I am going to catch that bad car fairy and give him a Rita Skeeter in a jar moment

Today has not been a stellar day, especially for cars that have been parked in our garage. First, T's car started having ABS problems last week and we were going to take it to the dealer tomorrow morning. In the meantime I dropped him off to work so we could use it the least possible since it still works, but with car problems you always want to be careful.
On my way to work there was a huge car accident and it took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to go to work. Normally it takes 20-30 minutes, which isn't great but what are you going to do. I should have been early to work though since I took T in.
After work I picked him up and we stopped for gas for my car. My car was very thirsty and I was commenting on that as I was trying to turn the key. But nothing happened. No clicking. No grinding. Nothing. Not even any lights on the dash. Strange. I was just using the car. I had noticed on the way to get T that the transmission seemed like it was hiccuping a little, but I didn't think much of it because it was only up hills. We tried to move the car out of the gas stall because many other people needed to use the pump, but my car wouldn't let me put it in neutral. We looked all over the manual and couldn't find anything that told us what to do. Then we checked the fuses and they were all fine. So I gave up and called a tow truck because I have free road side assistance. We sat in the car with the windows down in the hot and humid weather watching all the people stare at us until the tow truck came an hour later. He got it on the truck with no problem but he did have to give us a jump so that we could roll the power windows back up. It turns out that in order to shift my car into neutral you have to pull the cover off of a small hole and turn your key inside. I will say again that there was nothing in the manual about this.
After the tow truck took us to the dealer we had a friend drive us home. Hopefully my car will be pretty easy to fix, but luckily it is still under warranty. We think it is the alternator. It is a little early for it to fail but who knows what kind of pressure it has been under with the three years of heavy air conditioning usage. When all is said and done with my car, we can take the other car to the other dealer across town and get that one fixed.
And since things come in threes, the fairy also burned out the light bulb to the garage door opener so we can't see in there now when you pull in at night. I am going to catch that fairy and teach him to mess with me and my car.

I want one!

Yes, that is a 105 ft high rubber duckie. And it got loose. I want it.

Very inventive

I just saw this article about a contest they hold every year for the best duct tape prom couple outfits. They are amazing. I used to make bags and wallets in high school when I got bored. They put me to shame. Plus, if you win, you get a $9000 college scholarship! Here I am busting my butt getting good grades for a few a couple of hundreds. I should have done this instead.

Being a Preservationist is Cool

I started the last of my new jobs last week and I love it. I don't get to do any of the actual preservation, but I do get to hear about stuff that is going on. On my first day I also got the grand tour, which included the vaults. In these vaults are state documents like the original charter for the state of South Carolina from the Lords Proprietors, the original copy sent to the state of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. They are in pretty sad shape since people don't always realize the importance of documents until much later. One even had a coffee mug type stain on it.
On another note, I finally put in my notice at my weekend job. My last day isn't till the 21st of this month, but at least there is an end. I was afraid to quit because they need the summer help and it is a valuable connection for me to have career wise. But I was dreading getting up on the weekends after working a full week and all I was doing is giving tours. I didn't have anything to do with actual interpretation or preservation. But I left in a professional way and so the bridge is still there if I need it in the future. Now I just have to actually plan something fun to do with my last three weekends before school starts.