The Adventures of Flat WeaselMomma and Niecey

Let's rewind things a bit and go back to November for a bit shall we. A reminder I had the plague, though was declared to be noncontagious by my doctor extraordinaire and sent off to go spend Thanksgiving with my family. I was hogging hosting Flat WeaselMomma at the time before giving her up so she could go visit NukeDad who still hasn't written a post about their adventures, neither has BusyDad... I of course was excited to see my family, last time I had visited was July and Niecey and Pa visited me in August but I had not seen any of them since. I of course had to take a picture of two of my favorite blog subjects:

Niecey fell in love with Flat WeaselMomma, which awesomely translated into my normally a bit shy Niecey being totally comfortable with the not flat version of WeaselMomma when we visited her later that week. We of course had to bring her on our road trip to Michigan, she helped Pa drive:


Then she went and hung out with Niecey to keep her company for a bit:

She then decided to check on Cheryl to make sure she was still alive after taking cold meds and Dramamine and not sleeping (poor kid gets car sick easy and having a cold on top of it was not pretty). Baby Sibling was quite stoned and out of it and didn't really remember this but was gracious enough to let me post it (she is likely going to use this to barter putting a horrible pic of me on her blog but who could resist posting this hilarious pic?!):

This is the picture I got of the political cesspool city of Chicago, Dad wouldn't stop on the expressway so I could get a better shot and probably didn't appreciate my unsuccessful attempts to get FWM in the picture so this is the best I got:

We made pretty good time and made it into Indiana, notice how the sign is back lit, the sun appears to be in the eastern sky. Who knew that the sun could be over on that side of the sky? Normally when I see the sun it is in the western sky, strange! Whatever this horrible voodoo magic is it is not good for trying to get a picture of the sign:


Daddy was driving a bit fast and my sleep deprived reflexes made me basically miss this one (can you tell the trip was boring and uneventful, especially for the sickly passenger who can't sleep in cars and her niece and sibling both decided to nap):

Since Oldsie is not the only car that has a no bodily fluids policy we stopped at a rest stop after crossing the border, I showed Niecey where we were on the map, she though this was pretty cool and decided we should share it with you:

They had a fake lighthouse by a pond, I had to cross the parking lot to be able to get the whole thing in the shot, makes Niecey and FWM look quite tiny:

We finally got to our aunt's house and after eating a nice big meal, beating up all her big cousins, and playing with her little cousin Niecey, Big Bear, Auntie Cheryl's Sock Monkey, and FWM decided to call it a night (not leaving much room for me!):

Since Michigan borders the North Pole we had a white Thanksgiving, Niecey enjoyed this greatly and FWM got to show off her winter clothes in action, sweet!:


We all had a great time and were sad to say goodbye, too bad we only get to go once a year! It was definitely a busy week full of family and friends, all of whom gave us much to be thankful for.

Navigationally Challenged

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses; strengths to help you get through life and weaknesses to keep you humble. One of my weaknesses is the fact that I am navigationally challenged. Once I have been a place enough times I am pretty good at getting around but until I am used to it I can get turned around and lost quite easily. I was discussing this with WeaselMomma on one of her recent posts, I was telling her that if I ever went to Philly (her home town) that I would probably end up calling her hopelessly lost and she'd have to figure out where I was and get me unlost, or that I would have to kidnap her and use her as a prophylactic but in this case as a guide so I didn't get lost and not in terms of antibiotics* nor birth control.** I then revealed to her that I was navigationally challenged to the point of getting lost in my hometown and she said she wanted to hear this one so I am indulging her and the rest of you with one of my slightly less finer moments, enjoy.

It was the fall of 2001, I had graduated high school, gotten my driver's license, became a deli clerk, and got my first car, a 1988 Mercury Topaz that was my grandma's but she had stopped driving and it was just sitting in her driveway collecting wasp nests, a fact that scared the shit out of my mother (Hi Mom, I saw you save my blog address so you don't have to hide if you are reading this, I was getting ready to link you anyway). I started college that August at Benedictine University, a small private university in Lisle, IL. It was an interesting transition for me, not only was I new to the whole college thing but I had my K-12 in public school (a good system) and it doesn't take much guesswork to figure out that Benedictine is a catholic school given the being named after a saint thing.

