

Maybe someday. At least I don’t have a hockey bag to fit in the back. 🙂

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

Mini Cooper

Today, we test drove a car just like this. It was a 2007 green and white Mini.

These cars look really small on the outside, but they are quite big on the inside. There is virtually no dash taking up any space. All the dials are huge and modern-looking. The ride is smooth. The seats were heated and the sunroof covered the whole top of the car!
We loved it, but our stupid Sonata is $6K upside down.
We’re going to have to do the unthinkable. We’re going to have to save and keep paying on the Sonata until it becomes more feasible.
40 mpg. Can you believe it? Who needs a hybrid when you can have a Mini for a LOT less??
Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

Bored?

Put this in your favorite browser to come up with a list of live webcams on the Axis network. It’s nothing racey, I promise (well, so far as I know). So far, I found a camera aimed at stars, one aimed at mountains, a street corner in the UK somewhere.

http://www.google.com/search?q=intitle:%22Live+View+/-+AXIS%22&hl=en&start=20&sa=N

Just when you think you’ve gotten to the end of the Internet.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

Calgon, Take Me Away

My days have been a whirlwind lately. Between skating lessons, girl scouts, dropping the motorcycle off for service, birthday shopping for The Little Kid, taking duplicate presents back to the store…

Well, you get the picture. It’s been crazy.

Yesterday, my husband had the GALL (lol) to ask if I wanted to go for a walk after work. “No,” I said, “I have a cake to bake and presents to wrap. Why don’t you go and take TLK with you?” So, off they went. I watched them walk into the park, and wished I could go, too, but I kept telling myself that my work was important, too.

Tomorrow, her birthday, more rushing around. Get pizza, drive to Iowa, party with the family. Saturday, my stepdaughter’s birthday. Drive to Iowa, have lunch. Open presents. Go home.

Sunday, TLK’s little kid party. Bowling. Three girls are coming. When I get to the bowling alley, I’m just going to watch them bowl and maybe wind down for Monday.

Hey, maybe I’ll take Monday off.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

One of the Fallen

Victor Antonio Martinez Pastrana was a dishwasher at the Windows on the World restaurant. Mr. Pastrana was originally from Tlachichuca, Puebla, Mexico. He was working in the United States to support his wife and two children who were still living in Mexico. From what I’ve read, they didn’t find his body. I hope he rests in peace.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

The Harley Davidson Factory


Yesterday, we took a whirlwind trip to the Harley Davidson Factory. We started out at 7:30am. The plan was to meet a group at Village Inn, then drive down to St. Joseph, Missouri, stop for breakfast, walk through the Harley Davidson shop, then book it to Kansas City for the tour.

We were part of a group of about 20 bikes travelling south on Highway 75. We stopped after an hour to fuel up. St Joe was only an hour away. Or so we thought.

Two hours later, we were still riding! The guy in charge missed the turn and we ended up in Topeka. Thank God we were due for fuel, and part of our group broke off to get some, because my rear-end was killing me, both feet were asleep, and the wind beating against my head was doing wonders for my neck.

We got onto Highway 70 and rode from Topeka to Kansas City, 100 miles that we shoudn’t have had to go.

We spent about 1/2 hour in the Harley factory, which wasn’t as exciting as one would think, since the factory is non-operational on Saturday. Picture a bunch of big machines, hooks with gas tanks and other parts on them, and a bunch of pipes laying out.

That was pretty much it.

Not having had any food at all yet, we hit the concession stand for the best pork tenderloin I’ve ever had. I took off my boots and dug my feet in the grass. They started to get some feeling back into them.

We decided we were ready to get out of there. We hopped onto I-29 this time, just our small group of 6, and headed for St. Joe for more fuel. This is where the heat and the ride and going 100 miles out of our way just finally rang it’s toll on me, and it was either take a long air-conditioned break, or I was going to fall over.

After about an hour in the Harley shop that we intended to visit that morning, I felt good enough to get going again. A couple of hours later, we scooped our kid up from her sister’s house and headed home.

I put 450 miles on my bike yesterday. My longest trip before that was 75 miles! I think I did really good for being mostly an in-town driver.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

Colds..

So, to send out the summer with a sad hurrah, I caught a summer cold. I suspect The Little Kid as the unwilling donor of the errant cold germs. It started on Sunday, when riding the motorcycles on a 2 hour round-trip. About 2 blocks from home, I thought, “I just want to fall over”, but of course, this is a bad idea when you have to balance.

I spent the next day and 1/2 in bed, just totally out of it… sweating, chills, night sweats, panging in the side of my head,; the earmark of severe congestion.

It’s really important to buy the minimal medicine you can get when you’ve got a cold to alleviate symptoms for, too. I bought the Tylenol Extra Strength, “I have the worst cold ever” formula. Too much Guaifenesin when a cold is just starting is not necessarily good.. Dry coughing ensued. A lot of it.

Day 3, stopped the, “I feel dead” medicine and bought just a decongestant. Supplemented with Tylenol every 6 hours. When I neglected to take the Tylenol on time, the chills came on, and I could not get warm quick enough.

I think I’m making some headway, though. I’m not needing the Tylenol every 6 hours. The head panging is nearly gone. Only the lovely cough remains. I’m still trying to decide if that’s doctor worthy or not.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂

And the Praying Mantis Wins

For several weeks, there has been a huge spider setting up a web on our deck. I’m terrified of spiders, but when the spider is big and it’s staying away from me, then I can cohabitate.. from a distance.

Last night, when I let the dogs out, I noticed a praying mantis stuck in the web. I wanted to do something, but I wasn’t sure how to get the mantis out of the web without:

1. Destroying the web; and
2. Having the web on me; and
3. Sending the big spider running .. God knows where.

So, I decided to let nature take its course, and thought the mantis would be lunch.

Well, either the spider doesn’t like mantis’s or the mantis was a little Houdini-like, because he was sitting on our screen this morning.

Mantis – 1 Big, Fat Spider – 0

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place. 🙂
Design a site like this with 人人做人人爱人人好人.com
Get started