FABOO MAMA

Auto — Comments
25
Apr 10

What a difference a week makes

Last Sunday, panic ensued because it sounded like the MIL was ready to buy us a car of her choosing. I felt we didn’t need a car because our 8 year old MINI was running just fine, gets good gas mileage, is fun to drive and is perfect for city driving. To be sure, it was fun looking at new cars, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that an extra car would sit unused in most cases.

Thursday, we got an oil change on our car. Bonus to that, is that the oil change wound up being free because they couldn’t change the filter. Extra-extra bonus is that the power streering came back. I guess they refilled the fluid…I don’t know.

Friday, Adrian hopped into the car to go grocery shopping. The car died in the driveway. There’s something wrong with the gear shift. It won’t move. We can push the clutch in, but we can’t shift.

Now, this is unsurprising because as I’ve mentioned before, our MINI is a piece of crap on wheels. But to have it happen now, is just our kind of luck. If it’s the gear box, this will be the 3rd time it’s happened. I doubt it’s the gear box, because usually, we can move the clutch around. But that’s an $1100 fix. If it’s the transmission, that will mean, it’s the 3rd transmission to fail in the 8 years we’ve had the car. The price tag on that repair is about $2800. Either way, we don’t have the money. And considering the MIL does not like the MINI and wants us to get a new car anyway, we don’t see her help forthcoming.

A week later: We’ve missed the Festival of Books due to the broken car. Today we were supposed to go visit the MIL to celebrate our daughter’s birthday. And now we’re totally okay with the MIL getting us a new car.

Auto / Shopping — Comments
20
Apr 10

The comforts of a car

We’ve been offered a “gift” of a new car. The string attached, is that the car must seat 5, comfortably. You know, unlike our MINI Cooper. The last 3 cars we’ve bought were months and months of research and test driving. I think normal people do it much quicker. This “gift” is a race against time. We’re worried that if we don’t find a car we like, one that we don’t like will be purchased for us. Considering our lifestyle and the thing we want to do, but can’t due to our current car, we’ve been considering wagons. He wants an WRX. I looked at the Mitsubishi Outlander and the Nissan Rogue, but neither have manual transmissions. Other options are the Jetta Wagon or a used Audi A3. I’ll look into options from Hyundai since many of my friends drive them and like them.

Our MINI is 8 years old and falling apart; the glove box is broken, reading light buttons are broken, CD changer is broken, chairs are broken, sunroof is broken, windshield is cracked…and then there’s the small issue of the damaged panel.

I’ve written several times over the years on why our MINI is a piece of crap car. Oddly, it took just looking at websites of other automakers to fully appreciate what we do have in MINI. I had assumed that 8 years later, many items that we have in our MINI would be considered standard in cars nowadays. Well, that’s not the case.

We’ve been spoiled by our MINI Cooper.

We have the sunroof/moonroof on our car and that has a built-in deflector and screening. There are audio controls in the steering wheel, which I love just as a safety feature. The car came with a 6 CD changer in the boot and a valet key. We have 4 carpeted floormats, 2 cargo nets and a cargo cover.

Needless to say, I love these features and thought that for certain cars, wagons to be exact, that some of these items would be standard. I was shocked to see that a sunroof or moonroof package on a car, was a separate fee from installing a wind deflector on the car. Some cars we’ve looked at don’t even have screening for the sunroof.

So, as we talk, we find that features we have in our craptastic MINI are the ones that make driving enjoyable or safer. We each have items that we want/need in a car, but I’m afraid that under $25K, that car doesn’t exist…unless we get another MINI, which is out of the question.

Today, we test drove a Mazdaspeed 3. It’s interior was insanely ugly and boring at the same time. I asked the salesman if you could open the trunk with the key. I have that ability on the MINI and it’s great when carrying many things or heavy items. He said the feature is only available in the sedans. I was surprised at his answer.

My husband’s focus on a car is that it has power, AWD with a manual transmission and matches his personality. My focus is that it gets good gas mileage, the chairs don’t hurt my back and arms, and that the suspension isn’t too bouncy. I drive a lot for work purposes, often logging over 200 miles in day. We want a car that will make us happy.

