First things first: I have decided not to buy a car. My beloved Beetle will stay for an indefinite period because I don't really need to change now. If, at the end of 2009, I've put a gazillion dollars into it, I'll consider the Accent again. But maybe I'll look at some sort of energy-smart hybrid at that point. So bye-bye Accent. It was nice to meet you.

And I've already had a most successful morning with one simple action: I changed my kitchen table so that it now sits perpendicular to what it had been. It changes the room completely. I'm very happy that what I saw in my mind's eye is exactly what happened. The flow of the room is much more pleasing to me, and as an added bonus, we could bring in our too-big-for-the-house Norfolk Island pine from our beautiful but unheated sunroom/porch where it was dying. Literally. We'll probably have to lop off the top but I think we've saved the rest of it. It's now 10 years old, grown to about 5' tall from a potted plant that my ex-husband gave to me as a gone-away gift at Christmas in 1998. It's done very well and, like the Beetle, it's something I'd like to hang on to. (That's different from "hang onto" you know, as in, I'd hang onto a life raft but hang on to a memory. I think it's sort of more hang-on than hang onto. What do you think? Am I too picky? Am I ungrammatical?) So now we can, at least for another year or two.

Other than that my uneventful life continues to be so. It puts me at a loss, conversation-wise, but you who know me realize that's probably an overstatement. I mean, when can I NOT come up with something to talk about, always more than you'd ever wanted to know. As Mr. Monk would say, "It's a blessing ... and a curse." But I would switch that around for me.

Enough public introspection. Catch you later. I'll be off in a bit to catch "Gran Torino." (BTW, "Marley and Me" was good, but the book is way better, IMHO.)