MPG Me, ASAP!

Damn, Rachelle's new car rocks! It's not as manly (and ruggedly handsome) as my new 4Runner, but it get friggin' great mileage. I had to fill my car up this weekend and it ran me just under $65. For about 330 miles. Rachelle had to fill up yesterday and it cost her $29 for 405 miles. Ouch. She was nice enough to beam me this picture of her drive home when she was averaging 60+ MPG (picture taken as she was stopped at a light). On the plus side, I have a sunroof. FYI, there should be some law against dealerships in warm-weather states selling any car with a sunroof or rag-top to a 35+ year old dude. Bound to be some crispy scalps. Anyway, we both took a bunch of crap from people who said "you'll never get your money back out of the gas savings". Screw that. We're getting double the mileage of anybody I know (except Shelley who also drives a Prius), and the cheapest gas I've seen in the area is running about $3.20/gallon. We might not make all our money back on getting better mileage, but Rachelle gets to drive a car she likes and she only has to fill up every 3 weeks. I'm pretty sure that was only the third time she's had to put gas in since she bought the car on March 8th. Not bad. Of course, I've only put gas in twice since I brought the 4Runner home on March 17th, but I've been out of town a lot.

Moving on to a different topic, Southwest still hasn't found my luggage, but they did send a nice letter last week telling me they were still looking for it. They also included a $200 travel voucher and told me that they were sending a check for my losses within 7-10 business days. Nice. I'd much rather have my crap back (meaning I didn't have to go shopping for all new crap), but I'll take the money. I've already used the $200 voucher for a ticket to take my brother Chris to Vegas for his 21st birthday. Hard to believe he's actually turning 21. Makes me feel really, really (really) old. Fortunately, my 17 years of post-21 drinking experience give me a really good idea of what drinks will leave him with the worst hang-over. My conundrum as an older brother is whether to use that knowledge for good or evil. Should I take good care of my little bro', or should I order him a multitude of Jaeger-based shots? Decisions, decisions. Another tough call: strip club or no strip club? Maybe I'll just take $40 in singles and let nature take its course.