(no subject)

My car is driving me nuts.

Three weeks ago I got a complete 60,000 mile tuneup, after the engine light started coming on. It was fine for a few days, and then the engine light came back on. But it ran fine. I called them and they said to drive it over the weekend and if the light didn't turn off, to bring it in.

Well the following Monday the light went off. It stayed off all week, until Friday. Of course, t he dealership is closed on the weekend, so I had to wait until the next weeks to take it in.

That was this week. I didn't get it taken care of early in the week, and had errands to run on Wednesday. Thursday I slept in because I'd stayed up too late. So Friday I knew that I needed to get it done, didn't want to put it off for another week. I got up early, got ready, and headed out.

The only problem? For the first time in a full week, my engine light didn't come on.

I considered whether I should take it in anyway, but after all, if it stayed off, problem solved. There really wasn't any question that anything was actually wrong with my car. And it would be strange to complain about the engine light coming on when the problem appeared to have solved itself already. So since I'd left early, I went to the dollar store and wandered around a bit. I bought some cheap cans of mixed nuts for work, and a small plastic puss 'n' boots figurine from Shrek 2. I like the dollar store. Everything's a dollar!

I still had some time before work so I stopped at Albertson's and did a little shopping. Then I headed to work.

At this point, of course, my engine light came back on. So basically in the last 8 days it has been on constantly, except for the one single hour when I was planning to take it in to the dealership to look at it.

Stupid car. I'll have to take it in Monday I suppose.

(no subject)

Today's project, if you could call it a project, was to drive up to Kent to visit the mega-sized dollar store there. R at work told me about it Friday after I said I'd stopped at the local Auburn Dollar Tree and wandered about. So off I went!

The fun thing about wandering about a dollar store is that you can feel pretty guilt-free about buying whatever strikes your fancy. After all, it's only a buck! Hard to get yourself into too much trouble at those prices. ^_^

Anyway I picked up some canned goods -- veggies and beans. Good stuff to have around to toss into a crock pot for a spur-of-the-moment soup or stew. I got a spatula (insert UHF "spatula city" ad here). I got a box of graham crackers, a bag of sugar-free hard candy for work, and a bottle of all-purpose cleaner. I decided against buying a bottle of dish soap for pretty much the same reason I've sworn off buying shampoo or conditioner at these places -- what you get is very watery. Some things at a dollar store aren't that much different from their more expensive counterparts at a regular store, but some are obviously cheaper for a reason.

My best find was some Fruit-20 bottled flavored water. I like to keep that stuff in the fridge, and a six-pack of Fruit 20 or Aquafina usually runs $2.50 to $3.99. Finding some 4-packs of raspberry and 6-packs of apple flavor for $1 each was a very good deal indeed. (The check out lady had to ask to have one of the apple six-packs pulled from the shelf for herself, she thought it was a good deal too).

Anyway, I got a bunch of stuff and spent less than $15, and had some fun wandering around the store. Mission accomplished!

My other goal for the day is to write. And probably start cleaning up for next weekend's writer's night. And send out directions on how to get here. But mostly I want to get something written, I haven't done much writing lately although I keep pulling up different stories and making plans to add to them.