Crazy Lawsuit Game

Just got back from lunch. Most of the group usually eats together across the street at our local Aramark dealer. I try and not buy food from there if at all possible, only because it's expensive and Aramark is a minion of the devil. But they have shaded tables that are lovely to eat under. So we're sitting and chatting and then Newlywed says to me "Is that what you were talking about?" So we all look to where he's pointing and sitting there is a woodchuck/groundhog/marmot.

This isn't the actual one we saw and thanks to the MA Audobon society for the pic.

I have started seeing more and more of these brown critters roaming around Clemson recently and never knew what they were. My guess was a nutria, but they have long hairless tails and our rodents have bushy tails. Same order but different suborder. But thanks to some internet detective work, I think we solved the mystery of the unknown varmint.

This morning I took a field trip out to a junkyard up the road in Norris, SC. It's Harris Used Auto Parts. Old school. Don't even accept credit cards. I had to drive a few minutes away to find a bank and ATM (I don't trust gas station ATMs for some reason). But I went into the office and said I had called before about the Tercel parts. I receive a blank stare but she suggests I go talk to the guy on the loader. It's a big bulldozer thing that can move cars around. So I find him and his son riding around and ask him about the parts. He points me in the right direction (I saw the Toyota section on the way in) and then I ask if I pull it or they do. "It's up to you." But I'm guessing the price will be better if I pull it, so I go get my tools (always take your tools to a junkyard and some work clothes, I also had my headlamp which is great if you need two hands for a job) and walk over to the Tercel section. Several dead Neons over there, some dead Explorers, minivans, trucks, Hondas of all kind. I couldn't see where it ended but it looked pretty big. So I find a Tercel sitting on the ground since its wheels have already been harvested and open the door. Not too bad inside, so I move the driver seat which isn't bolted down (I think someone removed the carpet) and get ready to lay on the floor on my back since the brakelight switch I'm looking for is on top of the brake pedal.

But before I lay down I do a preliminary inspection and realize that I do not want to lay down on the floor, so I quickly do an inventory check for something long in Tercs (our Tercel) that I don't mind getting dirty. Eureka! The sun shade! So I walk back to my Tercel, get it, lay it down and I'm in and out in 2 minutes. But I notice they have a couple other Tercels. J wants a replacement hood so I check those out. Great condition actually, but wrong color. But I see a headlight surround that J broke on the Sentra she hit. See this post for the full story. (After reading that post I didn't do a good job of describing the accident. Cest la vie) And Tom see this post for the infamous bolognadillas.

So I pull that off and take my prizes back to the office to see what the damage is. The lady behind the desk has no clue. (I think she answers the phone exclusively and does the final money transactions) So she calls one of the Harris brothers and I tell them what I took and he says $30. Done. I forgot to ask him how much he wants for the hood, but I can give him a call back later. I also saw a Focus in there so I might be heading back at a later date.

Oh one last key part of the story, I'm sweating like mad. Full sun inside a dead car with manual labor in a tight spot and sweat is dripping off of me. But she turned the air on in the office after I got there and it feels like heaven. I don't even care that she doesn't know how much to charge me; I just want some electrical relief.

Tomorrow morning we're having a pancake breakfast at my house. I invited our undergrad (named after a season, I'll call her Autumn) Autumn and her dude over to our house for breakfast. What started this is that she has only tried to make pancakes once and it didn't turn out well, so I'm gonna give them both a crash course on pancaking. I make pretty damn good pancakes (J doesn't like pancakes so don't ask her opinion) but I even make good pancakes over campfire (to which new visitor Tom can attest) so I'm confident in my pancake abilities. And we're going to watch the Germany/Sweden game.

I read in The Week that only 11% of Americans were planning to watch any World Cup games and of those 11%, 56% didn't know the Cup was being held in Germany. So math time. The CIA estimates 298,444,215 Americans in July of 2006. So 11% is 32,828,864 Americans who planned to watch the Cup.

Of those almost 33 million only 14,444,700 knew it was being held in Germany, so to the 14.5 million Americans who are actively watching the Cup you already know the US is eliminated and that the refs have been awful (not just for our games either) but I think we need to cheer on Australia. They are one of two teams who speak English (other is England) and never ruled our country and we really like Aussies. So on Monday at 11 am, either send out good soccer (football to the rest of the world) vibes or call in sick or watch it on the internet over your lunchbreak but please cheer on the Aussies. They're taking on the Italians who were intrinsic in knocking us out of the tournament, so we need payback and the Aussies are the ones who are going to avenge us!

One last thing. The expected cumulative TV audience for the Cup is projected to be 32.5 billion. That's over 5 times the population of this planet. Damn.