"Sometimes questions are more important than answers."  ~Nancy Willard, quoted in The Meaning of Life, compiled by Hugh S. Moorhead 

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The following inquires have been made on many occasions here at Red Van Ramblings.  Such important questions certainly deserve to be answered.....

If you have to "replace" Big Red:

A:  Will you get another red van?

And B: Will you change the name of your blog?

After very minimal thought, the answers, respectively, are:

A:  I surely do hope so!  I love the color red; it makes me feel snazzy.  And frankly, it makes it real easy to spot your vehicle in a parking lot.  But, you can't always get what you want, as my friend Mick Jagger once said.  So we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But if we try sometimes, we just might find, we just might fiiiiiiiiind, we get what we need. Oh yeah.

And B:  I can't imagine changing the name of my blog, y'all!!  It was a momentary (and I DO mean momentary) flash of, dare I say?, brilliance.  And so, in the future--red van or no red van--I think the name has to stay. Don't y'all?  I might have to do some sort of permanent homage to Big Red or something, just to make sense of the title to any newcomers that might stumble through, though.

I feel we are teetering dangerously close to the edge of making this very earth shattering decision.  Hopefully we can delay it as long as Dr. Gene will help us delay it and as long as we aren't going to the poorhouse in doing so.  I believe as my bloggee friend, Toni, does...you gotta drive 'em into the ground!!  And that is what we plan to do.

Now that the burning questions on everyone's minds have been answered, I know we'll all sleep better tonight. 

"I am having an out of money experience."  ~Author Unknown

"That money talks
I'll not deny,
I heard it once:
It said, "Goodbye.""
~Richard Armour

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On my hiatus, it seems like there were so many things I thought I'd blog about once I got back online, but for the life of me, now I can't think of what they were. 

Be that as it may, every day life is never without blog fodder.  If you are looking for it.  It has a certain way of presenting itself. 

Case in point:

I knew I spoke too soon when I mentioned the other day that Big Red was still hanging in there.  Big mistake.  SIGH.  And I KNOW y'all are sick of hearing about my car, BUT...

Yesterday, right when I needed to be taking Emma to her horseback riding lesson, I went to fire her up, except there was no fire.  Oh she would make like she was going to fire up, but she was just teasin'.

SIGH.

But here's the kicker.  When Clyn got home from work, he got in there and CRANKED HER right up. 

Go figure.  So we decided to get her up to the car doctor ASAP, while she was cranked up.

So, she's gone to see Dr. Gene.  Sounds like he'll be able to fix her up...for a small fee.

But I ask you, when do you throw in the towel and say...okay, we're done.  Put her out of her misery.  When, I ask you, is it humane to euthanize your car?  Yes, I said CAR not CAT.  She doesn't appear to be in any pain, but she is surely causing me some--mental and financial.  Do you let your car tell you when enough is enough?  When do you decide to bite the bullet and buy a another car?  Is it at the point where what it will cost to fix the old one exceeds what a down payment on a new one would be?  Where, where, do you draw the line??  I just don't know.

Bear in mind that this occurred exactly TWO DAYS after we purchased our computer.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Alrighty then.  Let's move on, shall we?  On to happier things.

Guinea pigs make us happy don't they?  Yes, they absolutely do.  This is Zippy.  He's got this sorta mohawk thing going on and so I wanted to name him Mo.  He he.  Or Mr. T, which I thought was cool but my kids didn't appreciate.  Then I suggested Skunk.  No.  Shot down.  Then the white stripe reminded me of a zipper down the middle of his head and I said that to Emma and she said, "That's it!  I'll call him Zippy."   And Viola! 

He's been a lot of fun to have around.  Only now I've got to arrange pet care for yet another of our growing menagerie of critters whenever we go out of town.  Oh well.  The joys of parenthood.

That's all I have to say about that.

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity."  ~Voltaire

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Who knew you could get so jacked up about cheese toast??  Oh my kids just SLAY me.  SLAY ME, I tell you.

This morning the kids want some breakfast.  Sadly, I must say they have been making their own for the majority of the summer.  Unless we've had company, then I'll drag my lazy butt out of bed to actually cook something.  Sad, but true.  I make my usual list of suggestions (of things THEY can prepare)--there's cereal, frozen waffles, toaster strudel, pop tarts, toast, cheese toast... Emma's eyes lit up!  CHEESE toast!, she says.

Y'all ARE familiar with phenomenon known as cheese toast aren't ya?  Piece of bread with some good hunks of cheese on it, toasted until it is all melty ooey gooey deliciousness. Easily made in the handy dandy toaster oven.  My favorite kitchen appliance.  Use it every day. For reals.

So I decided I would come supervise the cheese cutting (he he) and ended up cutting the cheese myself (snort, cracking meself up).  As I am cutting (okay enough already), Emma is over there, doing some sort of CHEESE TOAST DANCE.  I WISH I had filmed it.  It was just too hilarious and I can't possibly describe it well enough.  Just trust me on this.  She was bopping all around the kitchen singing "Cheese toast, cheese cheese, toast toast", over and over.  I was cracking up.  I guess it's the simple things in life.  She was so vigorous in her jig, though, that she actually turned her ankle while performing!  LOL.  No, I am not laughing at my child's pain.  Really, she wasn't hurt bad, but she looked pretty surprised.  Then she hollered to Jacob asking if HE wanted any cheese toast.  "Sure" he said...his common response to most things.  He is really a surprisingly flexible kid.  And the dance commenced again.

Just a few minutes ago, I hear them playing in the other room and they BOTH suddenly erupt in the "Cheese Toast Dance".   Never mind it's been 5 hours since they had breakfast.  I guess it didn't get old yet.

Here's to dancing for food.

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think.  Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.  ~A.A. Milne

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I am jumping for joy.  LITERALLY.  MUCHO happy dancing here at mi casa.

Picture it people...well, if there are any of you people who still stop by here, that is...I am almost teary-eyed as I sit here, IN THE COMFORT OF MY OWN HOME, typing the first blog in for-freaking-ever on my NEW PC. 

Let the HALLELUJAH chorus begin.

Wait for it.....yep, yep, I hear it.

MAN!  No more creepy people at the library.  No TIME limit. The comforts of home.  SIGH.

It is a beautiful thing.

So, I see BIG CONGRATS are in order to  Mr. and Mrs. Skrumshz.  Welcome sweet baby!  WOOHOO!  That's the only thing I know at the moment about any of my blogee friends.  I am hoping over the next few days to do some major blog-walking and get caught up on all my PEEPS!  Oh how I've missed you all!! 

Here are a few points of interest that y'all have missed over the last little hiatus...

• The new guinea pig, Zippy, who joined joined us last month, is still doing well.  Freely eating, pooping and peeing as all good guinea pigs are want to do.  At least I reckon that's what they do anyway.
• Big Red is still functioning quite nicely, thank you very much.  Although I hesitate to write that.  Just thought y'all would like to know.
• Have enjoyed much company this summer.  I mean now that we live in a place that is near a cool place to vacay, more peeps come to see us.
• Emma was awesome in her dance recital this summer.  She received a trophy from the dance studio for being the "Modern Guru".  No lie.  That's what the trophy was for.
• In addition to having much company, we have enjoyed a couple of short trips.  To Myrtle Beach and to the in-laws and to hang with my BFF Kristi for the 4th of July at the awesome campground.  It was most excellent getting to watch the fireworks from the boat!

Hmm.  What else.  I am just so stoked about my new machine.  Can y'all tell?

Soon, I'll have some pics to post, but after all, I did just get the puter today, so haven't quite gotten there.  Still figuring some things out! Soon though. Soon.