smart kitty

My sunny little town of Petaluma held the annual Butter and Egg Days parade on Saturday. It is Petaluma's 150th birthday. Even though I have lived there for four years now, this was my first time attending it intentionally. (A few times I tried to drive somewhere and was like "Why are there tractors, and people dressed up like cows on the street? Inconvenient!)

It was a gorgeous day, and I enjoyed being outside with the townsfolk.

I didn't have my camera for the most adorable segment of the day: The Cutest Chick Contest, wherein babies dressed up like chickens to compete for the crowd's love and admiration. I loved them all. Babies!

I did, however, have my camera for the most perplexing part: the parade itself. I have always been confused by parades that aren't the Rose Parade. What is the point? The floats are not usually pretty, and it seems like it's just an opportunity to make children march in the street and look at war veterans wearing special hats. Trucks driving around in circles with people waving at you from the back?

Hence my new slogan:
Parades -- a whimsical way to waste gas!

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Posted by smart kitty at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Sometimes I have weeks where I spend my nights watching movies with my cat. And other times I go a bunch of places and do things. This week, I went places and did things. Perhaps I was reinvigorated by Sleep All Day Monday, the day I had a facsimile of mono and felt too gross to do anything once I was awake.

Thing 1:
Exciting food outing! Tuesday I went to CoCo's Crawfish with Justin, Stephanie, Joy and Kyle to eat cajun-style fun food. It is steamed in a bag with spices!

Here is a picture Justin took of our bag of crawfish. They are like tiny lobsters. I really like food you are supposed to eat with your hands. After, we went to Alembic for awesome old timey cocktails. Verdict: I enjoy flavor.

Thing 2:
Wednesday I went to FM's party that was the hotspot of the Web 2.0 South Park crawl. Hung out with lots of cool folks. Internet! Afterwards, we went to Mel's Diner. I actually ordered a boring old grilled cheese sandwich. But Jean ordered apple pie with melted cheese ala mode.


She took this photo of her somewhat strange (and not gross but also not good) dessert. Upon further urging, she posted about it on the good old internet. Verdict: cheese on pie = unnecessary

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Posted by smart kitty at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I finally bought a new car! It is cute, and I like it.

Even though I am a grownup with a decent job, I just had a hard time believing I was actually getting a new car. I'm 31, and I'd kind of emotionally accepted the fact that I would never be able to have a new car.

Aside from being broke for most of my life, I inherited a bit of that attitude from my family. My mom's reaction to me getting a new car was: a) Oooh, Honda? Fancy! You must have hit the big time. That is a rich person's car. Are you sure you can afford that? Now your insurance will go through the roof! b) So, it's NEW? I have never had a new car in my life and probably never will. Wow!

I've been at the mercy of a crappy car that has scrapes and bruises and has broken down on me many times, usually when I could barely afford to fix it. It was like an abusive boyfriend. I was embarrassed to introduce it to new people, for fear it would do something bad I'd have to make excuses for later. A few times I had to tell people what it had done and then act like it didn't bother me too much, although it was obvious that it did. No one could really understand why I was with it for so long. Most of the time it was fine, but other times it was really bad. And those were the times everyone knew about and wondered why I'd put up with it. But they didn't understand! I was stuck with it, and it was my fault.

On my way to the dealership I couldn't believe that they were actually going to let me have a brand-new car. I was worried that somehow they would be able to tell that I wasn't supposed to have one and retract the deal. I had already arranged the price via email and phone. But it wasn't for reals until I had signed everything, called "no takebacks" and driven it off the lot.

It was a good thing I had done all my negotiating beforehand rather than in person. It must've been pretty obvious that I was scared out of my mind. I made sure to repeat the price several times to the sales guy and reiterate that it was the "out the door, after tax, all fees included, this is the number on the check you are getting" price. But! Suddenly when I got to the finance guy, it seemed like my fears were warranted.

Now, I was not financing through the dealership. But the final registration and paperwork goes through their finance department regardless. I signed like 40 papers, and then came the paper with the total price on it. And it was $1100 more than what I'd agreed to pay! It turns out that it was just a paperwork error by the sales guy ... but I was about to barf while I waited for him to come and confirm that to the finance guy. So I was able to get the price I'd agreed to. And really I just had to wait 5 minutes for them to sort that out. And I must've looked really scared, because the finance guy kept telling me it would be OK and then paging the sales guy over and over and eventually running out to the lot to grab him. That was the longest 5 minutes!

Then I got my shiny new silver car. The End!

Notes:
-- If, like me, you are tough in theory but not in person, I highly recommend doing as much as you can over email when you buy a new car. Saved a lot of time and money!

-- Marin Honda in Corte Madera was awesome. Aside from the minor paperwork scare, everything went smoothly and they never pressured me or condescended to me. Plus, I got a hell of a deal. Other dealerships got very close to the price I was asking for (which was quite low) but this one beat the lowest by $600 and with no back-and-forth or haggling.

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Posted by smart kitty at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Joy and I went to San Franciso to do big city things. And I bought a ton of stuff! There was even more stuff I wanted to buy, but I am not that madcap or rich. However! I did buy the arts pictured above. (They are 25x18, if you are trying to figure out how large they are) I forgot the artist's name. It will come back to me.

The other things I bought are not installed yet, so you cannot see them. Suspense! I bought a new thingy to put my TV, stereo and DVD player on that will also store all of my records. Finally. It's only been a bazillion years. I will show it to you once it is in my apartment and set up (I had to order it). I also got a neat coat hook that is shaped like a "You are here" arrow. It requires a drill to put it in. How dumb.

Some firsts about the city this time around:

1. It was hot. I mean, hot! This would be the first time ever where I was too hot wearing jeans.
2. We were in the Mission and it wasn't a giant pain in the ass. As much as I like the Mission, normally it is such a pain in my country bumpkin ass to deal with that I stay away from it for like 6 months. I was able to park my car twice, eat without waiting for 9 years and not be crowded by sour people.
   
3. People seemed happy and friendly. People were walking around smiling. Usually San Franciscans are sour. (Sorry, San Francisco, but it is true!) Maybe it is just bad weather that makes them upset, and when it is sunny and they can wear dresses and shorts then they cheer up.
4. There were things I wanted to buy and they ended up being the price I thought they should be instead of four times as much. (There were some pieces of art I couldn't afford, but they were definitely worth the high price tags.)
5. Did I mention I could park? I found parking at three different locations! I didn't even have to parallel park. I don't care if it makes me sound provincial: I think it is really annoying not to be able to drive somewhere I want to go and then park my car somewhat near that place. I don't want to take seven forms of transportation to get one place that is 6 miles away.
   

We also ate tapas at Ramblas. Delicious! Who would have thought beets with blood oranges, fennel and basil would be so tasty. But they totally were. (For those of you worried about me not eating enough meat, I also ate albondigas, which are meatballs. Phew.)

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Posted by smart kitty at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post