At Benedictine Christian values are something they strive to instill in their students no matter what religion they are, this was rather apparent in their humanities classes, especially the first one that all students are required to take. In that course I was given an assignment, I was to do 10 hours of community service and write a report about the experience. This assignment proved very difficult for me, not only did I now have a full time course load but I was also a deli clerk and up until that summer I had been in a coed youth program through the Boy Scouts of America called Venturing Crew. My crew dissolved before I started college. While in crew I did many hours of community service, without crew I had no outlet and had to find my own place to volunteer, and most I thought of and contacted didn't have anything or I needed to have background checks or other nonsense that prevented me from doing it. Finally I found a nursing home that was happy to have some free labor, and it happen to be in my hometown, score!

A little bit about my hometown. It is a rather small suburb of Chicago. According to the sign last time I saw it there are 24,600 people in my town, obviously this is a somewhat rough estimate but close enough. Almost no one has heard of this little town, it isn't uncommon for people from neighboring burbs to have not heard of it. I was about a year and a half old when my family moved to this town and lived there until I finished my undergraduate work and moved here for grad school. So one would assume that I know this town quite well right? Well you assumers are wrong, I know parts of this town very well, the nursing home in question was NOT in my area, which was still very small since I had only recently started driving. My mom told me she knows where this place is, it is past 63rd street she tells me. And so confident in my abilities I got in my trusty Mercury and hit the road.

I get on the street the place is on and am driving along and get to 63rd street and start looking for a nursing home, I didn't see one. I kept going a ways until I decided I must have missed it and so turn off the main road onto a side street so I can turn around legally (too much traffic to do one of the U-turn using all 4 lanes my daddy taught me and I have made my own). Unfortunately for me this stupid side street had some odd twists (I was going around the block instead of finding a driveway to use figuring it would be easier, hah!) and instead of ending back on the main road I was on I got on another road that I thought was the main road but wasn't. At this time I had this really bad instinct to keep driving, I used to always do that when lost, just keep driving in hopes I would eventually get somewhere I recognized. In my defense I had not diagnosed myself as navigationally challenged yet and used to be dumb enough to think this method might work.

I drove until the road I was on either ended or forked and kept going and going. Eventually I saw a Jewel, which is a grocery store chain, and decided enough was enough and stopped to find out where the heck I was and call for help. I walk into the Jewel and find an associate and asked them what town I was in, the answer was Countryside, which is several towns over and around 6 miles from my hometown, though I took the insanely "scenic" route. I found out the street names and got on my cell phone (which only had 75min/month so I never used it) and called Grandpa and told him where I was and asked how to get home. He gave me specific enough instructions and so I went on my merry way.

The funny/ironic part was as I got back on the street I was on and drove further I drove into LaGrange, the town I was born in, where my clinic/hospital was and oh yeah, where I went to church for quite a few years. I was not far along at all when I started recognizing the landmarks, the road I was on was the road we took to get to church, except we turned before Countryside since it was in LaGrange, once I was in LaGrange I knew exactly where I was and how to get back. So my strategy funnily enough would have worked had I stuck with it about a block or two more, which is probably why I later used it when trying to navigate elsewhere with generally bad results. Instead of going home I decided that since I had been driving for like an hour or so I should at least try to make it to the nursing home, which Grandpa told me was BEFORE 63rd street. I found it and worked for a few hours, the next day I went back for a few more and then was too busy to get the full 10 so wrote it up as was and turned it in for a not so good grade.

And that dear readers is how I got lost in my hometown. Since then I have actually improved in my abilities to turn around and am a little better at navigating. It helps that I generally refuse to go anywhere without mapquest directions. Oh and my getting a little mixed up on my way to the Weasel's house was totally the weather's fault. I went during a bit of a snow storm that consisted of somewhat sticky blowing snow that coated the street signs and reduced visibility. That said if I ever do go to Philly I will likely get myself GPS chipped and steal WeaselMomma along the way!

~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*Use of antibiotics in a patient without a bacterial infection that has a risk of contracting one is the application of the word prophylactic that I encounter and use the most.
**Referring to various birth control methods as prophylactics was the application I actually forgot about when commenting on WeaselMomma's blog, proving once again that I am a nerd and my blog title is quite appropriate in more than just the figurative sense.

