now ain't that too damn bad

kie: in da co'nah
kiel: a bit cold, now that you mention it
kio: gershwin: rhapsody in blue: ny philharmonic, leonard bernstein conductor/piano soloist (THE BEST VERSION EVER)

so i was driving to the theatre today and about 5 minutes into the trip this version of rhapsody in blue came on 91.5 (baltimore's classical music station). not only had i never heard bernstein's version (which i will not begin to describe to you because berstein is all about subtlety), but it played all the way up to when i parked the truck on the last note. like, i pulled up to the dinner theater at the last chorus. weird.

right. truck. there are two inventions in the automotive world that i am extremely grateful for and frankly are not given the credit they deserve.
first: the arrow on the gas gauge that tells you what side of the car the gas tank is on. wow.
second: the little notch on the handle of the gas pump that allows you keep the thing squeezed without holding the handle. you know, the thing you flip out and it gets in a notch and keeps the valve from closing off.
awesome inventions. see this is the kind of thing you think about when you drive in silence.

right. silence. my car stereo was stolen a few weeks ago. the car was parked on the access road by 34th and charles. in front of a church. yeah well. the car might be on its way out anyway.

right. car. so i took the car for an oil change and i told them to take a look my disappearing coolant problem. turns out there isn't a leak in the radiator or any of the hoses. good news. it's just a bad head gasket. bad news. the head gasket covers the pistons and somehow coolant is leaking from there and being "burned" and spit out the exhaust. lovely.

recently i found out that this fix will cost $300. now, the choices, so far, are these:
1) pay $300 to fix the car.
2) 93 jetta or passat (not sure) with sunroof :) but automatic :( $1500-2000
3) 97 hyundai elantra $5000 book value, available for $3000
4) some kind of financing plan on another new or used car.

so that's one conundrum.

secondly, it seems that south pacific is doomed. we found out today that not only had paul blank (capt. brackett) been in a car accident and gotten his face all boogered up, but theresa's (bloody mary) aunt is dying of bone cancer. also our sailor ensemble consists of 2 guys and myself as billis. plus it is supposed to open saturday and we just blocked act ii today. lovely.

today i was on an undergrad panel for an alumni visiting committee evaluating the chemical engineering department. got to do a bit of hob-nobbing with the suits. do you know where the term "hob nob" comes from? look it up, it's mildly interesting. so anyway, i couldn't find my plain black tie (because my room is in shambles because i am still in the process of re-arranging it) so my tie options were either a tie featuring bugs bunny playing the piano or a tie that says "FORE" and features broken glass, and also, when you squeeze it makes the sound of breaking glass. needless to say i went with bugs. but the tie didn't match my suit. so i got to campus with awful non-matching tie and was told to wait about a half hour. in this half hour i went to the bookstore hoping to find something cheap to buy and wear as a tie. well, the only ties there were these embroidered (read: expensive) hopkins ties. but the need was pretty dire, so i dropped the $36 and changed my tie. damn it looked good, though.

summer is slowly beginning, but my vacation is soon over, as i should soon begin doing, well, actual work. ta-ta.