iamom | such a long time!

Been quite awhile since I've been here! It has been super busy lately, and we also just spent a couple of weeks in Calgary for a family visit. The city was nicer than I remembered, even though the temperature was minus 30-45 degrees Celsius with the windchill. We spent some time in Red Deer, a small city halfway between Calgary and Edmonton, and considered our options for work there. We'd like to live close to our families but not right in Calgary, so we're looking at lots of options.

Anyway, I have a corny little joke for everyone:

A French teacher was explaining to her college class that in French, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. House is feminine "la maison." Pencil is masculine "le crayon."

A student asked, "What gender is 'computer'?" Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether a "computer" should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for their recommendation. The men's group decided that "computer" should definitely be of the feminine gender (la computer) because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later review
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine (le computer) because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

In other news, I spun out on some black ice a couple of weeks ago on a freeway going about 45 mph and crashed our truck into a guardrail. Z was with me -- I was on my way to drop her off at daycare that day. You can see the creative changes I made to the bodywork behind the cut below -- it looks like someone kicked the teeth out of our poor little truck. That, or else drove it into a wall, which is essentially what I did...

Amazingly, Z and I were unhurt, and thankfully there were no other cars near us that were involved in the accident either. Single-vehicle accident with no injuries: if you have to write off your vehicle, that's about the best way to do it, I guess. Anyone have any suggestions for a replacement? I'd like to get a really fuel-efficient wagon to replace the thirsty 4.3L V6 with 4WD that the Jimmy was, but B is not into wagons AT ALL. Minivans neither, though I tend to agree with her on that point. I kind of dig the Subaru Impreza wagon (the WRX pumps out around 230 hp -- that'd be fun...), and the Honda Element is also pretty funky-looking...