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I finally got around to test-driving a Honda Fit.  It's a surprisingly great car. 

Visibility:   Amazing, with no blind spots, thanks to big windows that make a little car feel spacious.  The small triangular windows between the windshield and the front doors look strange, but provide extra visibility and help enbiggen the car.  Hard to believe, from the inside, that it's a sub-compact.  T. said something about Dr. Who's spaceship (it's bigger on the inside).

Inside:  Seats are quite comfortable; certainly sufficient to ferry 4 people for short distances.   The driver's seat is a comfortable height, with decent lumbar support, and my right heel can rest comfortably on the floor while driving.   The backseat is comfortable for 2 adults, but I wouldn't try 3.  The back seats fold flat 60/40, yielding a decent-sized wagon space for gear.  The almost-vertical hatchback adds extra cargo space.  A bike would fit easily, and there's certainly room for a weekend camping trip, even with the 40% seat occupied.  (But, why, why 10 cupholders?)   T. noted that the interior doesn't have the "cheap plastic car" feel so common in subcompacts.  It feels like they really tried to make a nice small car.  Side & side-curtain airbags are standard -- nice.

Drivetrain:  The engine is surprisingly peppy, with enthusiastic acceleration from a stop.  Lots of juice for zipping around town, at 30+ mpg.   Comfortably (but not quickly) gets to 60 mph, and seems happy to drive at 60--70 mph.  But when passing at highway speeds, it hesitates for a few seconds before providing the required burst of power.  The engine is relatively quiet. 

Ride:  Fairly loud at highway speeds -- mostly road-noise, plus some engine noise.  At highway speeds the car bounces over small bumps in a strange way, I suppose because the car and the suspension are so light.  T. found the bouncing a tad unnerving.

Comparison to the Toyota Matrix:  After driving a Fit, the Matrix feels claustrophobic, even though the Matrix is a bigger, heavier car.  This is to the Matrix's rear blindspot, small, slanted rear windows, and high driver's seat that puts your head near the ceiling (even a short-person head like mine.)  The Matrix interior feels cheaper & less well planned than the Fit, and the hatchback volume isn't much larger, because the Matrix's slanted hatchback wastes the extra space. 

Conclusions:  I really like the Fit.  It's an ideal, efficient, peppy car for city errands plus some highway driving, plus an occasional camping trip.  Amazing value for the price.  The one problem is that the Fit isn't recommended for any towing, and I have a lightweight (250 lb) trailer to haul windsurfing gear or kayaks.  In the long term, we'll probably have a Fit (or similar) and a bigger car that can be the tow vehicle.  But in the short term, I don't like depending on my 10-year-old Contour for windsurf trips. And we'll definitely be moving in a year or so with one car + the surf trailer, so that car needs to be able to tow.  I'd thought I'd get a matrix (1500 lb tow capacity), but after driving the Fit, it's a much less enjoyable car.  So, what to do?  Maybe there are other cars we should look at...

Too funny, but not a joke:

A users guide to the federal government, written for "Presidential Nominees and Appointees, and Members of the President-elect's Transition Team".

Actual intro:
"GSA and NARA hope that this online directory will introduce you to the operation of the Federal government and the resources available to help you begin your service in the new Administration. If you have questions or comments about this directory, please contact us."

Now reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", which makes me extremely hungry; not surprising, because it's a book about a year of eating locally grown fresh food.  I dealt with this hunger by eating half a cantaloupe for breakfast.

"AVM" is especially refreshing after the plodding, didactic, often buy-me-a-clue "Omnivore's Dilemma", from which I learned quite a few things, but which caused me to frequently yell at the author.  If you buy Chilean asparagus in December from Whole Foods, of course it will taste scary!   Dude, you're gathering salt from polluted San Francisco Bay?   WTF?  What's worse is the frosted flakes at work who will, at the slightest provocation, rattle on about "OD".  Ahem, at the risk of sounding "more punk than you", I've been a vegetarian for half my life, I may hae actually thought about my CO2 footprint.

Aaaanyway, Kingsolver's book is so much more interesting & enjoyable, perhaps because, as a pragmatic mother of two who was herself raised on a farm, her tone is humerous, sensible, & unsentimental.  Utterly lacking is the dopey, "Meat is made of dead animals?" tone of OD. 

What's scary:  in the current chapter, Kingsolver is explaining how easy it is to make home--made mozzarella.  She claims it takes under an hour, including braiding.  Perhaps this can be a fall project.

