I hope you’re having as good a Fourth of July weekend as we are. We started out at the Roundabout Gallery on Friday night, where John was a featured artist with some of his Red, White and Blue work. Even though all the photos look very different because of the way John treated them, all the close-ups were taken of the flag that hangs in front of my sister’s house when we visited her in the spring. I love what he’s done with them.

Next it was my turn. John’s car is really old and falling apart, while my Sienna van is merely old. The lack of a completely reliable vehicle was starting to worry me and I thought it was time to buy something new. We went to the Honda dealer so I could test drive an Odyssey, and a few hours later I was driving it home. Blue wasn’t my first choice, since my Sienna is blue, but I didn’t want white, black or maroon–my other choices–and this blue is pretty. All it means is that John and I can’t say to each other “You left it in the blue van.”

It’s been ten years since I’ve bought a car, and the manuals have expanded! This one is 700 pages long. There’s thirty pages just giving you an overview of the manual itself. Then a separate 150 page manual on the navigation system. So I spent a couple of hours in the car today trying to learn everything, feeling like I was in flight school as I stared cross-eyed at the dashboard. I managed to link my phone to the Bluetooth and set up the satellite radio before my brain gave out.

Tomorrow, I hope to finish a rough draft of the proposal for my 2013 book. Then I’ll ask John and a couple of friends to read it for me and see if my idea is the winner I hope it is. If I’m wrong. . . back to the drawing board. Won’t be the first time I’ve made that trip, and this time I can drive there with a new car smell for company.

So how are you spending your weekend?