Christmas 2, Microblogologist 0

First off, merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate Christmas, to those of you that do not disregard the merriment if you so choose, you can definitely be merry if you want, whatever works for you and happy Hanukkah to my Jewish reader(s) and to Doc (if you read this Doc my present to you is I gained about 2 pounds in mostly healthy ways). That said Christmas is kicking my ass. Last Christmas I spent inside my car, outside my apartment, in the freezing cold weather we in the midwest all know and love *cough despise cough* before going to work for a few hours and then having company over in the form of a police officer and three firefighters. This Christmas so far does not seem like it is going to turn out much better. What you want me to go into excruciating detail? OK, for you my dear readers I will.

Round One: Christmas 2007 v Microblogologist

Last Christmas I was supposed to go see my family only they were sick. I was dating a guy who lived at home with his parents and his dad (who is awesome) has cancer and is immunocompromised. My goal in life at the time was to get to see boyfriend and not kill his father (who I adore). I also did not like the sounds of the diseased masses that was my family at the time, seriously ew. The year before I went to their place for thanksgiving and they decided to give me more than thanks, they gave me influenza, thanks family! After that I tended to avoid going home if they had some form of pestilence but especially with the immunocompromised in my life (besides bf's dad there was also my diabetic friend and her former premie son, aka my godson Buggy).

So I decided to wait it out and go home for new years instead. I was not thrilled with this, missed everyone and had worked my butt off to get my experiment done in time so I could have gone and all but I was trying to make the best of it. I had found a duck at the store for a good price and decided to make it for my meal, might as well celebrate with a nice meal. I baked the duck and I think made mashed potatoes and beans to go with it, some of my favorites. Right when my dinner was done the carbon monoxide detector decided that to inform me that I was going to die.

I opened the kitchen window (it was probably in the 20°F range, thanks Pasha for teaching me that alt 248 = °), turned on the stove vent thing, and muted the CO detector and sat down to eat. Unfortunately the stupid detector only stays muted for a short time before telling you that you are going to die some more in its own special ear splitting way. I think death may in fact be preferable to the horrid pain the alarm inflicts on my poor ears! I kept muting it for a bit but eventually got frustrated and moved me and my meal out into my car so I could at least eat it instead of having to get up every 30 seconds to hit the alarm. I called my BFF Pasha from the car because I knew it would make his Christmas to hear I was eating Christmas dinner in Oldsie, it did, Merry Christmas you bastard! (I swear we really are friends!)

I finished eating and the damn alarm was still going off so I decided to let the apartment air out some more and go get some work done, not like I had anything better to do. I went back in to get some stuff and open more windows and then abandoned ship. I went to work and enjoyed having the lab to myself and made up a bunch of dilution blanks, which I use to see how many bacteria are in a sample. I got back home around 1am and the damn alarm was STILL GOING OFF! The neighbor was outside smoking and told me that it was ok since he could sleep through it, I was soooo glad. What really ticked me off was the fact that the neighbors knew the alarm was going off but none of them checked on me, this is not the first time alarms have gone off in the building and they have ignored them. I check when I hear one, if it were in their apartment I would knock and see if they were ok if it went off for more than a few minutes, maybe it is a cultural thing... So I decide it is time to call the after hours number listed and get the ISUPD and they dispatched a cop and called the fire dept. They did not find any CO in my apartment and pulled the battery from the alarm. My guess is that there may have been CO produced by my oven that triggered it and then it got stuck on, could have been defective just as easily, wouldn't be the first time for either scenario in this neighborhood. Definitely a Christmas FAIL.

Christmas 1, Microblogologist 0

Round 2: Christmas 2008 v Microblogologist

As my regular readers know I contracted a plague (respiratory virus not bubonic) at the end of October when a professor decided to visit my lab and share the viral love. I quarantined myself for over 3 weeks and almost didn't go visit my family for thanksgiving but Doc checked me out and told me that I had a secondary infection and was no longer contagious and to get my butt out of here and go see my family. He didn't send me off without drugs of course, he is my drug lord after all. He sent me over to the drug dealers and they hooked me up with an antibiotic (highly debated) and these cool little cough suppressant pills. He tried to put me on two antibiotics but I protested and got it down to one, having a wacky GI tract to begin with I didn't want to beat the crap out of it with antibiotics. My Bubbie (grandma) basically called me an idiot for not listening to him and taking both, the woman who pretty much tells her friends I am a genius and going to cure cancer or something (highly unlikely), Mom also thinks I should have taken both. I currently think that I should have had both but perhaps staggered them, my GIT has been acting up a bit since I had the first round so who knows how bad it could be if I had two at the same time unbalancing the system. Remember, I do approve of antibiotic usage when it is needed.

