They’re actually doing it!

The auto execs are actually driving from Detroit to D.C. in hybrids for their latest plea for money:

Ford CEO Alan Mulally left for the capital Tuesday afternoon in a small Ford Escape sport utility vehicle, which runs on gas and electricity. Rick Wagoner of GM departs Wednesday in a hybrid Chevrolet Malibu. Chrysler LLC said its chief executive, Robert Nardelli, would leave Tuesday night, driving a hybrid Dodge Durango or Chrysler Aspen SUV.

Unfortunately, they’ll probably get the cash this way. Now along with $1,525 for health care per car produced (more than the steel in a GM vehicle’s price tag), we can have some taxpayer money as well.

Get yourself a Honda.

Our Menu

My mom and dad and Berck’s dad come into town for Thanksgiving weekend. Berck and I spent all day cooking (and I cooked as much as I could ahead of time):

free range turkey from Whole Foods
stuffing
gravy
butternut squash soup
pea casserole
skillet cranberries
mashed Colorado Yukon Gold potatoes
refrigerator rolls
chocolate icebox pie
pecan pie
sauerkraut
Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling
Chateau Ste. Michelle Gewürztraminer
and some of my homemade mead!

The Corner Cafe

I had to take Berck to the airport today, the end of his whole five days in a row off. Usually, he takes the 6:20 flight, but the last one was so late, he didn’t end up getting back to his “cottage” until nearly midnight. He has a 7am sim session tomorrow morning, so he elected to take the 3:20 flight today. I got up and went to work in the morning as usual and then drove home and picked Berck up midday.

We stopped for lunch on the way to the airport. I wanted to try a place called The Corner Cafe. It’s right across the street from the courthouse, so I imagine it gets plenty of business. I was excited about their sandwich combinations and the fact that they served fries. But the food was lackluster. The sandwiches tasted fine, but they were pretty small for their prices. The fries were the unappetizing frozen crinkle cut kind. We had both specials. Berck’s was the Albuquerque, which included hot roast beef and pretty spicy jalapeno ranch sauce. I had some meaningless (to me) acronym that included turkey, bacon, and “avocado” (actually guacamole) with some shredded lettuce on multi-grain toast. It was tasty, but as I said, way overpriced for its size. Still, with the fries I could only finish one half. I helped myself to a box behind the counter and wrapped it up to take home.

When I finally got back to work, I decided to leave my sandwich in its Styrofoam box in my car with the windows rolled down. I planned to eat it for supper, and it didn’t want to put it in the fridge for the toast to get stale. It was very warm, almost hot, today, and I didn’t want the mayonnaise to become a culture for bacteria gone wild if I left the windows up. I decided the dogs wouldn’t go through the trouble of climbing through an open car window to get at the food.

Sometime later I glanced outside and saw the cat sitting on the hood of my car licking his paws in satisfaction. Uh oh. Sure enough, when I left to go home, I found the Styrofoam box open on my car seat with one triangular piece of multi-grain toast in it and one next to it. The bacon, turkey, “avocado”–even the shredded lettuce–had all been licked clean off the bread.

Maybe I should have gotten the sandwich with the spicy jalapeno ranch. Would that deter a hungry cat?