Cooking Adventures

So yesterday I tried my hand at brisket.

There was a slow-cooker recipe in my Better Homes & Gardens cook book. I went out and bought all of the ingredients, and was ready to go. I got everything in the crock pot and it smelled YUMMY!!! I went to work, and when I got home, it smelled even better. I made the sauce, and when Chad got home from work, I had dinner on the table.

So now it was time to try this brisket. I was unimpressed at first, but the sauce (made from the marinade and some added ingredients) added a TON of flavor - sweet and spicy. It was delicious. And if it was beef, and I was eating it, then that's saying something!

I asked Chad how it measured up to his memory and he said "I don't know - that was 10 years ago. But this is good!"

I even got a facebook status


It was pretty tasty, and I might have to make it again sometime.

Just a quick video from when Lady was teeny tiny. AWWWWWW.....

Christmas

I know I need to provide a real update on Christmas in Connecticut, but I thought I would at least post the few pictures I had on my cell phone from the trip.

Finally in Connecticut! Bradley International Airport after traveling ALL day. Trying to stall since the fam wasn't there yet.



Late one night, this is what Mollie opened her bedroom door to.


Back in Utah, when we got on the shuttle to go back to our car, I thought - is that all OURS?! And so it is. We try to pack light.

Adventures in Cooking

We have eaten a lot of boxed meals over the past few months, because, well, they're much easier than actually cooking. You empty all of the ingredients into an 8x8 baking dish, pop it into the oven, and Voila! Dinner is served!

But we decided we need to eat real food, and more meat in particular. Sometimes we have chicken (in the form of nuggets, pre-made cordon bleu, or grilled tenderloins) and sometimes we have hot dogs (on buns or in mac & cheese), but that is pretty much the extent of our meat eating, and I'm not sure hot dogs even count... We have a lot of room for improvement. So I planned a menu and made a shopping list. I have lots of meals to make now, but because most of the recipes make 4-6 servings, if I make dinner every night, we will run out of Tupperware (and room in the fridge) to store leftovers in. So right now we are on an every other night basis. (Not that I don't provide dinner of some sort every night, but not a big involved meal - perhaps one of those boxed dealies, or soup)

On Sunday night I made Spinach Stuffed Shells. Chad had never had stuffed shells before (who knew?!) and was pretty skeptical the whole time I was making it. But the dish turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. Although, I think I prefer mom's spinach-less stuffed shells, which I think I will make next time.



Future meals include some oldies but goodies - mom's (White) Chicken Enchiladas, taco salad, crock-pot ribs, and Erin's recipe for Beef Stroganoff.

My second new meal this week is Brisket. Chad had it on his mission and fell in love, so I am going to try to make a crockpot version. It's a surprise though so don't tell him! (Don't worry, he doesn't bother to read my blog.)

But, in other food news, we bought a freezer! (YAY!) This is something we've been looking at for a while, when we found out how cheap a 5.0 cubic foot freezer is. So we bought one this past weekend. We put it in the basement at the foot of the stairs. Now we can buy stuff on sale or in bulk and have somewhere to put it - extra bread, stuff we grow in the garden, meat, etc. Any of you who have seen our fridge/freezer combo know that this is a good thing. Maybe I will try freezing some of the extra portions of the meals I make this week.

Hello dear blog readers,
I have several posts to update you with, but first, (this is random) I was going through some files on my computer and came across our gift list from our wedding.

There were little x's next to a bunch of the names, which I assume is to account for a thank you note being sent. However, I am remembering that I put Chad in charge of sending thank you notes to his family, and many of those names do not have little x's next to them. So if you are bored enough to have found our blog, and haven't written us off because you are so offended that we didn't send you a thank you note, THANK YOU for everything you gave us. I have a detailed list of what everyone gave us, so I can even thank you for your specific gift. And I can tell you where it is in my house or what we spent the money on. Sorry Chad never got around to writing those thank you notes. But your contribution to our brand new beginnings as a married couple have helped us get to where we are now - in a lovely little home, complete with washer and dryer, piano and puppy.

Anywho.

A few weeks ago, BYU-I held an open house night for the new BYU-I Center for all alumni. I got Chad to work his schedule around it, so we got to go. The new auditorium is rumored to be the largest college facility that isn't a sports arena. It seats 15,000. One level seats the total number of people that fit in the Hart Auditorium. (This is where Commencement was.) AND you don't have to sit in bleachers! I was sad that I missed playing at the dedication by 1 year.