So I took my meds and went for thanksgiving and had a blast. The antibiotics seemed to help but they did not knock it out completely, I am still sick. Thankfully I became a functional not contagious sick person so I was able to get back to work and worked my butt off since the day I got back so I could be done with the current experiment before Christmas. I did in fact finish it, not counting the ones I have to redo and we were supposed to leave the 23rd for Chicago (we as in Baby Sibling aka my babysitter aka The Unmarried Housewife), but I lost track of time and we weren't ready to go at a reasonable hour and I was starting to feel my sinuses building up pressure. The plan was to leave early today but I was feeling progressively sicker and my sinuses want me dead so that didn't happen. I am hoping that tomorrow I will feel better and be able to make the trip but either way I believe this round goes to Christmas.

Christmas 1, Microblogologist 0

Final Score: Christmas 2, Microblogologist 0

An Update, A Message for Doc, and An Answered Question

So I have not posted since I was in Chicago over the Thanksgiving holiday, what a neglectful blogger I have been! Rumors of my death are somewhat exaggerated, my new wife/babysitter is taking very good care of my workoholic self. Though her looking up what a GI doc would likely do to me if I ever let Doc talk me into seeing one has led me to conclude that I think I would rather die than take that referral. Good thing my issues are not life threatening, Doc said he has yet to lose a patient and I would hate to be the one to ruin his record!

My Shadow and I rocking the bun look Grah dislikes

I have not forgotten this blog and all of my bloggy friends, in fact in my spare time I have been trying to catch up on my blog reading, remember I was a blogoholic before I was a blogger. I will be posting more about my trip over thanksgiving and such but it will have to wait until I have a few more brain cells working. Since coming back I have been working every day and I think I am averaging about 10 hours a day, though not all of that is working 10 solid hours and I have been going to water aerobics (Thursday was the last day before finals and break sadly). I still have some residual plague symptoms but it is not that bad and does not interfere with my working so I plan to ignore it and hope the immune system eventually works it out.

Niecey and Smallest Weasel (so cute!)

Despite all the driving, 5.5 hours to Chicago followed by about 5 to Michigan after sleeping an hour between, it was worth it to get to see my beloved family and it was such a treat getting to meet the real WeaselMomma and her delightful family. My little shadow definitely felt it was worth the time and gas for me to come visit her and go meet our new weasel friends. I was not planning to make the trip since I was still sickly but Doc assured me that I was not contagious anymore and told me to go see the family. Niecey definitely appreciated the fact that I followed his advice and wanted to tell him. Here you go Doc, a video on my blog just for you, thank you so much for all you do to try and keep me functioning despite my orneriness:

And I have decided to answer a question (and probably go off on several tangents) I received from Abby here since my computer ate my reply to her on her blog and also I have a tendency to write way too much for a comment (if you aren't cool with this Abby let me know and I'll delete this part or edit it). She and her wife have an adorable daughter who has GI issues, some of her symptoms are quite similar to mine but the poor kid is way worse than I am and we have different causes for our issues. I find it interesting that so many GI issues have very similar symptoms and treatments, I learn so much reading about what they are going through with Hallie (though of course I prefer the posts that tell how cute and smart she is with pictoral evidence). In my experience and based on what I know and have read, people with GI issues have to find the right balance of drugs and foods to either control or lessen the symptoms. The current treatment Hallie is on or is about to be on involves a course of antibiotics to try and knock back a potential overgrowth of bacteria in her intestines (most likely kinds that are not the healthiest to have) . Someone suggested that they put her on probiotics (she is actually already on them), which are health benefiting microorganisms (generally bacteria), to hopefully prevent some of the more unpleasant aspects of going on the antibiotic* (diarrhea mainly I am guessing but they can cause more than just that).

Being a microbiologist with similar issues and who happens to work with probiotic organisms (specifically Bifidobacteria) I commented that I felt this was good advice. Use the antibiotic to knock out the bad and then take probiotics during and after in hopes of colonizing her gut with healthy bacteria. She asked me what I use and somewhat ashamedly I must confess that I do not really practice what I preach and currently am not taking any probiotics. I was trying to get into the habit of eating Dannon Activa but I do not like yogurt and especially after coming down with the plague I had even less desire to eat the stuff. I am definitely considering trying probiotics in pill form but have not gotten around to looking at what my options for that are. In Hallie's case I would recommend taking a supplement that contains at least one strain of Bifidobacteria (for her colon) and potentially a Lactobacillus species or two (or more, they tend to colonize the upper intestines) because the goal is to help her get through the antibiotic and establish a healthy flora. Given that the science is behind on substantiating claims made about certain possibly probiotic organisms (human studies are complex and expensive) and currently probiotics are not regulated it is hard to say if the claims made by these products are valid or not**, but it does not hurt to try.