The MINI is a joy to ride, especially when I have to log 200+ miles one way. The psychological joy we both get from our oversized sunroof can not be minimized. Most cars without a sunroof feel claustrophobic to us. I feel so much safer driving down the freeway, using my steering wheel to control the volume or mode of music, than I do jabbing at buttons while trying to watch out for other drivers.

Obviously, there are things about the MINI that I detest or that don’t make sense now that there’s 4 of us. I can’t wait to have a car where I can put almost any sized cup in the cupholder. I crave sun visors that actually block out the sun and don’t block out the traffic lights. We do need more space, since all the gear we keep in the trunk takes up too much room. We now often have to pile grocery bags on top of the kids and the passenger. I can’t wait to be able to go to Ikea with the whole family without worrying about if we’ll need to have our items delivered or if a second trip back solo is in order.

Education — Comments
15
Apr 10

Is this who LAUSD wants representing them?

Today, I had the most bizarre experience with a completely unprofessional teacher representing the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP). This mandatory program began this week and runs until June 8th. Parents of Pre-K students must attend the classes or risk having their child removed from Pre-K.

As you can see, the flyer we received gave us 3 days of the week that classes are offered with 4 different 2.5 hours blocks of time to take these classes. I chose today since it was the one day I knew I would be able to come.

Once I arrived at the school, I learned that the class had been moved to another room. Other parents and an interpreter all showed up to Room 1 for the class, I walked them over to the correct room. When we got there, there was one other parent inside the classroom with the instructor. The instructor looked up, looked at the interpreter and said, “I don’t need you today. I needed you yesterday. Wednesday.”

“They told me to come today”, he replied as taken aback as I was by her tone of voice and lack of niceties.

She snapped back, “They told me I wasn’t even going to have an interpreter. Sit over there for 5 minutes, maybe some random person would need Cantonese today.”

My eyebrows were in my hairline, but I thought that maybe they had a history. I was soon to learn that she was just a bitch.

She turned to me, “What is he doing here? Why isn’t he in class?” indicating my son.

*blink*

I’m thinking this woman has clearly lost her mind because nobody speaks to me like that. I explained that he is in the afternoon classes that start at 11:15, fifteen minutes after the time the SRLDP is supposed to end. She said, “I’m trying to teach a class here. You couldn’t leave him at home?”

“Well, yes, I could hav e left him at home, but he would still need to be at school by 11:15. So…I…brought…him.” While I’m saying this, I’m taking my netbook out of my bag, so that I could set up a game for him to play while the class is going.

The instructor had turned away while I was talking and said something to another parent. Then turned back to me. “What is that?! Why are you taking that out?” I looked at my netbook, baffled.

“It’s a computer. I going to let him use it so that he’s quiet during the class. If that’s a problem, please let me know”, I told her, looking directly in her eye.

She sighed, rolled her eyes and said, “I’m trying to teach a class here. Today’s class is in Spanish.”

Surprised, I responded, “I didn’t know that, the flyer didn’t state that Thursdays was Spanish Day.”

“Your teacher should have told you”, she interrupted.

“But she didn’t and you’re assuming I don’t understand Spanish. Is this a problem? Do you need me to leave?”

She started stammering and sighing, “I just don’t know why you have him here and that is out.”

Fine. If I had to listen to this woman say one more thing, she might have to have my netbook surgically removed from her ass. So, I started packing it up.

“Where are you going?!” she yelled.

I looked at her like she was mad, “Clearly, you are aggravated by my presence, I’ll make it easy. I’m out.”

She said she wanted to talk to me. I told her that I don’t want to hear her. She said that she’ll follow me out and I shrugged and said, “Don’t bother. I don’t want to waste any more of my time with you.”

She followed me out anyway and started making noises. I interrupted her, “First of all, you don’t speak to me like that. You don’t know me. Secondly, if this only a Spanish class, then the flyer should have indicated that. And last, your attitude is rude. It’s crap that you expect me to listen to you.”