Here are some pictures from my cell phone:
The stage


The view from the bottom


The view from the top


It is pretty awesome. They're hosting a Women's Conference there next Saturday that I'm hoping to go to, and then I'll get to see it in action. Interesting fact: their broadcasting cameras are hand-me-downs from the Conference Center in Salt Lake.

In addition to this auditorium, they built 10 new basketball courts, a suspended indoor track, a new cafeteria/dining area, new bookstore, new cafe, skywalk between this building and the old gym, and a skywalk between the new M.C. (Student Center) and the library. Apparently they did not build any new parking though, so those 15,000 people that show up for an event in the BYU-I Center will have to do a lot of walking. That was silly.

Also, hanging in one of the upstairs hallways of the new auditorium was this familiar painting:

I didn't know it was Mormon folk art.

First of all, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! ... I think my regular background is particularly festive today.

Second of all, I was talking to Chad last night (after he talked to his dad who is a school teacher in the state of California) and I came to a realization.

When you're a child, your teachers are pretty much the coolest people ever. I'm thinking of the time Mollie cried when her first (?) grade teacher wasn't there on the first day of school because she had a baby, and instead had a long-term sub for a while. I'm thinking of my first grade teacher who was nothing but nice, and always had cool crafts for us to do. I'm thinking of my second grade teacher who I was scared of, but who convinced the whole class that getting a drink from the drinking fountain at the back of the classroom was a coveted reward for winning Bingo. I'm thinking of my fifth grade teacher who always made us laugh, my seventh grade science teacher who made science fun, and countless high school teachers who were good at their jobs. There are some teachers that you wouldn't care if you never saw again, but they were still teachers. I guess what I'm saying is, it was kind of implied that your teachers were good people. They devoted their lives to teaching little (and sometimes not-so-little) kids. They must be good people. They enforced right and wrong in their classrooms (some better than others) although I didn't always think they were very fair.

And going to an LDS school only heightened the expectation of moral behavior from your teachers/professors.

And yet, now a certified teacher myself, I find that teachers are not always the irreproachable people I used to think they were. I guess you expect some amount of unfairness as a child and teenager, but you would never think your teachers would break the law, or skirt responsibility, or defend immoral or unethical behavior. And yet they do. I know they're "just people", but something tells me that a teacher should be held to a higher standard. If they're going to be the example for their students, then they should behave like it, no?
They should abide by their classroom rules if they expect students to also. They should model the attitudes and behaviors they expect from their students.

When did "being a good teacher" come to mean "being friends with my students."? The best teachers I ever had were the ones who pushed me to work harder, even when I didn't want to. They were not necessarily the ones I wanted to chat with after school. I liked some of my other teachers as people, but they were lack-luster teachers. Similarly, it seems that some teachers are afraid to pass responsibility to the students for fear of parental backlash. There are some downright crappy teachers out there. It frustrates me as a certified teacher that can't find a job. And once they get a job and survive the first few years, nothing can touch them. They have to be certifiably crazy (Mr. Kos, anyone?) before they lose their job. I'm all for protecting teachers from baseless accusations, but with such complete job protection, there is so much room for ineffective teaching. If the country got serious about education and weeded out all of the "here's-a-handout-I-printed-off-of-the-internet" teachers, I wonder how many would be left?

I just think that teaching can be a rewarding career. As a teacher you have a huge responsibility over the students with whom you associate. You can change lives for better or for worse, and you have an incredible opportunity to make a difference. Am I just naive?

I recognize that circumstances and life are not always perfect, but can't we do better? Shouldn't we expect a little more?

...Becoming an educator and working at a school is like working at your favorite restaurant. Once you know what goes on behind the scenes, you never want to eat there again.

Just sayin'.

Back!

I am finally back online after having been denied access for a while now. Again, the second "free" program I downloaded to connect to the internet through my phone was only "free" for so long before it started locking me out of anything that required a password to login to. (Blog, e-mail, bank accounts, etc.) So I finally gave in and bought the $9.99 app and am now a free woman.

I don't have much to blog about as of lately. I guess I should, at some point, update about Christmas. Maybe tomorrow - I don't have my camera here with me today.

Work has been work. And that's all I have to say about that.