I really hope that the antibiotic, mixed with probiotics, helps balance out Hallie's system. It is hard enough as an adult dealing with GI issues and knowing the reason behind them and the treatments (some of the treatments can be unpleasant), I cannot fathom being a child and only knowing the pain and discomfort these issues bring. But it is not all bad, Hallie has parents who fight for her and will do anything to help her as well as a nanny who adores her and does what she can to help as well. Also she is developing an instinct for what foods make her sick, something I am starting to get as well and it is very useful. No matter what she is an amazing little girl who is going to be a big sister in about two months (8 weeks).

~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*Anyone can have GI issues during and after antibiotic therapy, the intestinal flora in humans is very important and antibiotics tend to wreck at least some havoc with it, one of several reasons not to go on antibiotics unless it is necessary. I am not against the proper use of antibiotics, improper use of them and the resistance that is resulting from that is a huge public health concern. They can cause more harm than good in someone who is sick with "just a virus" and I am glad that doctors are more and more standing up to their patients who insist on having a script even when it is clearly a viral infection and it is explained to them that an antibiotic will not help. I say those people should be put on placebomycin and told it should work within 2 weeks and they should drink plenty of fluids and rest...
**Please do not interpret my skepticism as my not thinking probiotics give benefits, as a scientist my job is to be skeptical.

Microblogologist in the World of Weasels

A few months ago I came across a hilarious blog. Little did I know that not only would this blog entertain me and give me a fun source of blog fodder (the Flat WeaselMomma series), but it would lead to my becoming friends with the real WeaselMomma. And so being that she lives not too far from my parents' place and I was pretty sure she wasn't a serial killer* I suggested we have a playdate "for the kids". She must have decided I wasn't a serial killer* as well and her daughter Monkey Weasel decided it would be fun to have us crash her birthday dinner so Niecey and I jumped in the trusty oldsmobile and off we went.

A great time was had by all and the real WeaselMomma is an even better cook than the Flat one! Her family has the same tradition as mine and the birthday person gets to pick the meal so we had fried chicken, broccoli and noodles so ironically both forms of WeaselMomma made me chicken.

Her entire family was delightful and Niecey and I felt at home right away. I am so happy we were able to have our get together, we'll definitely have to do it again! Niecey wanted to write WeaselMomma a letter when we got home, she wrote the first part and then I took over:

Dear WeaselMomma,

i am niecey i am 5. I have a bear named big bear, he is my favorite bear. He loves me and I love him too and I have a monkey comforter and I like it, it is my favorite and I love it. And I have my own bed I like my own bed. I sleep downstairs and I go to kindergarten at school and I have friends that I like they are nice to me.

Niecey

I thought she wanted to write a thank you note but apparently not, lol. Guess I'll have to thank them myself. Thank you Weasels for being great hosts and making us feel like part of the family! And for all you jealous people who read WeaselMomma's blog and have never met her, she is even funnier in person and hanging out with her was like a living a great blog post. Her husband is hilarious as well and the two of them together...

I can't wait to see the pictures her hubby took, I didn't take many myself so have to wait to see if they turned out. I'm also looking forward to reading her post about our meeting. Oh and there will be a few more FWM posts, I have plans and pics for them but have not gotten around to writing them all up, they will have to wait until I get home.



~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*Unless we are both serial killers with very involved cover stories to try and lure our unsuspecting victims and our meeting was part of an evil serial killer alliance to make our stories even more believable.

Worst Road Trip Ever

This post was inspired by Backpacking Dad. His family is taking a road trip and he asked his readers to share the story of their worst road trip. Technically it is a contest for a book but as there is no way I can compete against quite a few of the stories already posted this is more for amusement value than actually trying to win. Given my rambling nature and the fact that I have a picture that MUST accompany the story I decided it would be best to make a post out of it instead of leaving it as a comment. So enjoy, dear readers, the story of my most sucktacular road trip ever!

