Let's begin with something sensational...

My life is far from what you would suppose to call sensational. I'm a housewife, I guess. Domestic engineer, I guess is what you would put on a resume. I live on the unglaciated portion of the Appalachian Plateau with my husband, a web designer (then why, oh why, am I still on blogger?), our two dogs and two cats. This blog is the chronicle of my everyday adventures with crafting, animals, trying to keep order in the house, mental illness, paganism and poverty.

That's my life in a nutshell, I suppose. But how to begin, in media res as it were? With the mundane details or a sensational event? Why, sensational, of course! My car caught fire this morning.

Well, it didn't so much catch fire as it did short the battery and cause a bit of fire and smoke. My beautiful 1998 Pontiac Sunfire, who had been a gift from my family, has been good to me so far. She's had a few minor problems, which basically amounted to me not realizing a spark plug wire was burnt out. But yesterday, she died. Just died. Right at a stop sign.

We promptly got a jump and ran her over to Advanced Auto Parts. They tested the battery. The battery, of course, was dead. They sold us another battery just so they could test the alternator. Totally unecessary, of course. But the alternator, of course, is shot.

We took our new battery home, and put it on a separate battery charger. Installed it this morning. The salesman had informed us that even though our prior battery had side post terminals, and the new one had top post terminals, everything would be fine as long as we used the handy-dandy conversion kit he sold us.

No.

We installed the battery, ran it for a bit - definiately alternator problems. Shut the hood, and POOF! Fire, smoke, and a hole in my hood.

The long and short of it is, we threw a fuss about the fact that their technician majorly messed up. We got a full refund, and a brand new PROPER battery, one that is designed for our car. Now I've got to figure out what to do about the hole. I've got to sand, prime, and paint it...just to keep it from rusting. It will look like crap-ola no matter what I do.....and I am sad.

In other news, our friend is graduating from college in two days. I am sewing him an apron and assembling a "bread in a bottle" or "cookies in a bottle" kit. He's graduating as a chef, of course!

I'm knitting a pair of mosaic socks, from the book "Sensational Knitted Socks". I need to get my knitting mojo back. I have been unable to pick up my stix ever since my grandmother, the woman who taught me to knit, passed away in February. But I want to try.

I've also just started new medication to try and get my menagerie of mental health conditions in order - Klonopin (clonazepam). So far, so good. I'd forgotten what "normal" felt like, and it's a good feeling. Let's hope it lasts! The only side effect I've seen so far is decreased appetite and increased productivity - neither of which is a horribly bad thing.

But this is my life, and welcome to it.