Tag: Exit 51

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Flashback Friday – $80 Car Wash: It’s Not Just Me

by Wendi10 Comments on Flashback Friday – $80 Car Wash: It’s Not Just Me

Flashback Friday

I’m doubling up this week’s Flashback Friday due to last week’s schedule interruption.

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The following post originally appeared on 8/28/07 at Exit 51

$80 Car Wash

Ain’t it the truth – things happen when you’re least ready for them and I swear some things only happen to me. Case in point, I get in my car this week and the check engine light comes on. Absent any obvious signs that the engine is about to blow up, my diagnostic skill are pretty limited. Since the car is only two years old and still under warranty I decide the proper thing to do is get to the dealer. And that’s where I ended up getting an $80 car wash.

When I arrived and explained the reason I was there, the service tech checking me in explained that if the issue was not a covered repair, I would be charged their standard diagnostic fee. Of course I agree since I don’t know the first thing about what goes on under the hood.

So I wait. And I wait. I even watch a movie on my iPod. 90 minutes later, I’m informed that the problem was a loose gas cap. And it just so happens that a loose gas cap is different from a defective gas cap. And that difference could be charged to my Visa or Mastercard. But while I’m waiting for my paperwork to come through to the cashier, would I like my car washed. I figure why the heck not, if I have to hand over my debit card for this bit of automotive wisdom, I might as well get a clean ride out of it. I paid the bill and went out to collect my car expecting it to be shiny and clean inside and out.

And don’t you know, that car was dripping wet and void of any vacuum love. Next time, I think I’ll just take it to the AutoSpa instead. For $80, I could have the entire car cleaned, waxed, and detailed. But I learned a valuable lesson…how to tighten a gas cap (three clicks!)…which I gladly pass along free of charge.

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And this was the follow up.

The following post originally appeared on 9/1/07 at Exit 51

It’s Not Just Me

Turns out I’m not the only one with gas cap issues. I got the following email from one of my friends:

my mom called me last night. she picked her car up from the VW dealer after having dropped it off yesterday morning because the engine light came on…turns out her gas cap wasn’t on all the way! true story! i almost fell out of my chair. i relayed the $80 carwash bit to her and she thought that was outrageous as well. anyway, i’ve never heard that before and now i’ve heard it twice in the same week. thought i would pass it on. i gave her your 3 click advice.

If car makers have the technology for your car to tell you when your tire pressure is low or email you with service reminders (truth is stranger than fiction), why can’t they come up with a ‘check gas cap’ light?

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Flashback Friday – You Are Here

by Wendi9 Comments on Flashback Friday – You Are Here

Flashback Friday

Today’s Flashback Friday entry was originally posted on 9/4/07 at Exit 51.

You Are Here

Every story begins somewhere. I mean you wouldn’t open a book and start reading from the middle would you? So I guess it helps to know where this story began to take in the scenery here along Exit 51.

I got to thinking about the notion of when exactly I started down this road because I’ve got a trip coming up to go to the Toronto International Film Festival. Back in 2001 I had exactly the same plan – just watch movies, spend time with friends, and enjoy myself.

Only I never got there. I was supposed to get on a plane on September 13, 2001. As we all know, it took a while for flights to resume after the 11th. And as far removed as I was from any direct connection to the events in New York, DC, or Pennsylvania, I’m still feeling the effects of a chain reaction that was set in motion that day.

If it hadn’t been for that day, I would not have met my husband. He was in the middle of packing up, selling his house, and moving out of state in October 2001. Then he got word that his National Guard unit was being mobilized for a year. Bye-bye Austin, hello Aberdeen. It was during that mobilization that we met.

Fast forward to October 2004. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, surrounded by family and friends, we became husband and wife. All through the process of planning our wedding, the idea of another deployment was in the back of our minds. We’d even gotten a second marriage license just in case orders came through before our planned date and we needed to visit the courthouse. But thankfully, the day went without interruption from the Global War on Terrorism.

Two weeks to the day after our wedding, I got the worst news possible. Orders were coming through for an extended deployment. In that moment, I was no longer the ‘newlywed’. I became the ‘war bride’. The next two months were spent in crisis management mode pulling together what usually takes a lifetime – wills, power of attorney, cemetery plots and burial plans. Have you ever tried to buy a life insurance policy for someone going into a war zone?

Eighteen months later we are reunited. We buy a house. We get on with the business of building our life together. And then eight months later it happens all over again. By the time we reach our 3rd wedding anniversary later this year, we will have only spent 15 months together in the same place. The Army, the Global War on Terror, has had him more than I have.

I think about that a lot with this trip coming up. That one day which so profoundly and utterly marked a country, changed lives, is still being felt in countless ways. For me, I see it every time I open the door to an empty house, with every piece of his mail that I have to open, in the face of people when they learn that he deployed again.

That’s how I got here and I can’t do a thing to change what’s happened. I can’t rewrite world history. Nor do I think I would even if I knew then what I know now. How could I, knowing that the same force that has taken him away from me twice now is what brought him into my life in the first place.

Appetizers

Flashback Friday – What’s Cookin’

by Wendi16 Comments on Flashback Friday – What’s Cookin’

Flashback Friday

Today’s Flashback Friday entry was originally posted on 9/3/07 at Exit 51.

What’s Cookin’

There was a time when my ‘cooking’ skills consisted of zapping frozen meals, heating up cans of soup, or adding butter and water to a packet of dehydrated whatever and calling it dinner. Then through the magic of food magazines and cooking shows, I discovered that with a little more effort, I could take a bag’s worth of ingredients and turn them into a meal.

Of course, this is not to say that I don’t give in to the seduction of convenience food from time to time. There are days when I want the mac n cheese but don’t feel like the fuss and Trader Joe’s is more than happy to oblige.

I do try and plan at least one meal a week that is pulled from the stack of recipes I’ve gotten off the web or out of magazines. The keepers get put into a bulging three inch binder for future use and the rest get recycled. Here’s one of the latest keepers, adapted from a recent Washington Post food chat:

Sweet Pea Guacamole

Washington Post

1/2 pound frozen peas, thawed
1 shallot
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon cumin, or to taste
fresh cilantro to taste
tiny pinch red pepper flakes
juice from half of a lime

Place ingredients into food processor and pulse until combined to your preferred texture. If you like a chunky texture, pulse less. If you want a smoother texture, pulse more.

I added some block style feta cheese in brine – maybe a tablespoon’s worth – to try and mimick that creamy smoothness you get in guacamole.

Great as an appetizer with chips but also nice spread on a turkey sandwich…yum.

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Introducing Flashback Friday

by Wendi4 Comments on Introducing Flashback Friday
Flashback Friday
calendar graphic from istockphoto.com

I’ve been thinking for a while how nice it would be if I had my posts from Exit 51 here at Bon Appetit Hon.  Actually, what I’ve been thinking is how much I wish I would have just been all BAH from the start of my life as a blogger but there’s no changing the past, only moving forward.  So to kick off 2010, I’m introducing Flashback Friday.  Each Friday I will feature a post from Exit 51.  My terminology over there was slightly different so please translate Exit 51 as BAH and SFC as The Mistah.  Without further ado, I give you Flashback Friday! Continue reading “Introducing Flashback Friday” →