Sunday, January 29, 2006

Thoughts on God and Kawkawa

Click the button to visit "Camp Kawkawa Rembered"

I haven't blogged much in the last week. I've been kind of at a loss of what to say. (ME? Impossible!) I've been busy and I'm still thinking a lot about Camp Kawkawa. I'm still in shock that it's gone (well, closed).

I went up there last Saturday for a farewell open house. It was kind of a bitter sweet day. More bitter than sweet, to be honest. I saw some old friends, and that was good, but it was hard to see that beautiful location and know that that was the last function that would ever happen there. It was really last minute, too, because the decision to close the camp had come so quickly, so there were tons of people who couldn't make it or who don't even know yet that it's closed.

When I got there, I went all the way to the top of the property and started a kind of prayer walk/memory walk. I tried to go to each part of camp and just spend some time in each place bringing up memories and committing them to God. The hardest thing was seing the staff. Giggles, Rainbow, Mr Pots... they were all hoping to retire there. The new Director, Tim, just started in May. He and his wife were hoping to be there for 10-15 years. They made it seven months.

Giggles (er, Paulette) and I cried at the thought of the empty beach this summer. Where the hot summer air was once full of the sounds of kids playing and laughing and praising God, there will now only be silence and emptiness.

Man, I have a lot of memories from that place, both fun memories and memories of lessons and decisions that have shaped who I am today. I think that's why it's so hard to see the camp close: it's had such a huge impact on my faith, and I've linked that, probably too much, with camp. It's like once camp is gone, that part of who I am - while it's still there and can never be taken from me - no longer has a physical place to be tied to. The plan is to find a new location and start a new camp. That will be good, but it will never be the same. But really, when are we ever promised that things will stay the same?

There were lots of tears on Saturday, but the biggest ones fell when we were singing "Blessed Be Your Name." I've never had a hard time singing that before, but this time was different.

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say,
Lord, Blessed be Your name

It was a reminder that God gave this camp to us, and now he's taking it away. Nobody knows why. Everybody was saying last Saturday that if God is taking away such a wonderful, God-honouring, life-changing place, he must have something so much better up his sleeve. It's just hard to say goodbye and not know what's going to happen next.

Even as I was thinking about that, I came accross a newsletter from another camp that gave me yet a different perspective: I've often thanked God for giving us Camp Kawkawa, and now I'm wondering why he's taking it away. But in reality, it was never really given to us. Camp Kawkawa is God's. It always was. He's just invited us to use it. I'm so grateful for that invitiation.

____________________________________
* See pictures from Saturday's farewell party here.
* If you, too, have spent any time at Camp Kawkawa, please go to Camp Kawkawa Remembered and share a favourite memory. I am collecting stories that will be added to a book about Kawkawaand I'd love to hear your story.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Surprise!

Just another one of my many talents.....

Click here

What hidden talents do YOU have?

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

It's showtime *UPDATED*

Oh. My. Goodness. You'll never guess who I'm going to see tomorrow night. No really. Guess. I'll wait. ...... Nope, try again... not them either.... nope.....

Give up? Here's a hint...

Dressed in yellow, she says "Hello
"Come sit next to me you fine fellow"
You run over there without a second to loose
And what comes next, hey
bust a move!

Wednesday, 9pm at the Plaza on Granville, $20 at the door... Email me if you wanna come (Brad... you know you waaaaana!)

*UPDATED* I'm such a weenie. I didn't go! I was SO gonna. I decided at 10pm the night before that I was in, listened to all kinds of clips of Young MC's songs online, and called a bunch of friends to come with me, all excited and enthusiastic (me? enthusiastic? neeeeever). My friends Jordan and Lloyd weren't as excited but agreed to come along for some fun and so I wouldn 't go on my own (my sister and a bunch of her friends were gonna be there, too, but I wanted a friend or two along as well). Upon further inspection of the showtimes, I saw that there were two opening acts, and Lloyd pointed out that Young MC probably wouldn't be on till 11 or 11:30... it was a work night... I had been sleeping really poorly... I was getting sick... I decided the day of the concert that I should probably get to bed at a decent hour and get some sleep instead.

ARG... when did I turn into such an old lady???

Well, I'm off to glue my teeth in and cover the couch with plastic now...

Friday, January 20, 2006

Yes... YOU!

