Stickshift and Ice Cream

I think my house is bugged. A couple months ago I was sitting in a chair, eating a rather boring bowl of vanilla ice cream. So I thought about what I would add to it, if I could. And I said out loud, you know what would be really tasty? Vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered potato chips. Evil, I know. It's like a double wham of unhealthyness. But I was like...it would taste really good. A couple of my siblings' response was ewww. But dad thought it might be a good idea (but I can never go by him, because he likes pickle and peanutbutter sandwiches).

So the reason I think my house is bugged is because yesterday I was at Wegmans, lolling about the frozen food section, and I stopped to see what Ben & Jerry's ice cream there was. And that is when I saw it. The little round pint container with the title "late night snack" and the plastic seal wrapped around the rim that had "New flavor New flavor New flavor" printed boldly in red upon it. I bent down to read the description. Vanilla ice cream. Caramel swirls. And CHOCOLATE COVERED POTATO CHIPS!!! The box claimed it was dreamed up by some Jimmy Fallon late night talk show host...but it wasn't. It was me people!! They just say it was Jimmy Fallon because they don't want to give me the credit. If they gave me credit, they would have to admit they bugged my house.

In all seriousness though, I think it is a freaky coincidence that they came out with that when they did. It also makes me disappointed, because it means my flavor combination was a million dollar combination, and I'm not the one raking in the money. Dang. lol

Today was not a good day for ice cream though, because it is freezing. Well, its only 65, but it feels like it should snow at any second, now that I'm used to that wonderfully hot, muggy weather that just sticks to you and makes you feel warm and safe. Maybe I need to move south. Except it is way too pretty here, between the blue sky and tree branches with their green leaves that brush across it, like giant paintbrushes. Crazy, chaotic paintbrushes today though, what with the wind. So maybe they are Jackson Pollock paintbrushes.


We got the "new" car all fixed up, so it runs practically perfect now, with no more smells and sounds that make you think it will explode. So dad has started teaching me to drive it, since it is manual. I have this friend Ben Markell, and he was telling me about the way his mom taught him to drive stick. He said she made him go to a steep hill, stop right before the top, and then made him start it again from there. I was like, wow, your mom is tough. So what did dad do to me? We drive to the top of the upper driveway, and at the steepest part, stop. What's up with that? Did our parents converse on how to teach manual to us or something? To say the least, it took me about 5-7 stalls before I got off the hill and onto to the flat road. But after that, it didn't go too bad. Dad hopped out to grill supper, and I just drove and drove and drove around the driveway in circles. The pipeline people, who aren't all that far away, probably thought I was crazy or something, the way the car lurched and screeched and stalled. I felt so bad, like I was killing it or something. But soon I got the feel of it. Became "one with the car" so to speak (or at least, more at one than I was before lol). And I managed to get it into second gear, and when I would stall, it would only be once or twice in a series, instead of 5. So overall, it was a good first lesson. It will be fun to actually try on the road sometime, and get above 20 mph. As long as no other cars are on the road at the same time. Yeah.