In other news - if you haven't heard already, I have been called as the 1st Counselor in the Young Women Presidency for our ward. However, this means that when I accompany the girls to the temple, they try to get me to do baptisms because they think I'm one of them. As far as I know, I am still the YW Music Specialist - to help them prepare for singing in Sacrament Meeting, etc.

So being the 1st Counselor means that one of my responsibilities is being the liaison between our Ward Girls Camp Directors (who knew?!) and the YW Presidency. Which means I went to the Girls Camp Kick-Off Meeting last night. And any of you who know me and Girls Camp - we're like this.

So anyways. I'm getting excited about Girls Camp - although it will be completely different. Camp this year is just on a ward level. I learned last night that most of the leaders want to get the Certification done before camp so they can have more "free time" at camp. What? I think they would be shocked by the strict schedule we kept at Girls Camp. Also - this is like real camping. Tents and no flush toilets or showers. No wonder it's hard to get the girls to want to go to camp here. They have some really nice church-owned "campgrounds" with cabins and bathrooms and such, but they're apparently something like $300/night and are booked as soon as the website opens for the season. And we're doing a bunch of fundraisers so the girls don't have to pay the $50 fee to go. So it's different. I have to say, apparently we had a pretty cushy deal at Camp Bonnie Brae, with it's yurts (and cabins not pictured here) and cots,

lodge, (dining hall, and newer even bigger lodge)

and lakefront property.

But it sounds like we also did more "work" too. Scheduled activities/firesides/devotionals/certification/etc.

So I'm excited for camp, except that it will be considerably less comfortable than Bonnie Brae. Sleeping on the ground, in regular tents, campfire meals for a week straight; and this time not showering is not just a dare, but a requirement. Eew. Besides when I was a kid, I have never gone more than a day without showering. Any avid campers out there have suggestions?

And it will probably get significantly cold overnight (and who are we kidding - probably during the day too!) , even though camp is in June. And that means I either need to bring a LOT of blankets, or I need a new sleeping bag.
(Mom - where did we get those lovely black sleeping bags you and dad have - the ones with the nylon exterior and green plaid interior? And don't tell me a tag sale. Because I've been using those for years, and that would just creep me out. )

Is it frowned upon to bring an air mattress?

And, can I bring Lady? Because that would be cute!!
Speaking of, Lady had her 7 month birthday yesterday. Aw.
_________________________________________

Chad and I tried to make chocolate chip cookies yesterday but this is how they came out.

Little puddles of cookie dough. Does anyone know why? Is it an altitude thing? Or an oven thing?


Also - these flashcards that we found at the Dollar Tree make me giggle. TMI Pooh, TMI.

Dog

I bought a bag of bone-shaped dog biscuits last time I went to the store, because I was still feeling guilty for leaving Lady for so long. So when I'm feeling particularly generous, I give her a biscuit. She usually takes it and runs into another room. Today I decided to watch her to see what she does with them. I watched her run into the front room, jump up on the chair, scratch at the back of the cushion, drop her bone and nudge her head over it. She buried her biscuit in the chair.

Since discovering this little trick, I have also found a biscuit in the couch. I gave it to her and have been watching her try to find a new place to hide it. Chad's shoe, a box under the guest bed, and the sofa in the guest bed are all popular hiding places. And then sometime when we're not doing anything, she'll run into the room with a treat that she previously stashed somewhere.

I have never seen a real life dog that actually buried their bones. Where do they learn that?! And why do they do it!?

New Post

Well, as you may have noticed, I have changed the title of my blog.

"College Life" was no longer accurate after I graduated in April 2010, and "Post College Life" divided my life into "college" and "post-college". Well, I'm hoping there will be more to it than that, so this new title comes from our wedding song, You and I (as sung by Michael Buble).

And now you know.

I think these pictures speak for themselves....

Goodbye 2010

Dear 2010,
I can't believe you are leaving already. It seems like yesterday we were student teaching together. Then we graduated college, got a job, and bought a house! We went to Florida to see the launch of NASA STS-132. You helped Chad and I celebrate two years of marriage. You brought me my beloved Pig-Pig, and then took him back less than 3 months later. Together we all planted and tended our first garden, and bought a cute little puppy. You have been a good friend. And although we will never see each other again, I will always remember you for the good times. Thanks for everything. I hope your replacement is just as good to us as you have been.