Just wanted to point out my blog-o-the-week. Her name's Sarah Cool and she's got a nifty blog going. I particularly liked her post called "Breathe Deep..." (Jan 11). It got me thinking and she's got soem great points. She's a fun gal, so go check out her site and say hello! (Don't know what I'm talking about? See that blog thumbnail on the sidebar under "Welcome to my Tenant"... go click it! :D

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Well slap me silly and call me Sally!

I don't like being a meany-pants. But this was getting out of hand. I faxed some forms off to my insurance adjuster in December, and I haven't heard from him since. I've been paying privately for my chiropractic treatments and my chiro office has been trying to get hold of the adjuster, and so have I. My messages have now turned into, "Hello, this is Hillary calling regarding claim number blah blah blah. This is now the third/fourth/fifth/etc time I have called. I would appreciate a phone call back as soon as possible."

Well he FINALLY called me back tonight. Turns out he never got my forms (which still doesn't explain why he hasn't called me back for three weeks, but hey). We got everything set up for my chiro office to bill the insurance company, and for me to be reimbursed.

As an afterthought, I asked him if they had determined liability from the accident yet. It is a sticky one, cause I was turning left, so the onus is on me to prove that the guy who hit me ran the red. I had a witness, who has not returned one single phone call (from me, a lawyer friend, the insurance company... anyone). He's a dud. So basically, even though the other guy was in the wrong, the fault would end up being mine, meaning increased insurance rates, etc etc etc. Suckity suck suck suck. Plus, when they paid me out for my totalled car, they held my $300 deductible, only to pay it to me if it was found to be the other guy's fault.

Well.

At the intersection, the guy insisted it was a yellow light he went through. Last month when I checked on the process, his statement with the insurance company was still that he went through the yellow light. So today when I checked, I was hoping for maybe a 50/50 fault decision, but knowing that I really shouldn't get my hopes up. Imagine my shock when the adjuster told me that the other driver had accepted full fault!!! WOOHOOO!!!!! That means my insurance won't go up. That means my adjuster is gonna cut me a cheque for $300 (a fact I forgot about till he brought it up). That ALSO means I'm eligible for "pain and suffering" money from the insurance company. I'll have to see what's reasonable and go from there.

But WOOHOO!!!!!! There's a MAJOR prayer answered, and a HUGE weight off my shoulders!

Yippee Skippy!!!

Sunday, January 15, 2006

I've got the kleenex handy

Click the button to visit "Camp Kawkawa Rembered"

Um, so this is my fourth post today. Sorry gang, it's been a really eventful Sunday for me, not to mention the rest of the weekend. Yikes.

I guess life goes in a cycle of highs and lows. This low hit me pretty hard today. I'm still not convinced I can get through typing this without tears. I've already had a few crying sessions this afternoon and evening.

Just after I got home today, I was in a fantabulous mood (scroll down to find out why). Then my mom called me to tell me about an announcement she saw in the bulletin this morning at their church: "Due to geological concerns, Camp Kawkawa will be closing down at the end of January. " The camp is built on the side of a mountain, and after having a geological survey done, they found that there was too great of a risk of landslides. In order to continue operating, every guest would have to sign a waiver to stay there. That's simply too damaging. Nobody would come. So Camp Kawkawa is closing. Forever.

I felt like I had been punched in the gut.

Camp Kawkawa is a Christian kids camp up in Hope that has been a huge part of my life since I was little. My Nana and Papa first sent me there when I was eight years old, and I spent at least a week (sometimes eight or nine weeks) there every summer for the next sixteen years. It's been two and a half years since I last worked there, but I've gone up to visit and to volunteer for a weekend here and there, and have been up the most recently for a church retreat last May.

It is my favourite place in the whole wide world. Not only is it an incredibly beautiful spot, but the experiences I have had there have shaped so much of who I am today, particularily in regards to my faith. I have grown and learned SO much there. I simply can't put into words how much I love that place. I've said before that as soon as I arrive on the property, I feel as if my soul can relax. It is a refuge for me, a sacred place.

