I'm sitting here feeling like I'm out of starch--no bones. I'm just really out of steam.

Monday after work I went to the car dealer and test drove a Dodge Caliber. Not a thrilling car, but I could live with it. Couldn't live with the color--a hot tomato red with a black interior. I asked for beige on beige. They've been looking for one all week, but no other dealer is willing to part with a Caliber (the cheapest car in the Chrysler/Dodge line-up). My sister found one down by St. Louis, but you have to turn your vehicle in for the Cash for Clunkers program, and my van only does about 35 or 40 mph because the transmission needs work, which turns it into an 8-hour drive. On county backroads. I just don't think I'm up to it. I got stubborn about the beige interior--with Caliber you get two choices, black and beige--because of the dogs. A black interior would just be too hot for them except in the dead of winter, and it would show dirt and dog hair like crazy. Yes, they're black, but also silver and red, and their undercoats are a soft grey. Trust me, it would show up.

Then Friday the Cash 4 Clunkers plan announced they were out of money.

So I don't know if I'm going to get my new car or not. Kind of begins to not look like it. You'd think if a company was going to have a mega-sale (Chrysler matching the govt' $$), they'd at least have inventory!

Four of us worked for two hours on my friend's office last Sunday, and got it about half cleaned out. We were quite pleased when we got to the point where we could open the door all the way. We moved hundreds of books from the office into boxes, and with his sister's permission we took a few ourselves. I'll probably read most of them and take them back, but I'll keep a few. A very eclectic collection--for example, I came home with Shiloh by Shelby Foote, a study of the life and work of Sylvia Plath, When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone, a novelisation of Buffy, a collection of poems and letters of Hart Crane, 4 Nero Wolfe mysteries, a collection of H.P. Lovecraft short stories, a book about the Pre-Raphaelites, and a British book about "earth currents in tradition and theory" (ley lines, I think). And that's just the paperbacks; the hardbacks are still out in the van. One of the other people helping took his books on Arthur, Chaucer, and medieval lit; another his books about vampires; and a third more of a collection like mine, but more linguistics and WWII. An amazing and fascinating assortment.

And I treated myself to an entire day of reading today. I'd planned to do some painting, but it rained. We need more than we got, but it was good to get some, so I just reached into the stack of my friend's books and started reading. Being an English professor, he'd written comments in some of them, and it was a little like listening to him talk--I could imagine his expression with some of the comments.

It's getting to be time to order bulbs for fall planting, and as usual I'm at a loss what to order. I always think I know what I want, then I start looking at pictures and reading descriptions and it all falls apart. I guess I need to read back over the spring entries of my blog, then sit down and make a list, and then do some ordering. It would be really wonderful to have a store that had bulbs in bins, with a picture of the flower over the bin, so you could buy exactly what you wanted, and exactly as many as you wanted, even if it was only 1 bulb. One bulb of 12 different tulips would make a pretty show, wouldn't it?

I got the Elann sampler last week and have knit up my little squares; I'll try to get pictures posted soon. This was a nice one--colors from lilac to plum, and lovely textures, including a 100% cashmere that is to die for. Also bamboo, cotton, and an alpaca/silk mix. I want to make a cashmere tank, and then one of those semi-sheer pullovers from Kid Seta or something like it. Yummy yummy yummy.

Speaking of yummy, my new "pudding": Stone some sweet cherries, mix with vanilla yoghurt and crushed vanilla wafers. You can either eat it right away, while the cookies are still crunchy, or let it chill in the fridge and let the wafers get soft, or you can mix it with a little Lite Cool Whip and stick it in the freezer for a few hours. You could also add some cinnamon. And it's even pretty healthy--if you use a cup of cherries, a cup of yogurt, and 4 cookies, it's about 340 calories, with 700 mg potassium (good if you're working on keeping your blood pressure down), 2.5 grams of fiber, and 10 grams of protein. You could eat the whole thing for lunch or breakfast, or eat half as a dessert. You could add more fiber and protein (and get less sugar) by replacing the vanilla wafers with All Bran Buds; wouldn't be quite as yummy though.