It was August of 2003, Niecey was born three weeks prior on July 30. I had finished up the summer class I had taken (summer classes are evil, 15 weeks condensed into 5) to make up for a class I had dropped during the regular semester. Classes started in a couple weeks for me and Middle Sister was kind of on maternity leave, and I had a week of vacation available. I suggested that it might be a nice/good idea to take Niecey to see Grandma, who turned 93 that year and wasn't in the best of health. Middle Sister agreed so we packed up Oldsie and hit the road, going from Chicago to Muncie, IN, which is about a 4 hour drive depending on traffic (I-294 is a bitch no matter what). The trip was uneventful, it took longer because we had to stop to feed and change Niecey a couple times but we got there safe and sound.
We had a very nice visit, stayed at our uncle's place since it is bigger and we didn't want the baby to wake up Grandma and such. Our uncle's crazy wife was in Croatia so we didn't have to worry about her. I got to spend some time with my beloved aunt, who lives with Grandma and takes care of her, they live across from my uncle. Niecey was a total sweetheart baby and her and Grandma spent some quality time napping together.

The day we left was sunny and hot. There wasn't a cloud in that Hoosier sky. It takes about an hour to get from the farm in the middle of nowhere to Indianapolis. I had pretty much just gotten off I-465 W and onto I-65 N when I heard this horrible noise and my car started to lose velocity at an alarming rate. The asshole tailgating me blew its horn at me and narrowly avoided smashing into my rear. I was in the left lane and very quickly pulled Oldsie off into the medium, I am very grateful that I was not in an area that didn't have that patch of grass between the North and South bound lanes since I would have had nowhere to go and likely would have gotten that jerk's nose up my rear (I wonder if that phrase will turn up on google analytics).

Now my first thought, when I heard the noise and the car got hard to handle and slowed down rapidly was that I had blown a tire. When I maneuvered to a stop was when I noticed that my car wasn't running. The dash showed the engine temp as maxed out. I got out and walked around the car and all my tires were fine. I tried to turn the engine back on but nothing happened. A nice man stopped to see if he could help, there was nothing he could do but he was nice and waited with us. I was worried about Niecey since Oldsie is a dark car that doesn't have a/c and it was in the 80's and sunny, couldn't decide which was worse, having the sun beat down on her or have her in the shady oven that was my car. Even with the windows down it was hot and you could tell Niecey was not a comfortable baby, though she was so sweet and didn't really fuss too much. The Indiana state police arrived and called me a tow truck, they then let us put Niecey in the squad to cool off. They coordinated everything so that the car was going to a BP in Lebanon and took Middle Sister and Niecey there while I waited with another officer for the tow.
After awhile a mechanic came and informed me that one of my pistons had decided it wanted to be free and so blew a hole in my engine block, effectively destroying my engine*. Once I knew that there was no way that car was being driven out of there began the "fun" part of figuring how to get from Lebanon to Chicago. We were about 3 hours from home and 1-1.5 hours from the farms. We managed to get in touch with my uncle and parents and eventually the decision was made that my uncle would get us and meet Dad along the way so we didn't have to spend 3 more hours at the gas station. Everyone there was nice and all but loitering in a gas station for hours is not really my idea of a good time. Everyone praised Niecey for being such a good and quiet baby, which at that point in her life she generally was a good and quiet baby, but to me it was just one more thing to worry about. In my opinion she was being too quiet and I was worried that she has spent too much time in the heat and sun. But she ate and seemed content so I just kept an eye on her for signs of distress. Perhaps some of it was the fact that she had two adults with nothing better to do than to dote on Her Cuteness.

And so I returned to Chicago carless but thankfully everyone was safe and sound. And I did get this awesome picture from the experience:
Look how red my poor baby niecey was =(. We stripped her in hopes it would help prevent her overheating. And there is that damn broken oldsmobile in the top right hand corner.


-----Copy LiteralDan Section-----
*For those of you who have a knack for details yes the Oldsie in this post is the same one that is sitting outside my apartment right now as seen in the second picture**. My uncle had my car towed to his machine shop and a buddy of his replaced the engine for me. I decided that ~$1100 to fix the car would be better than trying to buy a decent used car for the same amount. Also I hate car shopping with a passion and am somewhat distrustful of people having seen my parents buy crap cars over the years.
**Oldsie is not that long in the front and short in the back, it is the camera angle that makes it appear so. Oh and to possibly help solve a long standing argument between Baby Sibling and myself what color would you say Oldsie is?