Sick Saturn Lego

Thursday, 02 December 2010

Today was a fun evening in which we thought Isla was sick.

Maybe she is sick? Hm. I don’t know.

Jennifer tried to take her temperature with this Star Trek-y thermometer that you touch to a person’s head, then scrap along their forehead. It just takes seconds, and it’s not invasive, so it’s perfect for a baby.

Except…it kept reading unusually low.

So then we tried a more traditional approach, by placing a thermometer in her armpit. Usually this type of thermometer is supposed to be kept under the tongue, but good luck getting a baby to cooperate with that one. Of course, placing a thermometer under her armpit is also difficult for a baby. You have to take off their outfit, for one thing, so then they’re cold. Also, you have to hold their arm down next to their side, which is evidently asking the world of a four-month old.

So as Isla got more and more cranky as I held her arm down, I began to wonder how accurate the thermometer could possibly be, since he agitation was probably resulting in a higher body temperature.

Anyway, we couldn’t detect a fever; at least, we couldn’t detect any temperature high enough to merit concern. So, we’ll just do what any good parent would do. We’ll just go to bed and see how she is in the morning.

Friday, 03 December 2010

I took our Saturn – you know, the one with the ENGINE light on – to Midas this evening. They do a free “courtesy check,” which is exactly $50 cheaper than this place down the road that I took our Jetta to last year. Well, actually, that courtesy check was free, too, but only because I yelled at the cashier for having such a crappy policy. She said something about her mechanics needing to get paid, too. I said something about me needing my money, too, and not wanting to give it to people that don’t do anything for me. She said they did do something for me, and I said she should’ve had her “50 dollars just to walk in the door policy” posted somewhere, and so she begrudgingly gave me back the money. She asked if I wanted their estimate, and I said no.

Anyway…

The guys at Midas asked if the car was doing anything funny, or sounding funny in any way. I said it wasn’t, but I called Jennifer just to have her explain a funny sound she said she’d heard this morning. But, with the cold weather and wet conditions, a funny sound may just be a belt squeaking as the engine heats up.

They were nice enough to hoist the Saturn up and look around, but they couldn’t see anything. One of the guys told me they could hook it up to their computer, which would cost $80. He said if it turns out the problem is something really simple – such as having refueled with the car running – they wouldn’t charge me for that.

So this then generated a conversation about refueling the car when it is running. I’ve had this ‘problem’ with my Cavalier, too. I declined the expensive computer-to-computer conversation, and Owen and I drove back home. I asked Jennifer if she had refueled the car while it was running, and she said she did.

So my plan now is to wait a few days. Once the tank gets lower, we’ll get gas again, only this time with the car shut off. I hope that fixes the ENGINE light.

Saturday, 04 December 2010

This morning, Owen and I went to the Mall of America. The Lego Store was re-opening, and Owen seemed pretty excited to see their upgraded store.

Well…it was kind of disappointing.

We arrived at the mall at approximately 10:45. We walked directly to the Lego store, but there were long lines of people waiting to get in. Really long lines, in fact, with ropes corralling them back and forth around the store. I listened in while a security officer talked to another confused guest, and he explained that the Lego store would be unveiling their enormous sculptures (which were scattered in the three floors of space above the store and still covered in enormous tarps) at 11:00. So I asked Owen – who was completely overwhelmed with all the people – if he wanted to go back upstairs to get a better view. He agreed, and we went up to the third floor. We stood there, peering down on the store for another ten minutes, until just after 11:00, when someone came on the PA system and asked if we were excited.

I want to point out here that the PA system was absolutely terrible. I think it was the same one used at the 6K. I’m not sure why raising the decibel level of the human voice has suddenly become out of the reach of modern science. You’d think that someone could figure out a way to magnify sound without rendering it incomprehensible.

So, this announcer kept saying things, and all I could make out was that we were ‘traveling through time.’ They first uncovered a giant Lego sculpture of a dinosaur (I think). But we couldn’t see it. Due to the design of the Mall, the floor we were standing on was directly above part of the Lego store, and so our ‘ground’ was obscuring our view of part of the store.

After unveiling two or three sculptures that we couldn’t see, though, they finally started to uncover stuff we could see. There was a sculpture of some 15^th century explorers, then there was something a bit more recent, then there was a guy on a motorcycle (which represented the present), then, lastly, there was the biggest sculpture of all: a robot who was 34 feet tall. We had a perfect view of that robot, and it was fun to see them unveil it. The curtains covering it were so big, I thought they were going to catch on the robot’s parts, but they didn’t. Oh – I think the robot represented the future.

So then I asked Owen if he wanted to go see the store, but he said he just wanted to go home. I talked him into visiting Teavana (something he loves to do), and we checked out the animals at the Home for Life demonstration, and we even bought my sister a Xmas present.

As we doubled-back, I told Owen we would be going to the Lego store (I was hoping the crowd had died down in the 45 minutes since). Alas, the lines were still just as long, and a security officer assured me there was a long wait.

So we went home. I’ll bring him back another day.

CLICK HERE to see a news story on what I’m talking about.