Lexus parallel parking

I always wondered about about the new Lexus that self parallel parks. Having lived for three years in a city apartment with no off street parking I perfected the skill of parallel parking in a spot only inches larger than my four door Honda Civic. I thought it was a sham so when I read the NY Times article by Calvin Trillin I was redeemed.

"Then I got behind the wheel and we set out to find a beautiful spot. Well, not exactly a beautiful spot. A spot that is worthy of that name — a truly satisfying spot, a spot good enough to spin yarns about in bars where parkers gather — requires some skill to get into. The Advanced Parking Guidance System works only if the spot is six and a half feet longer than the car — the sort of spot, in other words, that the average Manhattan parker comes upon about once every 14 or 15 years. The only parker who might need help from a guidance system to get into such a spot is a parker who is driving himself home from rotator cuff surgery. For Lexus to offer a self-parking system for a spot that size is the equivalent of some high-end kitchen-equipment manufacturer offering a self-carving system that only works on meatloaf."

via kottke

Now I am in L.A. and I am so happy I have a place to park my car. Though the lot is so small I spent the first 3 months scraping the side of my car against the house trying to manuever out of the driveway. Its 2007, still no flying cars.

internet special sauce

Well my daily affirmations must be working (thanks! Stuart Smalley) because I feel special in a very dorky internet sort of way. I got a little mention from a blog I read (one of so many because my life is so very short on actual books and heavy on internet musings). So, just in case one of my readers (Hi Mom!) is interested here is the link.
IKEA HACKERS
This is a very cool blog that explains how people (very cool creative people) screw around with their Ikea furniture or furniture components to make them less factory and more personal.


Other life news:
School generally still sucks even though kindergartners are unbearably cute. I am invariable short staffed 4 out of 5 school days. Today, I held a bucket so one of my cuties could throw up in it while he uncontrollably cried and his face blazed red with fever. I want to say something here about all the other snot and children pilfering my desk and beating up on other kids but I can't keep thinking about it at night. I just have to do what I can do and watch enough bad t.v. to numb my brain. I can't wait to get back to thinking about actual lessons and teaching and away from the damage control and cross fingers to hope no one goes home injured kind of school day.
Other life is good and relaxing. Last night Michael got me Thai Food and we watched Street Car Named Desire. Tonight I have prepared homemade Big Mac's (thanks to Ryland and Jake).
So Yummy! and not sick making yucky fast food...but they still taste good. Thanks Secret Sauce a.k.a. Thousand Island Dressing.

the why didn't I think of this years ago
Homemade Big Macs
ingredients:
Ground Turkey
Romaine Letuce
Sesame Seed Buns
Butter (low fat if you are Jake and Ryland, the real stuff for me)
Thousand Island Dressing
almost minced onions
Tomato and Pickle (if you so desire)

Make ground turkey patties and cook in a skillet. Chop onion super super tiny like they have at McD's. Slice Romaine lettuce into thin shreds. Thinly slice tomato and pickle (you can chop extra pickles super fine for the dressing if you want). Spread melted butter on inside of Sesame seed buns and toast in skillet.
Put burger together with liberal amounts of special sauce.
yum.

monthly posts?

Yeah, typical of me, I never post here. I think about it, but mostly what I want to post these days is shut down by job confidentiality or my own conscience.
So instead here is some insipid tripe.

• I am watching 13 going on 30 tonight and feeling very cranky
• Work is really hard and I have had a cold for a month. (ew)
• I like stupid teen movies. Especially if they include choreographed dance scenes. In fact, all stupid teen movies should include choreographed dance scenes.
• I am a grown up (30 in fact). Case in point, tonight I wanted to just drink wine and eat chips, but instead I made broccoli and pasta in a basil garlic butter sauce and garlic bread. (howdy dragon, breath) then I had wine with my yummy dinner. I may go have some chips now though.
• I am exercising (walking with a friend from work), multiple days a week. Just because it is healthy.

still a child?

• When I watch stupid movies like this or Sex and the City I want to drink colored drinks from martini glasses. In real life I should really not drink even water from a martini glass because I usually slop it all over myself.
• I realized yesterday that I should always buy name brand Ibuprofen because it is bright orange and easy to find a tiny pill on the bathroom floor after (in typical fashion) I drop one trying to get the lid back on the bottle.

last questions:

• Could I be any more incoherent?
• When will summer be here?
• Is it possible for me to write a narrative/journal type entry here without resorting to using bullet points?
  

the end (for tonight...or until next month)

-if you want to see my craptastic taste in movies you can be my Netflix friend just email me.