[Background:  I am looking at visiting Baltimore this fall.  Wonder how the Orioles are doing, check on ESPN.com, then YM my wif:]

LM:  Tampa Bay?  How the hell is Tampa 1st in the American League East,and Baltimore last?  i need to start paying more attention to baseball again

T:  hey, me too

LM:  Tampa Bay?  A baseball team named after an animal that lacks BONES is #1 in AL E?

T:  hee hee.  sharks lack bones, however. and they are tough.

LM:  The Tampa Bay hammerheads would have been OK.
The Tampa Bay Nurse Sharks would have been hilarious.
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays is a name chosen by committee.

T:  I like "tampa bay nurse sharks"

At some point I will memorialize our adventures in "Senor Bencho", the Toyota Hilux pickup we rented on Bonaire, and my final victory over the manual transmission.

Until then, here's Top Gear's Killing a Toyota.  Props to Chris for the heads-up.

Since my sister's doing biology fieldwork at a national wildlife refuge, she's certified as a federal wildfire-fighter.  This means she helps manage the refuge with controlled annual burns (which mimic the environmental effects of lightning-sparked fires, but are less dangerous to people & property.)  She says it's really fun & interesting to work on the firecrew.  Especially when they hand her the driptorch and let her set the fires.

Wildlands firefighters use chainsaws, shovels, and trucks, which is why my sister has been sent in a crew to South Texas to help with recovery after Hurricane Dolly.  They staged in Austin and I believe headed to South Texas early this morning.  (She's not chainsaw-certified, but they still think she'll be useful.)

Of course I am worried about her, but she's a resourceful cookie.  She got a full dose of worry from me & our parents -- please visualize the chorus of, "Did you pack enough toiletries?  What about jugs of water?  Keep away from downed power lines!"

This is my sister's third gulf hurricane.  After Katrina & Rita she volunteered at Red Cross shelters (for Rita, while evacuated herself.)  Now she's getting paid to help with recovery after Dolly.  I'm pretty proud of her.

T. and I almost forgot, but last-minute remembered, to truck on down to Caltech to watch (via NASA simulcast feed from JPL) the NASA probe Phoenix land on Mars. 

It was pretty cool to be surrounded by 1100 other space geeks, and to listen to the gasps & cheers as various exciting things happened.

The landing must be completely automated because Phoenix is 16 light-minutes away.  The NASA commentator folks worked themselves into knots explaining that although Phoenix has already landed/crashed, we can't know it for 16 more minutes.  Hilarious. 

And kinda profound, too --those JPL & LPL folks build hardware, & now it's on frickin MARS!  16 light-minutes away!  I take back everything nasty I may have said about LPL (except the joke about the felony convictions.  That one's still funny.)

A nice day to be a US citizen.  Fucked up though our country is, we do send, on a regular basis, neato robots to our neighbor planets to learn more about them.   That's kinda noble, no?

Just walked into work.  The wind shifted overnight -- we're now getting ash & smoke from the Sierra Madre fire.  I smell like an ashtray, just from a 15 minute walk.

Check out this BBC article about the invention of the Olympic Torch Relay by the Third Reich in 1936 as a propaganda tool.

Kinda puts those "How dare you interject politics into a sporting event!" arguments in perspective. 

Eight venues, 4 hrs, lots of wine (some tasty port, some barely drinkable cabernet), some great appetizers (deep fried gouda mac n cheese!), some terrible appetizers (costco cheese?), some good jazz-combo music, some "Did they understand that a Jazz Walk is supposed to have music?" no-music.

While listing to a trio labor through Brubeck's "Take Five" (it's not supposed to sound labored, guys -- it's just an odd time signature, relax), I overheard a strange remark from the woman sitting next to us:   "Wait, what was that from?  It's going to drive me crazy!  ... Oh, I know, the Thomas Crown Affair!"

Now, what did that mean?  Did she really think "Take Five" was written for a movie soundtrack?  In LA, does all great music spring from the movies?

Or were they talking about something completely different?

It's official:  we've become good consumers, and I want a Wii.  I'm actually prepared to spend some dough.

On the least available widget ever made.
Any tips on finding one?  Is now a time to point out that we got our GameCube for free from Bookman's?  Traded in an old Super NES & games from T's parents' basement.   Guess that trade-in won't work this time around.

Random YM text message I found myself sending trogon:

"Hadoop! Hadoop! Hadoop is on fire!"

It made sense in context.