I know of course that even though the buildings will be gone (uh, oh, here come the tears), the effect it's had on me and on thousands of other people can never be taken away. What God has done through that ministry will last even beyond this life. I take comfort in that, but I can't bear the tought of never again being able to huff it up that killer hill to the girls chalets, play a game of beach volleyball with 50 kids, watch a skit night in the dining hall, pray for my cabin of girls in the staff lounge, teach a kid how to shoot an arrow or paddle a kayak, and see kids come to a deeper understanding of God as they go about the activities of the week.

They are hoping to relocate at some point, but it will never be Kawkawa again.

There will be a final Open House Farewell on Saturday January 21 from 2pm-6pm. I'll be going (camera and kleenex - lots and lots of kleenex - in tow). If you'd like to come, let me know.

In the meantime, if you're interested, here are a few links to Kawkawa if you'd like to see a little bit of the place that is so dear to me:

Camp Photos --- Camp Video (it's a large file, it may take a while to load) --- 360 degree interactive tour --- Open House invitation --- Why Kawkawa is closing it's doors --- Some thoughts after the retreat in May

VRRROOOOOOM

That's the sound my new Honda Civic makes!

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!

Ahem. Sorry. I'm a bit excited.

I just bought a white 95 Civic LX sedan. It's in beautiful shape, and I drove it off the lot with only 94,139 kms on it (58,945 miles), which is less than half of what an average car would have on it by now. It's all tuned up, just had the brakes done, AirCared till Christmas 2007, and is set to go.

I went to the dealership today fully intending to walk away from this car. My mechanic cheked it over of Friday and told me it needed some work: brakes, tires, a tune up, and a timing belt in another three months or so. The salesman was asking a lot, and even though it's got really low kilometers, it's still an eleven year old car and doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. It's got air conditioning, but manual windows, locks, etc. I didn't think he was going to go down too much on his price.

My dad and I offered $1500 below what he was asking for it, because of this and that that needed fixing, etc. But then he then told us that he had the brakes fixed and the oil changed yesterday, and showed us the tires again, which weren't nearly as bad as my mechanic made them out to be. The back ones will need replacing in a few months, but that's not too expensive to do. I'll still have to do the timing belt in a few months. BUT, he gave us his bottom line, which was WAY lower than I thought it would be. Plus, because he had just gotten the car, he hadn't transferred it to his company yet. It was just in his name, so I saved half the tax (no GST) and the documentation fees. That alone saved me $625. His bottom line was $1000 less than he was asking, so after some deliberating with my dad (dads are great!) I decided to take it.


I still wasn't going to drive out of there right then and there, because I'd need a certified cheque from the bank to pay and would have to go buy insurance, and it was 4pm on a Sunday. Not gonna happen.

BUT (lotta buts in this story, aren't there?), he told me he'd take a regular cheque, so off we went back to my house from Hastings and Commercial (about a 20 min drive) to get my chequebook, paid him, then started running around looking for an insurance place that was open at 5 pm on a Sunday. We drove into North Van to the Superstore (another 20 min drive each way) and voila! I had insurance. Off we went, back the the dealership, and I drove off the lot at 5:30 this evening!

Holy shamoley, I have a car!!! And it WORKS! In contrast to the Beastmobile, I'm toying with naming it Beauty. Might be kinda cheesy though. I'll post pictures tomorrow and maybe have a "name my new car" contest. Hmmm...... I like that plan. Start thinking! I'll officially announce the contest later this week.

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!

Back to the contest

Say What?

'Member how back a while ago I was musing about taking an acting class? Well I jumped in with two feet on Saturday and registered for an eight week IMPROV course! There was an acting one that conflicted with my Bible study, but this one is on a different night. I'm simultaneously looking forward to it immensely and am totally terrified. The fun begins this Tursday... it's gonna be great! If there's a show at the end, I'll invite y'all to come and see!

The desk

Yeah, yeah, yeah... so I've got no pictures of a non back-twizzling computer set up to show you (see post below). My monitor and keyboard can't both fit on the same side of the desk without my keyboard being right up against the edge of the desk (and even hanging off a little bit). I thought about putting the monitor on a shelf above, but monitors are heavy and those shelves are just held up by four little plastic pins. Not a good combo. This is gonna take more work than I initially thought. Perhaps a slide-out keyboard shelf. Or just a new desk. Dumb back. Who says they're supposed to be straight, anyway? ;)

On the plus side, I DID clean the desk off. No more junk.*


*On the desk that is. Now the junk is in a basket on the floor waiting to be sorted through.
I'll get there, I will! Feel free to yell at me anyway! :-)

Thursday, January 12, 2006

A stern talking to

I've been going to a chiropractor lately for the sore back I've had ever since my car accident. I've heard the whole gamut of opinions from "They're quacks" to "He made my bones move" but I thought I'd go see for myself and give it a try. I wasn't too convinced after the first few appointments, but it's feeling a lot better now! Yippee!

