On Friday Arabella and I took the car to the shop to get fixed. We are fortunate in two things: the "village" where we live has a mechanic only two blocks away, and the truck was (apparently, hopefully) fixed with a new battery and a new fuel filter. The auto shop is also a barber shop (kinda weird, but I guess you might as well get a haircut while you get your oil changed or your tires rotated, right?) and the mechanic seemed shocked when he said it appeared from the tag on the battery that it was 7 YEARS OLD! OMG! I was not as surprised, since I had already figured that out -- I last bought a battery in 2000, just as we were moving into the house in Vista.

As for the house in Vista, it is now up for sale, and from the pictures looks lovely. So if anyone has a spare $100K down and $2500 a month to spend on a house out in the countryside, its available. ($550K). Dad seemed genuinely surprised and disappointed that the house went on the market 5 days ago and so far no one has shown up to look at it. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought he'd have an offer in under a week. Hey, pop, it's the job of real estate agents to give you the good news, and make everything seem all hunky-dory.

It has snowed two nights in a row and I'm getting tired of it. I want to do some gardening already. How early can I start tomatoes in the house?