So here's a semi-sorta stpid thing I did on an Ash Wednesday:

A long time ago on an Ash Wednesday, I met a friend of a friend. All day long I had been seeing people walking around town with ash crosses, ash dots on their foreheads. It's something you did during Catholic mass on Ash Wednesdays. I remember doing it when I used to go as a kid. I was always so scared that the ashes were fresh and would burn my forehead, but that never happened.

So, on that day I was introduced to this guy. He walks up to me, I shake his hand and I notice a dark smudge on his forehead. "Ah, you're Catholic." I said. "Went to mass, I see." Or something to that effect, I'm not particularly good with first introduction small talk. Anyway, he looks at me kinda confused. "Uh, I'm not Catholic." He said and kind of stormed off. My friend, who had introduced us explained to me that basically it was a birthmark on his forehead and not ash. Turns out he was an atheist and was kind put off by the experience. Oh well. What a coincidence, huh?

Well, ever since then whenever I saw this guy I would think to myself, "Hey, there's Ash Wednesday! Wassup, Ash Wednesday?" I never said it out loud, but I thought it.

Since then, I hear that he had his forehead bleached so now you can't see the smudge. Sad to say I may have been part of the reason for that.

:D

I should have gotten the swine flu, but here I am, right as rain, and here at work. See, totally stupid.

Side note:

There's this song called "Right as Rain" by Adele that is simply wonderful. It's one of my favorite songs right now.

I came back from vacation...

I crossed the streams.

Are you speaking of streams of water or are we taking full on ghostbuster style?

Today I totally screwed up scheduling a couple that came to the showroom several times and then just found out that I quoted them 2 weeks shorter then I should have.

Is it better to make several mistakes with one person or one mistake each with several people?

This doesn't surprise the women on this board in the least. I have more than 6 pairs just downstairs (eg: in "immediate rotation")

Well hello, Oprah Winfrey.

Earlier this week I had my oil changed. They showed me my air filter, which clearly needed replacing (I think it's been 40000 miles or so). "Thanks, I can replace it myself."

I forgot to account for the fact that I'm an ass.

To be a little fair to myself, the Mazda 3's engine is a wonder of Japanese ingenuity. It's a lot of engine in not a lot of space. Meaning everything is positioned precisely, like a game of engine Tetris. Add to that the fact that, partially for aesthetic reasons and partially for air intake reasons, every component is covered with molded plastic cowling. So to get to the air filter - unclip the battery cover, unscrew the panel holding down the battery duct cover, unclip 4 clips holding the air filter cover down, unclip a couple of wiring harnesses, lift filter cover (which doesn't fully detach without significantly more unfastening).

I did most of that, and was able remove the old filter. I then tried to install the new filter. To no avail. I simply couldn't lift the cover far enough out of the way to slide the new one in.

Feeling like an ass, I did some checking to make sure that driving to the nearest auto shop without an air filter wouldn't destroy my engine (the verdict being probably not...but possibly) and walked up to the window. "This is going to sound stupid...because it is."

Now, the nice mechanic (who didn't charge me for this) did find a couple more attachment points that afforded another couple of inches of leeway in lifting the cover out of the way. But the biggest factor...I was trying to put the filter in upside down. I may or may not have been able to get it in right side up without releasing those last couple of bits and getting those extra inches, but most likely I would have.

I'm an ass.

No you are not. This is how you learn.