tapas

Hah! I haz life skillz! I am rather pleased with myself this morning after borrowing a teeny tiny phillips head screwdriver from the sysadmins at work and replacing the battery in my car's remote entry/key fob.

Hopefully this will solve the mysterious "slow to start" problem I've been having sporadically for the last month. (It should. The key fob battery is supposed to last 1-3 years and the car is almost four years old and the procedure for "what to do if the key fob battery is dead" worked for getting the car to start, so all signs point to this as the problem.)

I was just about to schedule an oil change, since I'm at 3600 miles and have been feeling guilty about not changing the oil for the last 600 miles, and I checked the manual to see what other routine maintenance they recommended. I found that the manual recommends oil changes every 5000 miles/6 months. I'd always been told 3000 miles/3 months in the past. So, how often do you change your oil?

(p.s. I will be joining the LJ content strike on March 21st, from midnight to midnight, GMT. I'm not sure it will achieve anything, but I agree that LJ's management continues to make mistakes in how it treats the users and I hope this will get their attention.)

I'm still here. Just low on energy lately and thus quieter than usual. Random factoids:

I got a flu shot on Tuesday. My arm is still a little tender but I only really notice it when I'm rolling over in bed.

Wednesday is my double workout day, but only for another week. creed_of_hubris and I signed up for line dancing lessons through the community ed program. We're now on week seven of eight. Our classes have about 20 people, are held in a school cafeteria, and are taught by a husband and wife team. She demonstrates and talks us through the dances with a headset microphone at the front of the class and he changes the CDs and reports on our progress at the back of the class, letting her know whether we're getting it or whether she needs to go through it again. I'm really enjoying the classes but I suspect creed_of_hubris is mostly humoring me. After we were already signed up for that, they started a lunchtime yoga class at work and I wanted to try that too. I have some yoga videos but had never taken a class before. Unfortunately, the class is much too advanced for me. It assumes strength and flexibility I don't have and while the instructor does suggest some modifications, her suggestions are largely still above what I can do. So I end up pretty sore afterwards. But I'm figuring out my own modifications and I'm going to keep trying it for another month. I'd be better off with a beginner's class, but the convenience of having a class right at work is very attractive and worth putting up with some frustration. The line dancing class ends next week, so after that I'll be down to one workout per Wednesday.

I think I'm getting used to the annoying back-up beep on the Prius. creed_of_hubris and I went out for Thai food after dance class this week and when I started up the car and put it in gear I hesitated because something was wrong. It didn't sound right. Then I realized that I had parked so that I could pull out the front of a space, rather than backing out, and the reason the car didn't sound right was because it wasn't beeping. So I think that answers the question of whether I'd get used to the beep.

I know, I'm all about the car lately. But I just have to mention that today I noticed that it has no ashtrays. When did that happen? Is it just the Prius or are all new cars like that now? Also, way to go Prius! No ashtrays is a bonus from my point of view.

I've played with the cruise control and I'm quite enjoying the power locks and windows, none of which the old car had. Also, there are controls on the steering wheel for the air conditioning and the radio.

I suppose the novelty of these sorts of things wore off for most of you years ago, but for the moment I'm really enjoying how much I like the car. Happy, happy. Particularly after the stress of worrying that the old one would just die and leave me stranded.

Just put down a deposit on a Prius. If all goes as planned, it'll be waiting for us when creed_of_hubris and I get back from our New York trip on the 12th.

If anyone in the area didn't get the news through other channels, we'll be in New York City from tomorrow (Thursday) evening through the following Thursday and are hoping to arrange some socializing (dinner, shows, museums) while we're there.

The last decision on the car front, I think, is whether to take the extended warranty. We are inclined toward 'no' as Consumer Reports generally recommends against them.