The vacation car we rented (a Volvo S80 - competent enough sedan, unexciting, a bit underpowered for its size, no interior trunk release that I could find, annoying hump along the back of each door frame that I bumped every time I got out) had a navigation system in it. I've never used an automated navigation system before, preferring the stone age tool commonly referred to as a map. I'd still be getting Trip Tickets (TM) from AAA if it wasn't so damn inconvenient to get to their offices. The farthest I've gone is to use a piece of software called Streets and Trips that gives me pretty pictures of the routes I can use to get from point A to point B. I've never trusted MapQuest's directions after it sent me the wrong way out of the Detroit airport (ok, so there *was* a little issue with me having started with the wrong Detroit airport - who knew that Detroit could have TWO airports?).

So this was a new experience. Although we knew how to get from the snooty French hotel to Big Sur, we gave it a try. The sickly sweet female voice (no option to choose Burl Ives or Mel Torme or any other dead white guy's voice) immediately told us to take a route that would take us approximately 3 states out of the way. Being game, I took the first exit the Voice suggested and was rewarded with a pleasant "bong bong" noise, rather like Avon calling only deeper. The next instruction would have routed us down a highway that would have been completely clogged at that time of the day, so I took an alternate route; the Voice chided me with a very different sound - one of disappointment tinged with incipient discipline (sort of a "wait til your father gets home" noise). We eventually got back on track, and only drove about 25 miles out of the way. I found that if you make several "mistakes" in a row, the Voice goes silent for a long time, longer than would be necessary to recalculate the route, punishing you with its silence. We all survived the trip, although it's fortunate that the device is made of a space age plastic that can withstand the blows of a woman who is yelling "NO! NO! THAT'S A ONE WAY STREET, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"

Movies: Here's a link to a *very* funny review of The Day After Tomorrow.

The Machurian Candidate. We saw this in the historic State Theater in downtown Monterey. It must have been a larger theater that was carved up into four screening rooms. We were in one of the upper rooms that probably was part of the original balcony. What is now called stadium seating used to be the nosebleed seats - no leg room, no cup holders, no air conditioning. But back to the movie. I saw a portion of the 1960's version a few weeks ago and did not find it particularly compelling, except for Angela Lansbury's performance. Perhaps it's just that communism seems like such a petty concern at this point. Anyway, the new one was long, convoluted and just not very interesting. Right now, I couldn't even tell you the main motivation for the whole plot. Except to provide Meryl Streep the opportunity to play the most wonderfully evil Stage Mommy Dearest to the hilt.