On Monday, the chiro mentioned that some of the problems in my back were kind of strange to find after a car accident, so he started asking questions about other things, like my job, my sleeping habits (yeah, those need to change) and things like that. I knew right away what was causing the problem, so I decided to fess up, and then got a lecture. It was a friendly lecture, and he joked about being required to give it, but it was a lecture nonetheless.

Folks, I have the worst desk set-up ever. EVAR. Behold the badness of it all...

Now that may not look so bad at first glance, but look where my monitor is. It's way off to the left. I sit diagonal on the chair, my right leg tucked underneath me, my left arm across my chest in order to reach the keyboard. Either that or I've got my knees under the desk and my torso twisted to the left to see the screen. My back basically looks like a twizzler stick when I sit here.

In my defense, if I put the monitor on the other side of the desk, half my desk would be rendered useless. It would not be a useful workstation at all. However, seeing as I never work at my desk except for when I'm on the computer, and my desk NEVER looks as clean as that (it's mostly used to store piles of junk - there ya go, there's my dirty little secret for you), I'm pretty sure the "it would be useless space" argument just isn't gonna cut it.

I guess I need to change my desk.

Hey! How's this for accountability... if you don't see a picture of a rearranged and uncluttered desk by Sunday night, yell at me! My back and my chiropractor will thank you!

National De-Lurking Week


Hey out there! According to Paper Napkin (and a WHOLE lot of other blogs out there!), this is National De-Lurking Week. Sign me up! (I know it's near the end of the week, but hey, for me, it's gonna last a week.) My site gets a good number of comments, and I appreciate them all! I'm always thrilled to see a new comment come into my inbox. But my stat counter tells me that there are lots more of you out there who are reading! Go on! Leave a comment! Say hello! It doesn't have to be witty, it doesn't have to be long. If a post makes you think of something, coment away! A blog is a conversation - I'd love to hear your end of it! :D

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Trolls

Wow, I just realized that three really long posts in the last week were all about car shopping. Yawn. And I was wondering why my comments were down! Ha ha! Sorry if I've been boring you. The hunt has kind of been consuming my spare time these days. Blah!

On a much more exciting note, go check out Troll Baby on my sidebar (to the right and down). Karen is my new renter this week, and she's great! Funny posts, and a great blog design. She's got a contest running now where you send her your URL and the winner gets a free blog makeover. Go show her some love! Click on the tumbnail to visit her!

So funny!

So normally I don't post jokes (cause there are kajillions of them floating around out there, and really, we all get enough of them as forwards in our inboxes), but this blonde joke just got funnier every time I looked at it. Go check it out!

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Lessons

These have been the longest days I've had in a very tong time. Other than six hours to sleep, and some time to shower and eat breakfast, I have been doing some form of car hunting from about 3:30pm Friday till 5:30pm Saturday. Ridiculous, I tell you.

BUT, there's a light on the horizon. I have a first and second pick, and both are good deals on nice cars. We'll see how the inspection goes.

A few things I've learned through car shopping these last few weeks:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. That's obvious, yes. But I'm a person who will drive all the way across the city anyway just to be sure.

2. If a salesman stands under cover and watches you wander around in the lot in the pouring rain and doesn't come up to you, even when you've made eye contact with him 3 or 4 times, and then when you walk over and ask him to come out and open the car for you and you find a random piece of plastic sitting on top of the engine, it's a bad sign. It's an even worse sign when you ask what it is and the sales man tells you, exasperated, "I told you it's a...." (I still don't know what it was. I couldn't understand what he said and I wasn't interested in finding out.) He started walking away with no explanation of where he was going, so my dad and I just yelled "Bye" (we had to yell, he was far away by this point) and walked away, hood up and everything. Yikes.

3. I am a second guesser. I do that all the time when I'm playing Settlers of Catan and making a trade. I make the deal to trade cards, and then invariably pull my hand away and say, "Well, actually... yeah, no, ok. Here's the cards." Apparently this translates into buying cars.