Much love,
Megan

Christmas Caroling

Lady likes to sing duets with me.

Gross!

So apparently puppies lose their puppy teeth. We've already found one in the carpet.
The milk bottle she chews on is streaked with blood, so I looked in her mouth and sure enough, one of her teeth is flapping around in there like a weeble wobble. EEEEEEW!

Weekend Update

Summer is officially over, and, unfortunately, I'm pretty sure fall is too. It snowed on Monday and it stuck. I have lots of updates to make. I have been pretty much MIA because we only have internet on our phones now. The "free" program that was connecting out computers to the internet through our phones stopped working on my computer because my trial was over. So Chad finally got me a new program which I am using now.

As you may or may not know, we planted a garden this summer. We dug up the ground, made little rows, and planted seeds. (Mollie - ECS chorus song coming to mind... "step by step, row by row... gonna make my garden grow. All I need is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground.") We planted 3 rows of corn, 1 row of pumpkins, 1 row of cucumbers, 1 row of zucchinis and 1 row of carrots. As you may recall, we were soon overwhelmed by zucchinis. We kept a tally on the white board in our kitchen and counted (give or take a few) 119 zucchinis for the season. That's from 5 plants. With some strategic anonymous drop-offs, we were able to get rid of pretty much all of them. I brought a box to Relief Society several times, Chad took some to work, I gave some to the teachers at school, we brought a box to a ward activity, we made bread out of some and gave it away, we left some in somebody's car because their door was open in the church parking lot, and with that, we used up our 119 zucchinis. Here is a particularly large zucchini that I found several days after I thought an early frost had killed all of our zucchini plants.



We got some carrots too. Luckily Lady likes carrots, and she ate several right out of the ground. We picked the last of our carrots for the season and made glazed carrots when Chad's mom and brothers came over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. They were good! Look at these carrots!



We got some yummy cherry tomatoes from the plants the Holmans gave us. Our pumpkin plants died (frost) before the pumpkins could turn orange, so we got a whole bunch of green pumpkins. Our corn came in really late, and consequently didn't get eaten. It also seemed to have a fair amount of bugs in the husks, which was not particularly appetizing.

We finished painting the house in late October when we had unseasonably warm temperatures (70s) for about a week. We gave back the ladder we borrowed, and then found a small triangle on the house that was missed. Guess it'll have to wait until next summer. Hopefully, since we didn't notice it for about a month, nobody else will either.



How is the dog, you ask? Well we enrolled her in a puppy training class. It is 8 weeks long and is guaranteed for life. So if your dog ever doesn't do the things they were supposed to have learned in the class, you can take them back to any PetSmart in the country for more "free" training.

Here is her first day of school picture on the front step. We only wish we had a little tiny backpack to put on her.


She has learned sit, lay down, high five, roll over, take it (when you are offering a treat she has to be calm and given permission to eat it), leave it (when you drop something on the floor, or don't want her to eat something off of the ground), come when called (works about 80% of the time unless what she's smelling or has in her mouth is more exciting than you are), drop it, stay, sit for a greeting (sitting down and being calm before anyone new wants to pet her) and she's supposed to learn how to walk on a loose leash. We have the most trouble with this one because I am not patient enough to stop and wait for her to calm down every time she walks in front of me when we are out for a walk. One day it literally took me an hour to walk the length of our yard. On the retractable leash she gets in front of me but rarely pulls at the end of the leash. However, for the class, she's supposed to walk beside you (never in front of you) without ever pulling on her leash. This is pretty much impossible to me with an energetic puppy that wants to smell everyone and everything she sees on a walk. So... graduation is in three weeks (it's supposed to be this week but the trainer is out of town) and we'll see if she does it by then. The problem is that when she doesn't do it, I get in trouble. Chad and I don't really know if we care that she walks in front of us, but in dog training, it's a thing. In our spare time at home, I have also taught her to come close the drawers and cabinet doors in the kitchen when they're open. That's one of my favorite tricks. She is also house broken and rings a bell we have hanging on the door if she needs to go out. However, she has learned that ringing the bell also gets her outside (in a cage, but still) so sometimes she doesn't go and we bring her back in. She sleeps in our bed (I know, I know - you don't have to tell me how spoiled she is, etc. etc.) and if she has to go out at night, she walks to the corner of the bed and scratches her collar so the tags jingle. (Which usually wakes us up.) If that doesn't wake us up, she walks all over our bodies and comes and licks our faces. She's a pretty good dog, and we like her.


