a farewell to Normbert

On Friday I took Normbert (my dorky little Nissan Sentra) to get inspected so I could renew my registration. I knew the under-carriage (if that’s the right term for the underbelly of a car?) was rusty, and I could see a piece of rusted out plate sagging a little in the front. What I didn’t know is that sitting right on top of that plate was my freakin radiator. My mechanic said he’d never seen anything this badly rusted in his life. He guessed right away the car came from salt country, and I chimed in that it had survived 9 months of exposure to the Chicago elements (but left out the fact that I sometimes park it in a giant puddle to get a parking spot close to my apartment). He sent me to a body shop where no one seemed keen on undertaking a job this big and I was given an estimate of $950-1000 (assuming there were no other problems besides the rust). About $500 more than the car itself is worth at this point. Poor Normbert!! Looks like I’m in the market for a new a car. Well, definitely not new. I want something I wouldn’t be afraid to drive across the country, but also something I could scratch and bump without getting too upset over. A friend who is a bit of a car-enthusiast offered to help with the search, and I’m hoping to have a new ride by the end of the month.

J’s snuggie came in the mail this morning, and I can’t get over how much he loves the damn thing! "This thing is weirdly addictive. It doesn’t really fit well, it doesn’t seem like it would work effectively, but you put it on and you don’t want to take it off. You could live in this thing if given the chance."  Wow. It’s definitely a bigger hit than the digital camera I got him for Christmas, lol. He’s at work now, but I can’t wait to Skype him when he gets home so I can see a grown man walk around in what’s basically the front of a giant onesie.  

In other news, Friday night’s 4 Loko fueled Dia de Reye’s party was really fun. We showed up pretty late because pre-gaming at R’s turned out to be a good time as well. Afterwards we wound up at Tom’s for Karaoke and T and I belted out a beautiful rendition of Brittney Spears’ classic "Oops I Did It Again."  D caught it all on video, but I made him delete it yesterday.

Last night we watched a movie at R’s. None of the stuff we actually wanted at Redbox was available so we picked a random movie just to get out of the cold. We went with Brooklyn’s Finest. I hadn’t heard of it despite the cast ( Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, and Wesley Snipes). It followed the storylines of three Brooklyn cops with very different outlooks on "the job," that eventually wind up in the same place. Basically a cross between The Wire and Crash. Not very original at all, but I thought the acting was pretty damn good (especially Ethan Hawke’s).   

Gotta run before I decide to take a nap and waste the entire day. Will finish later.