4. You have to really know what you're talking about when you're a single girl on her own in a car lot. I learned a few key questions to ask while looking intently at the running engine and cocking my head to one side as if I actually knew what I was listening for. Not that I would necessarily understand the answer to the question, but they don't have to know that!

5. When you reach under the hood to open it up and you rip off half of your very long thumbnail below where it's attatched to the skin (Yyeeeooowww!), you just have to grin and bear it, cause really, what salesman would take you seriously if you pulled the whole, "Ah! I, like, broke a nay-uhl when I opened this motor cover thing, and, like, it rillyrilly huuurts." Yeah. Not so good. My thumb actually got all swollen and really tender after that, and it throbbed for two days. Pfft, and girls are mocked when they call attention to a broken nail.

Here's hoping one of the cars I saw today works out, and I don't have to learn any more car shopping lessons for a long time!

Friday, January 06, 2006

Help me

I am in car buying hell.

I thought I had one last weekend. It was beautiful - a 98 Corolla. I put a deposit down, and he said he'd give it back if I wasn't happy with the mechanical inspection. I had second thoughts, it had high kilometers, I figured I could get a better deal. I agonized for a few days, then cancelled the deposit check and called him back to tell him there was no deal. Then I felt sleazy. Now I feel sleazy and realize that that was probably a fairly decent deal, and wish I could still buy the car.

I have spent nearly 7 hours (holy shneikey - that long???) tonight pouring over internet and classified ads, calling dealerships and private sellers, making lists and lists and lists of cars to go see, fighting a computer that has a hissy fit and "stops responding" every 5 minutes (no joke - it froze 7 times in an hour), and mapping out the locations of all these places so my dad and I can go see them tomorrow in somewhat of an efficient manner.

I think my head is going to explode.

And WHAT is with all the beige-tan-brown-puce-champagne Toyotas out there? Champagne??? That's just a fancy word for BLECH! NOT the colour for me, thank you very much.* But that's all there seems to be for sale. What's that? You're selling a 2000 Corolla with a measly 46 kilometers on it? Keyless entry, power everything, air conditionning AND cruise control? No accidents? Never let out of the heated garage? Only $1000? Great! I'll take it! Wait... what colour is it? ... Champagne? Oh... ok, no, that's ok, I'll keep looking.

Perhaps I'm being a little too picky.

But really, I'm going to go nutty if I have to do this rigamaroll again next weekend. Here's hoping for a great deal tomorrow!

=== UPDATED=== It is now 1:51 am. I have been car hunting for about 9.5 hours. I am going to bed.

* If you've got a beige-tan-brown-puce-champagne car and you like it, I'm glad. I'm just not a beige kinda gal. In case you hadn't noticed.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Dopey? Grumpy? Sleepy?

All of the above.

Dopey cause I just couldn't seem to get it together today. It was the first day back to school, and it just seemed off. Mighta been cause I wasn't nearly as prepared as I had meant to be (ok, so I wasn't prepared at all). The last kindergarten class I had today was not a shining moment of music teacher brilliance. Good thing there was a student teacher on the first day of her practicum there watching me, jsut to see how a kindergarten music class unfolds. Crap. It didn't help matters that I felt I had to apologize for such a horrible class and joked about "See, that's what you call 'winging it.'" Good job, Hillary. Highlight your goof-ups. Why do I DO that?

Grumpy cause... I don't know. Just one of those days. Har-UMPH.

Sleepy cause I went to bed far too late last night (surprise surprise) and the first day back to being a performing monkey... er, I mean music teacher... was a bit of a shock to the system after two weeks of vacation. No Qwyzzle for me tonight, I think my brain would explode.

Which of the Seven Dwarfs do you identify with today?

Monday, January 02, 2006

AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

It's a reeallly good thing I'm going back to work tomorrow. I'll have something to occupy my mind other than the most addictive game on the internet. That's right, folks. If you haven't ever heard of Qwyzzle, run far far away. Don't go near it. It will make you completely insane and suck away days of your life. You will bang your head repeatedly on your desk trying to figure out how the HECK to solve many of the 100 different levels. But boy, it's fun.

Try it. I dare you.

Be sure to read the messages in the status bar (at the bottom left corner of your browser window. Firefox users, you might have to use IE for it to work). They'll give you clues.

