Are you freakin' kidding me?!?

So Friday morning was a pretty normal day in the life of the archaeogoddess. I had to drive in to Århus to get at some hefty encyclopedias (what IS the plural of encyclopedia, encyclopedias sounds stupid... what about encyclopediae?) and I really had only three things on my mind.. which I was planning on posting under the title: "What ever happened to..."

What ever happened to trash compacters as the next big thing in kitchen appliances? I remember, vaguely, hearing this was the case and, way back when I was small(er), I knew someone who had one. The name escapes me at the moment. I remember getting in trouble for repeatedly pushing the button and possibly for also throwing things away just so that I could repeatedly pushing the button and eventually I was told I was not, under pain of death, to touch the damn button again! But that's it. Today, no one I know has one. And it would be a handy thing to have. Keep you from jumping up and down on the trash, in order to pack more in. Especially seeing how my dad has to go out and get into my family's trash-trailer and leap about like a lunatic. I feel it is a rather dangerous pastime my father has undertaken at his age. Bring back the trash compacter!

What ever happened to all of my highlighters? I know I had them around somewhere... Damn, this one is dead too! I swear there is an office elf somewhere eating my highlighters and sucking other ones dry.

What ever happened to my gas milage? Or gas kilometerage (awkward!)? I got 5 km to the liter on the way into Århus! That's less than 12 miles to the gallon - about right for the '72 Chevelle, but not a mid-90's Volvo!?

Funny story about that last one. I drove the Volvo in and then met up with the Danish Boy for some Mexican food (ah, yeah!) and we swapped cars for the drive home. I love my VW Lupo! And then I played the "don't lose the DB" game - which is funny because the DB THINKS he's driving so nicely that I won't lose him, but it takes a bit of weaving and cutting in front of people to stay behind him. (I mean, if he was going to be really nice and easy to follow he could start by GOING THE SPEED LIMIT!) Anyway, I caught him at a red light - and as he gunned it through the intersection I noticed a crazy bunch of liquid pouring out of the back of the car. And then there was a VERY strong smell of gasoline. Now, we'd thought we may have had a leak, because we could smell gas fairly strongly at times, but there was never any puddle where we parked. This is because we forgot rule #1 of gasoline - it vaporizes at a crazy low temperature. So I speed up and tail my dear boyfriend, staring intently at the back of the car. Every acceleration, every curve, every time he shifted, more liquid came pouring out of the car, instantly turning to a misty vapor that was then sucked into my air system. High on gas fumes, I called the DB (disclosure: the archaeogodess does not condone calling while driving - unless it is an emergency, get off the damn phone and drive, people!) and let him know what was up. There was much swearing. We sent the car in for it's 6 month check-up with a "please look at the gas leak" caution, but what is really irking to the DB is that he filled up the tank on Thursday for me. We'd used or lost half a tank (i.e. $50) and would now probably lose the other half when they pump the gas out in order to inspect the tank.

I did have a very good time in Århus, what with the eating and the being out and about, and we probably wouldn't have discovered the leak otherwise, but the DB is right in thinking that we could have just saved ourselves the trip and run up and down Main Street Ebeltoft throwing 20 kroner ($4) coins at people instead. It would have been cheaper.