Her clever response? “What’s crap is your attitude!” Thumbs up. Way. To. Go.

I spoke to the School Coordinator and Principal about this woman. They said they’ve had complaints about her too and that she’s rude to them too. I just can not believe that anyone with that shitty attitude would even be allowed to speak to people, let alone get paid for it.

Uncategorized — Comments
12
Apr 10

School picture blackmail

Last month, we got notice that Spring photos would be taken the week before Spring Break. We got the form and tossed it because we were not interested in buying more photos. Imagine my surprise when I picked my child up from school and she had pictures.

What you’re seeing here is an 8×10, 5×7, 2 4×6, wallets, decorated wallets and a fun pack (bookmarks, ruler, door tag, key chain). I did not want this. I do not need this.

I am livid that this company, School Portraits by Kranz, Inc. and the school find it appropriate to not only take unwanted photos of my child, but print them and send them home with her so that we can look over them and pay for what we want to keep.

Yep. You read that right. She’s to return the photos if we don’t want them. What they do with these prints, I have no idea. I do know that little kids want everything. Six year olds, really don’t grasp the concept of cost or not needing useless stuff.

I also don’t get how this makes any business sense. Taking the time to photograph a person who never submitted an order form is one thing, but to print all of this and send it to the school seems like a great way to lose money. There are people who will keep the photos and not pay. There are people, like me, who will send the photos back and not pay for these already printed items.

I am also concerned about what happens to these photos once they are sent back. I want them destroyed. I do not want my daughter’s image used in this company’s marketing materials, if any. I really have no way to guarantee that both happen, beyond any promise the company may give me.

But beyond all of this, I am extremely upset that my little girl was in tears because I had to say ‘no’. She was so excited over the photos and in was in no state to listen to reason as to why I was saying ‘no’. To be sure, I’ll sit down with her tonight and explain again, but a 6 year old should never be put in this position.

What say you? Have you had this experience before? Do you think I’m over-reacting?

Internet — Comments
26
Mar 10

I’m part of the Taliban?!

Back in December, I wrote a post about a craigslist listing that sounded too good to be true and it was confirmed when I received what looked to be a phishing email. I got a couple of replies on it today (Whoops! I heard today is the 26th, so I just noticed them today), that just made no sense, grammatically speaking. I had to read it a few times before I realized this person was accusing me of being in on this nefarious plan to not really rent his/her house.

Check the stupid:

Really?

There’s a level of ignorance at play here that I’m not even going to waste my time responding to. It’s just amazing to me, that someone would actually type all this out, assume it makes sense and post.

Perhaps I’m different. If this was happening to me I would have contacted the blog author by email for more information before dealing my Bigot Card. Now? Not so inclined to help. Oh well.

******

Disclaimer: I deleted the comments and blocked the person. I have no intention of letting some stupid shit come to my blog and make baseless accusations with their bigotry.

Food — Comments
22
Mar 10

UPDATED! 7 Courses, 2 Hours, 1 Measuring Cup

This morning, I picked up my 1982 edition of The Family Cookbook Treasury to look for ice cream recipes. I don’t know how this book made it’s way into our cookbook collection, but it’s there. Flipping through the pages, I’m often left in awe at how utterly disgusting the photos make the food look. Not to mention, some of the recipes are pretty gagworthy. (Baked avocado? Pass.)

Still, I was convinced that an edible meal could be created. Therefore, I tossed aside the idea of making ice cream and decided to make a seven course meal. Tonight. So, I spent 45 minutes looking for recipes, created a quick grocery list and went shopping. I started cooking at 4:15pm and everything was done by 6:15pm.

I bet you’re curious about what we ate, so here it is. Ignore the place settings. It’s amazing to me to find that all my table linen has gone missing and half of my dishes have been broken or lost.

Course 1: Cottage Cheese Pâte

Continue reading →

Fitness — Comments
18
Mar 10

Sink or swim?