A lot of times she sleeps all the way under the covers (we assume she must get cold) and we can slide out of the bed in the morning without her noticing.

Can you spy the puppy? I believe she is under the white circle with blue polka dots that's directly to the right of the corner of the pillow.

And sometimes she sleeps longways between us, with her head on my pillow.


And she keeps us entertained too. She likes to play with (chew up) cardboard boxes, so I gave her an old tissue box and went to use the bathroom. When I came out, this is what I found.


Hahahahaha....
She had been running into the cabinets because she couldn't see, but when she heard my voice, she froze and waited for me to rescue her.

She also "helps" clean the dishes, though I make Chad hold her now whenever I'm emptying or loading the dishwasher.


And she loves to snuggle.


In other news - the driver's side door on the van quit working on Monday night, of course in the middle of the snow storm. It was dark and we couldn't see anything wrong with it, so Chad just kept trying to slam it shut, which, surprisingly, did not work. So we covered it up with a tarp for the night and took it to a mechanic the next day. They said it wasn't a mechanical problem and it would have to go to a body shop. We took it to a body shop here in town (with a big fancy office and lot) that said it would need new hinges on the door, and probably a new latch, which would cost us about $300. Not too bad. He said he would call around to see if they could find the hinges on a junked van, and he'd call us back. By Thursday he hadn't called, so we took it to a different place. The guy there (more of a hole-in-the-wall type of place) told us it didn't need new hinges, he could weld it back together and have it back to us the next day. DING DING DING, WE HAVE A WINNER! And he did! He welded the hinge back to the pillar (I think is what they call it), put on a new latch, and evened out the metal that got mangled when Chad tried to slam it shut so many times. It looks great. And it works better than it ever has since we've had it. And! It only cost us $125! The guy that fixed it said that bigger places like the first place we took it sometimes say they're going to call you back and then they never do because they don't want to bother with such a little job. And they try to upsell you on something you don't need but you don't know that you don't need. (new hinges) So - Classic Auto in Idaho Falls, Idaho - thanks for fixing our car and being honest about it! They also said that if the door starts to sag again, just bring it in and they'll adjust it for free.

(If you've found this by googling "Classic Auto in Idaho Falls, Idaho", I hope you take your car to them - they seem pretty good. Our guy's name was Brewster.)

So, with a new hip, Jermaine is mobile again.

A while ago, our ward had a "Harvest Hoedown" for adults 18 and older. This included dinner, relay races, line dancing, and pictures. We were supposed to dress up in the "Western" theme - here are our pictures.






Also - with the aforementioned snow, we built a snowman. Chad has never built a real snowman because the snow in Idaho is usually too dry. But it was perfect on Monday, so we built a lovely snowman - that morphed into a snowbear when we couldn't get his nose (a pinecone) to stick without a giant glob of snow behind it.

I told Chad we would take some pictures in the morning, but to take one with his phone right when we finished it, "just in case". It's a good thing too. We built this great big snowbear and when we got home a couple of hours later, someone had knocked it down. Hence the previous post. We went to a friend's birthday party on Tuesday night and were telling our sob story when one of the husbands of one of the girl's friends said "Hahaha - that's funny!". And I had to restrain myself from punching him in the face. I'm not joking, one of these days we will build a big snowman around a steel pole. Then when someone tries to kick it over, they'll break their foot. And I will have no sympathy.

And I guess that's about it from here. Hopefully I will have a few videos to post soon - Chad has been extra busy at work, and with his film "business", so he hasn't been able to do things as quickly as he would like.

Add to "Dead To Me"

anyone who has ever destroyed, is currently destroying, or will in the future destroy a snowman they did not build.

Old Pictures

I was bored and looking through some old pictures on my computer when I found this gem from a couple of years ago.

I don't know why we're eating grapes off of the floor. But I sure am glad we're doing it in our underwear.
We love you Will!

Dead To Me

As a Dickerson, it is my solemn responsibility to keep a detailed list of all of the people and places that have, in some way, wronged me or my family. Fondly labeled the "Dead To Me" List, it helps me keep track of all of the people and places now undeserving of my company and business.

