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Weekend business
It was a good weekend, even though my butt is sore.
Not like that, you sicko.
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katertoticus came down this weekend to visit. Much happiness. It's great to see distant friends. We had a lovely day on Saturday, going to the Natural History Museum, and walking around the park a bit. You got to love a day characterized by dinosaurs and gourmet chocolate (bought for an extravagent sum at the gift shop, and containing wasabi and ginger, among other odd yet tasty ingredients).
And then we went down to Princeton to see the Wildcats sing, with a host of other Wildcat alums. They're doing all right, under the circumstances (they're very small). Hopefully auditions will go well, and they'll keep on doing well. I miss singing with them quite a bit.
And it's strange going back to Princeton but not being a student anymore.
Yesterday was my company's beach party. We met up in Greenwich.
Since a bunch of us don't own cars, we came up with the brilliant idea of renting a minivan and driving up together. It should have been an excellent idea.
Except that the makers of the new Caravan are morons.
Now, my parents owned a Caravan, and then a Voyager (which is literally the same car, with a different name). They were wonderful cars - spacious, comfortable, and practical. However, the designers have been gradually reducing the number of people they can sit. The Caravan could sit 8 people - the driver and the front seat passanger, and two bench seats. The Voyager could only seat 7 - two sets of "command" chairs, and a bench in the back.
The new Caravan can sit 6 people. And only 4 are actually comfortable.
I'm not really sure where the space is going, honestly. The back seat is curved distinctly for two people, and the seat belts stick out so much that it really is impossible to put someone between them. Plus, the wheel wells are much bigger than I ever remember seeing in a Caravan, so that the back seat is really tiny and cramped. The seat is lower to the ground, and doesn't extend as far (it cuts out well before your knees), and the fancy moulded ceiling is placed conveniently in head bumping range if the car does anything besides driving straight ahead on a flat road. So the back seat, which in ours fit three people only slightly squished, with plenty of room for knees and head, now fits two people uncomfortably. How is this an improvement?
Plus, they filled the section between the middle row seats (which used to be empty) with an utterly useless console thing. Drastically reducing the amount of room for things like backpacks or snack bags.
And the trunk is smaller.
The only reason to buy a minivan is to haul vast numbers of kids and all of their equipment, or smaller but still large numbers of adults. This new car fails miserably.
Anyway, we were told that it fit seven people. It claims to fit seven people. We had seven people. It does not fit seven people. I spent most of the ride home practically in Chuck's lap, wedged mostly on top of an ill-concieved console. I have the bruises on my butt to prove it.
Despite the minor problems in getting there, the beach was beautiful. Gorgeous day, warm water. My company has a great abundance of small offspring, it turns out, most of whom are excellently behaved and very cute. Much food was consumed, and several sandcastles produced.
Oh, and some crazy guy insisted on doing pullups on the beam of the gazebo that the entire company was sitting under, giving us far too good a look at his upper thighs and points north. Bizarre.
Not like that, you sicko.
katertoticus came down this weekend to visit. Much happiness. It's great to see distant friends. We had a lovely day on Saturday, going to the Natural History Museum, and walking around the park a bit. You got to love a day characterized by dinosaurs and gourmet chocolate (bought for an extravagent sum at the gift shop, and containing wasabi and ginger, among other odd yet tasty ingredients). And then we went down to Princeton to see the Wildcats sing, with a host of other Wildcat alums. They're doing all right, under the circumstances (they're very small). Hopefully auditions will go well, and they'll keep on doing well. I miss singing with them quite a bit.
And it's strange going back to Princeton but not being a student anymore.
Yesterday was my company's beach party. We met up in Greenwich.
Since a bunch of us don't own cars, we came up with the brilliant idea of renting a minivan and driving up together. It should have been an excellent idea.
Except that the makers of the new Caravan are morons.
Now, my parents owned a Caravan, and then a Voyager (which is literally the same car, with a different name). They were wonderful cars - spacious, comfortable, and practical. However, the designers have been gradually reducing the number of people they can sit. The Caravan could sit 8 people - the driver and the front seat passanger, and two bench seats. The Voyager could only seat 7 - two sets of "command" chairs, and a bench in the back.
The new Caravan can sit 6 people. And only 4 are actually comfortable.
I'm not really sure where the space is going, honestly. The back seat is curved distinctly for two people, and the seat belts stick out so much that it really is impossible to put someone between them. Plus, the wheel wells are much bigger than I ever remember seeing in a Caravan, so that the back seat is really tiny and cramped. The seat is lower to the ground, and doesn't extend as far (it cuts out well before your knees), and the fancy moulded ceiling is placed conveniently in head bumping range if the car does anything besides driving straight ahead on a flat road. So the back seat, which in ours fit three people only slightly squished, with plenty of room for knees and head, now fits two people uncomfortably. How is this an improvement?
Plus, they filled the section between the middle row seats (which used to be empty) with an utterly useless console thing. Drastically reducing the amount of room for things like backpacks or snack bags.
And the trunk is smaller.
The only reason to buy a minivan is to haul vast numbers of kids and all of their equipment, or smaller but still large numbers of adults. This new car fails miserably.
Anyway, we were told that it fit seven people. It claims to fit seven people. We had seven people. It does not fit seven people. I spent most of the ride home practically in Chuck's lap, wedged mostly on top of an ill-concieved console. I have the bruises on my butt to prove it.
Despite the minor problems in getting there, the beach was beautiful. Gorgeous day, warm water. My company has a great abundance of small offspring, it turns out, most of whom are excellently behaved and very cute. Much food was consumed, and several sandcastles produced.
Oh, and some crazy guy insisted on doing pullups on the beam of the gazebo that the entire company was sitting under, giving us far too good a look at his upper thighs and points north. Bizarre.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2005-09-20 12:07 am (UTC)(link)xxxxx
M-I-L of the Happy Suprise
no subject