I’ve been thinking about how I need to incorporate more activities in my exercise regime. Running is fine and I’m proud of myself that I got off my ass and did it, but it still bores me to tears. Months of being unable to run made me reassess how I approach fitness. I want it to be fun again, not a chore. Finding my swimsuit had me thinking, “Triathlon”.

No, I don’t want to do a triathlon, but I watched so many of them over the summer, that I was psyched enough to start training. Only problem, besides the lack of non-stinky swimsuit, is that I suck at swimming.

You know those people who go to the pool, but don’t want to get wet? I’m only slightly more userful than them. Most of those types can swim. I can flail, splash, froggy-wiggle and float. Taking swim classes with my daughter only served to remind me that I was never formally taught how to swim. Freestyle, butterfly, breastroke, backstroke…I’m aware they exist, but I have no idea how to do those fancy arm things without getting water up my nose (<–PHOBIA ALERT!).

I got my husband’s bike fixed today; I already have my running gear and just need a non-stinky swimsuit. I found this pretty neat triathlon training plan today. Let’s just hope people can keep their giggles to a minimum when I start doing laps at the pool.

Uncategorized — Comments
05
Mar 10

Why so mysterious?

Themes are getting redundant

Most people are aware that I enjoy Hidden Object games. Most of them are clever, in that there are intricate puzzles you need to figure out beyond the mundane part of finding items on a list. It seems safe to assume that market research shows that 18 – 25 year old white women are the biggest consumers of the games because that is usually the character we’re presented with in most of these games. She often has to travel the world or through time to find some hapless male relative who went and got himself missing either by messing around with stuff he shouldn’t have been messing with or messing around with the wrong mad scientist or evil wizard.

For mindless play, I guess this is okay, but usually the stories are so redundant that there is no point in playing them because you know how they’ll end. This is makes setting even more important. Mystery Case Files has a wonderful franchise in their games. While the puzzles and graphics are often excellent, what makes them more attractive is the setting. Ravenhearst and especially Return to Ravenhearst were just unsettling at times. There were areas of the games I wanted to avoid because they were scary.

Lately, it seems that other game companies, wishing to latch onto MCFs success with Return to Ravenhearst, have gone the mystery route. Sadly, they do it so poorly and just come off as cheap knock-offs. Most of these games don’t even have the awesome puzzles that are really the core of the MCF games. Now we’re faced with titles like in the graphic above (from Big Fish Games) and no compelling game play. Mystery for the sake of mystery is never a good idea. I need something to sink my teeth into.

http://www.mysterycasefiles.com/

Me / Nature — Comments
04
Mar 10

It’s no secret that I prefer, no, love summer. I like the heat. I adore days that seemingly last forever. There is a reason I’d never move any place where it snows more than one day a winter. Somehow, this winter seems longer than others and I’m not too happy about that. I could blame the weird, cooler weather in fall on the nearby fires. It feels like it’s been raining every week since December. There was that bright spot in the middle of February when it hit 81 degrees for 3 days in a row.

I want that back.

I need the sun kissing my skin.

Now.

Entertainment — Comments
02
Mar 10

Achievement Addiction

A few months ago, I read an article about people who only play Xbox to get achievements. I thought it was rather sad and depressing. From my point of view, life is too short to play bad games just because you can get points that mean and do nothing. Never in a million years did I think I’d be raising two kids addicted to achievements.

I think it all started this past week. My daughter, who has had her XBL login since ‘08, had 65 gamer points. My son, who got his login in December, had 150 points. Naturally, she thought that unfair. Somehow, in all of this, it became my responsibility to pass levels for them. Why? Not just because of the achievements, but because they want to play many characters at once. They can’t do that in Story Mode.

So, now my days are spent passing or “helping” them pass levels to unlock Free Play. High-fives all around once a level is complete. There is dancing if more than 3 canisters are collected in a round. It’s a good thing these Lego games are fun and pretty easy to play. I’ve played some levels 6 times now and I still find new rooms.

FABOO MAMAInside the mind of an opinionated mama…