great news about my car!

i just spoke to the mechanic, who basically explained that it's a relatively small fix that they're testing and monitoring right now. i guess the threads came off of one of my cylinders, so they put a heating coil on it. they've been running the car and monitoring it for the last half hour to make sure the coil doesn't come off. if it DID, i would need to replace my cylinder head, which would be fabulously expensive and not anything i want to do.

so... yippee!! it should be ready in about an hour, and that means that my HUGE worry will be able to be crossed off my list, and i can jump into mexico-mode as soon as i pick my li'l jetta up!

'tis the season to be jolly, indeed.

no blogging from baja, but hopefully lots of stories (fishing stories, of course!) when i return. happy holidaze, y'all.

waiting to hear

... about my poor little car, who broke down on the freeway on my drive home last night. "broke down" as in "made some really super-loud put-put sounds and started shaking like crazy, and lost most of its energy." it didn't actually die, it just got really super sick.

dave, of course, saved the day (night) and came to pick me up in the 'burb, which i drove to work today.

car's in the shop, and i'm waiting to hear if she'll make it through.

thank god it wasn't the suburban, though. i'm going to mexico next week no matter what! so cross your fingers that my baby's ok. if not, i may have to make The Big Decision tonight. we shall see.

skateboard museum online

boingboing posted about the skull hoodies sold by these guys, but a radder find on their site is the museum tour. nice!

ipod mini battery replaced!

i've had my pink, personalized mini for almost 2 years now, and the fragile lithium battery finally gave up. not really willing to spend $65.95 (!!) to ship it to apple, not have it for a week, and then finally get it back, i decided to d.i.y. the thing.

so, for just $19.75 plus an extra three bucks for a 3-year extendo warranty, i got a new battery replacement kit, complete with teeny-tiny leetle philips head & flat head screwdrivers.

following the fabulously-detailed instructions and photos on f-stop blues, dave & i spent about 12 minutes last night fixing my baby. (to be honest, though, dave did all the actual hands-on work; i just played nurse & handed him the right tools at the right time. i certainly COULD have done the work, but his eagerness won me over.)

one thing to note, if you're going to try this yourself, is that a pocketknife is a MUCH better tool to remove the covers than a screwdriver or a tack would ever be. sharp & slim, the knife slid the covers off in about two minutes each.

mighty fun

we performed last night at mighty for this party (that's us on the flyer, natch), which was being advertised as something totally huge - we were supposed to be the entertainment for people in line. of course, we were scheduled to perform from 8:45-9:15pm, at which time NObody was in line. we were actually performing for about five people! but in reality, we were peforming for ourselves. it was a gorgeous night out, no rain, and five of us plus kelly as safety - and it was really one of the most fun times in a long while. we just played, and played - and since we were all dressed up, it made the playing feel fabulous!

after the fire, we did some lights inside, then a fire finale outside. we had gone over by 15 minutes at their request, and the final check came to a nice pretty sum. not bad for a thursday night!

the best part, though, was taking over the dance floor. i don't know who they hired as go-go dancers, but they were really lame. we came in, had one drink, and took over the party in the best possible way! we totally rock.

so, the new thing ms. marketing genius is going to work on is cross-promoting ourselves as go-go dancers. i mean, we all LOVE to dance, and we all LOVE to dress up and party - why not add it to our repertoire of paid performances? when people hire go-go dancers, they're really hiring people that they think will a) help get the party started and b) be great eye candy for those who haven't started to party yet. we are fantastic at both.

i am very excited about this new endeavor. i think we can really make it rock.

ducking out after tgif today to do some final goodie-shopping for my li'l party tomorrow. we're (fac) actually celebrating our anniversary tonight - heading to area 51 in alameda to watch some OTHER people's fire art, then out for drinks somewhere. tomorrow's going to be a lot of set-up at my house with dave, so i wanna make sure i finish the food shopping today. tj's for cheesecake (since i'm not cooking ANY this year - what a first! no one will believe it) & grill stuff like kebabs; rainbow for something vegan-sweet; and the good life for all of those pretty, pretty cakes.

'tis the season to be jolly! and fat come sunday afternoon :-)

end of year roundup

holy cow. me, jon, cheryl, & laura had a founders' meeting last night to round up the year and set some goals for the next year (our 3-year anniversary was on sunday!). i didn't realize this, but in the past year, the number of gigs we've done has almost DOUBLED. yowza! we totally rock. i am so thankful and so lucky to be part of such a wonderful, amazing, super-talented fire troupe, that's made up of such great friends who are such great people in general. the ho-ho-holiday spirit is upon us and there's lotsa love to spread!

we're spreading some of it tomorrow night, actually, at one, possibly two, gigs in SF. i'll post more once i know about them, if they're public events!

and now, a photo from back in the day:




why do i look so stunned? oh yeah - 'cause i'm just a new kid at this point, and i'm spinning fire! in polyester, yeah! (i'm pretty sure it was flame-barrier'd, so don't worry about my pants melting to my legs, kids).

here's to three more flameful years, or more!