I have just recently finished level 34, after MUCH headbanging and tearing of hair (I wonder if my students will notice the bald patch tomorrow?). I don't have a nifty little summary of where I got stuck and the time spent like Gigglechick does, but it's probably best that my mom (hi mom!) and the rest of you don't know how many hours I've spent on this game. Gigglechick. I don't know whether to love her or hate her for introducing me to this cursed game.

Click here to keep reading...

* 7:15pm Jan 2 - Level 34 completed. FINALLY.
* 8:49pm - STUCK on 36. I've tried every possiblity, and nothing is right. AAARRRGGG.
* 9:14pm - Gave up on 36 and just tried numbers till I got it. The answer still doesn't make sense.
* 9:33pm - begin level 41
* 10:24pm I hate level 41
* 10:41pm - FINALLY! On to 42. And stuck. I hate this game.
* 10:59pm - Level 43! It's about TIME. 42 was so obvious, I never even saw it. Ach.
* 11:17pm - stuck on 44
* 11:25pm - Level 45 - NOOO! Not another MAZE!
* 11:36pm - Forget it. I give up. I'm going to bed.

* 11:14pm Jan 8 - FINALLY through level 45. Many attemps later and who knows how many binary conversion tools. ARG. (Yes, I DID go to work during this time! But much time was also spent on this dang maze)
*12:03pm - everyone says 46 is super easy. Arg! I'm stuck, and feeling stupid
* 12:11pm - got it! On to 47. I really should be sleeping
* 12:19pm - 47. Done. 48. Done. 49. Done. I've heard 50 is a doozy. Here goes.
* 1:10am - stupid obvious answer that I didn't get for an hour. DUH. Got Level 50 now.
*1:44am - how does someone make these things up? I mean, really! On to 52
* 2:38am - Level 54. Stupid shroud. Qwyzzle forums are down, too, so I can't get hints. ARG. It's probably a good thing, seeing as I have to work in the morning. @$#!$ life sucking game.
* 2:56am - Just got 54. HOW are you supposed to konw to do that??? OK. Bed tiem for real now.

Take me back to the main page!




Sunday, January 01, 2006

Oooh! It's got hubcaps!

It really doesn't take too much to impress me.

I've been car shopping a little over the break. After my Beastmobile, almost anything looks nice! I am, however, being much pickier this time around. I've been to Beatertown. It was fun - kinda - but I don't feel the need to go back. I've been looking at Toyota Corollas and a few Honda Civics: they're such good cars - they go and go, and are usually pretty reliable. I've seen a pretty nice Mazda Protege, too. I would love to buy new, but alas, Mr. Bank Account is not quite ready for that. The Beastmobile was an '89, so my goal is to buy something that's within ten years old. We'll see how that pans out.

I have to say, if there's one thing I've learned from trooping around to look at used cars, it's that I hate car shopping! Ug! It's phenominal how much JUNK is out there. Even more unbelievable is how much people are asking for said junk.

A few cars I never even ended up seeing because the people selling them had accents so thick I couldn't even tell if they were telling me it was a standard or an automatic (and I'm not your wussy need-subtitles-for-a-teensy-weensy-accent kind of gal!). I coulnd't even get any information on those cars, nevermind directions to go see them!

And then there were the cars I did see. Let me tell you this much: if you have been breeding wet, chain smoking dogs in a homemade swimming pool in the back of your car, NOBODY will buy your car.

I don't know what some people do to thier cars to make them smell so horribly putrid (nor do I want to know!) but phew!!! I thought my dad was kinda strange when he kept poking his head into cars on used car lots to sniff them. Uh, no. Good plan. Also a good plan? Check for indoor swimming pools. While a luxury on some super swanky limousines, it's not generally a feature you want to see in a Corolla or a Protege. About the only good that has come from the ten days of pelting pouring rain here in Vancouver (and another 14 days at least in the forecast!) is that if the car is leaking, you're going to know about it. One car I saw, in addition to the puddles on the floor in the back seat, was so full of water below the floor of the trunk that the plug was removed so it could drian. PLUG? I didn't even know cars had plugs! Too bad, cause everything else looked great!

And so I shop some more. If anyone out there if feeling overly generous, I'm taking donations (of cars or cash)!!! :D