It was the usual. I pull in, expecting a simple oil change, $19.95 and I�m done. Then, in careful succession, every oil change place employee came at me saying things like �maam, your fuel exchange perambulator is clogged, you�ll need to have that replaced� and �the ion regulating fluid is green and it is supposed to be blue�. At least no one asked me to smell my brake fluid. That happened to me once. I spent $75 and I was told I still need to have my fuel filter replaced.

Apparently, the interior of my engine was dirty. I was first offered a full cleaning for $65, which I declined, and then I was offered the same thing for free with an upgrade to synthetic.

I do hate the oil change place. It�s really the only place I ever go where they must be able to see �schmuck� written across my head before I even pull in. Damn you, oil change industry!

I�m getting ready for my upcoming 9-day up-north triple-hyphen odyssey. It has been nothing but drama (my mom�s doctor actually thought she had mono yesterday; she doesn�t). I had already bought snacks and such, but Leo and I have consumed them already.

Oh, that reminds me, I have been reading some amazing books recently. Right now I�m reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. Its so good I�m having trouble getting anything else done. Before that was a biography of St. Francis. And before that was Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. Really a great book. I hated the first chapter entirely, in fact I read that and didn�t pick the book back up for another month, but the rest is amazing.

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