Let it be known that today I add WalMart's after-Halloween candy sale to the list.

After complaining about having no trick-or-treaters and a plethora of candy, we ended up giving most of it away to Chad's brothers and Sunday School class, leaving us with only a few pieces for ourselves; which should be fine, but, as a Dickerson, it is also my solemn responsibility to seek out clearance candy and purchase it in ridiculously large amounts.

Today after school, I decided to make a quick stop at WalMart, check out the deals, and pick up some candy with the money mom sent me for this purpose. (I don't like her famous sugar cookies because when I was little I liked them so much that I ate them until I threw up.) They had surprisingly little to choose from, but I found some favorites and headed for the checkout. I had: a bag of Kit Kats, a bag of Twix, a bag of Snickers and a bag of Peanut M&Ms. I get up to the checkout to watch my goodies ring up at full price.
"These aren't half price?"
The teenage checker replies "Uh... they said some of the chocolate was on sale and some of it wasn't."
::eye roll::
"Well, I don't want any that isn't half price."
"Okay.
....
"Looks like it's just the Kit Kats then."

Are you kidding me?

So I bought my Kit Kats for $1.33 leaving me plenty of change to spare, and left the store, walking out past all of the orange boxes of Halloween candy with little stickers that say "50% off" from which my abandoned candy had been taken.
Let it be known that I do not even like Kit Kats that much.

So WalMart after-Halloween candy sale - you are officially dead to me. Whose brilliant idea was it to put some of the candy on sale and some of it not? Because it was not very brilliant. And it has earned you a spot on my Dead To Me List.

I could go to Target, but I hear their candy is only 30% off, and as far as I'm concerned... that's not even a sale.

Puppy

As I mentioned - we got a puppy! She's a toy Australian Shepherd. We've named her Lady. Her father's name was Frankie Blue Eyes, so her full registered name is Luck Be a Lady - Lady for short. Aren't we so clever?

She has kept us busy and wakes us up multiple times a night to go out. However - she is getting better - and last night she didn't have any "accidents" in her kennel! She went out every time! The past couple of nights she's only woken us up 3 times - around midnight, 3:00am and 6:00am. She's a little cuddle bug and we love her. Here are some pictures:









Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Update

Just so you know - we got Germaine working again, and all seems to be well for a while.

Also - are you sitting down? - this may be a shocker - but - we bought a dog. Well, we put a deposit on a dog.
Call it a replacement for Pig-Pig or a substitute for a baby or a guard dog or whatever you want to call it - but before you judge us, just look at her!



Who could walk away from a face like that?!

It's a bad picture - but you can look up others online. She's a Toy Australian Shepherd and we get to bring her home next Friday. She'll grow up to be less than 13" tall.

This is getting ridiculous...

Well, I went out on Saturday morning and bought myself an alternator for Leonard.

I brought it home, and called dad to help me put it in. He didn't answer because he was out chopping something up with the chainsaw. I called mom, and it wasn't long before my neighbor was coming up over the lawn asking me what I needed help with. I told him I was replacing the alternator. He came over, took a look, and said "Lemme go get ma tools."

So a couple of hours later, everything was finished. I participated by handing over tools, and holding onto screws/bolts. I wanted to tell Chad that I was so good at it, I didn't even get my hands dirty. But I couldn't take that much credit, so I told him our neighbor did it for me.

We got the alternator put in, plugged in and tightened down. We went to start up the car, and nothing happened. However, on Monday we went out and double-checked everything, tightened everything again, and this time it WORKED!!!

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!

Leonard lives to see another day.

However, in an unfair turn of events, Chad's car won't start.
He drove to work, and when he got in it to come home for lunch, it wouldn't start. It was Leonard to the rescue. We got over there, jumped the van (which Chad refers to as Germaine - some reference to one of the Jackson 5 and his flattop) and drove it home. He turned it off in the driveway, and couldn't start it again.
So there Germaine sits.

We're going to try cleaning off the battery terminals when Chad gets home from work later tonight. Since we just bought the battery in Jan 09 (when it died at Aunt Karen's during the infamous Idaho Christmas Expedition), we're hoping it's just a bad connection. So help me if it's the alternator. It would not be NEARLY as quick or easy to fix as it was on the Subaru. You can't even see it when you look in the engine compartment.

So - that's the update from here. Someone do a rain dance or something to appease the Gods for us.