Thoughts On Toyotas, Tv Shows And Kevin’s Current Book Line-up.
And now, it’s time for the timely updates on the lives of Kevin & Kim (& kids, where applicable…)
Toyota – When we first moved here to Oklahoma, we used some of the extra profit from our house in St. Louis to buy a new vehicle. It was a Toyota 4Runner (1998) that belonged to a friend of my father’s, and it’s worked great ever since. Very reliable and enjoyable. (Enjoyment comes from getting to look down on the cars around me, looming high and safe overhead…)
Anyhow, it recently hit 160,000 miles, so I took it into the shop to have it tuned up. (You know… The 150,000 mile tune-up marker?) So they tuned it all up… To the tune of $1,200+.
Yeah. Can you say “Ouch”?
I know that they did a lot of the good stuff that needed to be done – found and patched leaks, etc., but what killed me was the item on the bill where they replaced the bulb over my license plate. The part? $2.90. The labor? $48.00.
You may now cry with me. And LEARN with me, people! The next time your mechanic calls to suggest replacing something, if he utters the word “bulb” you give him a resounding “NO!”
Just. Say. No. (To bulb replacement.)
Still, I figured it would be better to get everything tuned up properly rather than “take a chance” with it all. But you just know I was praying on the way home not to get in an accident… man, THAT would’ve hurt…!
Moving on…
Kim and I are looking to move sometime at the beginning of the year. Her job is going to move us to one of the 17 largest offices. We get to rank ‘em, but they get to pick ‘em. We’re not really too freaked out about it all, though.
Having moved 8 times in the first 7 years of our marriage, new places and faces are just a fact of life to us. Plus, we LIKE getting to meet new people! They’re fun, and reassure ourselves of our normalcy(sp?) in comparison.
In preparation for the move, we’ve cleaned up the front yard, put “boxwoods” in our front flower bed, laid down nice cypress mulch and the works. I’d say it looks better than we bought it, but that’d just be a big fat lie. It looks good, but it doesn’t look like we’re obsessed with the yard, living and breathing just to eliminate every weed in a 50 yard radius.
Oh no. It doesn’t look like that at all. 
We’re gonna repaint the bedroom and bathroom, but I think we’re skipping the granite countertops in the kitchen. Houses aren’t selling all that fast in our neighborhood, and we’re not realy convinced we’d make our money back. Aside from that, we’ll be ready to go. (And don’t forget to whip out the vanilla-scented plug-ins, people. They say it helps sell the house, make it feel more homey and warm-like.
Fall TV Shows
Heroes – Unfortunately, this show continues to disappoint me. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s wrong with it. It’s like the promise of delivering quality, “that’s really cool” moments is hit or miss. I find the new storylines completely muddied up and bogged down.
Hiro’s in feudal Japan? Peter’s an amnesiac in Scotland? Two Latino Wonder Twins swap black goo between each other? And Matt survived 5 bullets to the chest… HOW, exactly? Yeah. I’m afraid I just don’t care anymore. I’ll keep watching for the occasional wicked cool event, but I’m making a formal complaint to NBC right now: I’m not impressed anymore.
Bionic Woman – I loved the concept, but even when the previews were showing last Spring, I was afraid this wasn’t going to live up to expectations. And I was right.
I understand what the creators were trying to do, though. Fill in the gap of female-led butt-kicking shows while capitalizing on the success of sci-fi hits like Heroes. It’s a decent formula, and they’ve updated it to the modern work fairly well, too.
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