<p>Ummm - isn’t the engine in the back of the vw? or is the hood where you’ve got the top shelf stuff hidden?</p>
<p>The engine is indeed in the back of the VW van. In ours, you have to fold back the small oriental rug to get to the engine compartment from above. I’ve got the manuals, properly grease-stained, right in the back there, feel free! I’ll pull back the hand-made curtains for easier access.</p>
<p>In an acknowledgement of the weirdness of teenager half-dreams, I wanted to report that this morning when I poked the bottom of a foot sticking out from TFSFH’s covers on this first day of him not working and 3rd-from-last day at home before he heads back to school (and no, he hasn’t packed a thing yet), he said to me, and I quote, “Blue corn, if it’s cooked right, is much less expensive.”</p>
<p>Just thought you’d all want to know.</p>
<p>(Blue corn chips on the bar today?)</p>
<p>^^^^^HOWLING!!!</p>
<p>And sluggbug, bless you!</p>
<p>Been out of town for a while, checking in sporadically, and SO enjoying the laughs.</p>
<p>Carry on…</p>
<p>Back from out of town also, and enjoying the stories. NOBODY can rival sluggy for raconteuring. Even if she loses IQ points every time she goes to NV, it’s worth it for the entertainment, don’t you all agree!</p>
<p>I feel like I get smarter when I visit the inlaws in Boston, but it doesn’t help my story-telling ability, so there you go.</p>
<p>We were in NH the day of that hailstorm…weird weather on the coast that day. We were having a feast on the deck, (provided by SIL who is from Brazil and knows how to provide feasts,) when sudden really strong t-storms came up. </p>
<p>Speaking of Brazil, we tasted Cachaca, which is a kind of rum, I gathered. Woo-eee. Saude! </p>
<p>(There should be an accent over that u but I don’t know how to do that.)</p>
<p>I really checked in to get a drink cause S is leaving for junior year today. It was nice having him home for a month and I’ll miss him. :(</p>
<p>Since it is MANLY-MAN WEEK in the Alley, it’s Atomic Wedgie Thursday. Yaaaaannnnnnkkkk! That oughta get us up to Page 1. </p>
<p>Alright now, anyone who has ever snuck into a drive-in wedged into the trunk of a friend’s VW knows that the engine is in the back. So, what do you call the engine compartment door thingy? This is a manly subject for two reasons: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Cars manufactured by guys named Bruno, Helmut, and Wolfgang are manly;</p></li>
<li><p>Tearing cars apart, wrecking cars, scratching cars, blowing cars up, making out in cars…these are all manly subjects. Pretty much anything that has to do with transportation is a manly subject, including horses. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>It might be called a hatch, which is a manly word unless it is associated with eggs, which is a mostly female subject. 
Eggs can be manned-up, though, if we’re talking about frying them in bacon grease and serving them with steak or chorizo. So, for lunch in the Alley today, it’s fried egg and chorizo sandwiches with hot sauce and beer. :)</p>
<p>Speaking of Nevada - heard on the radio today about a criminal mastermind in Nevada who kidnapped 3 pizza-hut delivery signs (the kind you see on top of delivery cars). He sent a ransom note and picture to the pizza hut, showing one of the signs on top of his car. the picture included his car’s license plate. </p>
<p>As for the VW hood/trunk question, my H says they’re sometimes called the bonnet. He just calls it the trunk anyway. His first car was a VW bug - given to him by his older brother after the engine was blown. My H just had to replace the engine, and voila, first car.</p>
<p>Show of hands…Parents who got stuck in a dilapidated elevator last weekend while hauling a 10-speed up to a third-floor, non-air-conditioned apartment, say, “Oh, #@!%!” :D</p>
<p>There must be a special Olympics for parents who help their college kids move.</p>
<p>I think sluggbugg is predicting my tomorrow…any other visions?</p>
<p>A bonnet?! Well, that won’t do – way too girly for a car part. How about a shield? :p</p>
<p>LOLOL, georgiamom! What exactly was the threat? Driving around with a Pizza Hut sign on top of his car would do what, now? And, he took 3 signs because the Pizza Hut corporation might run out? Well, I’m sure that it made sense at the time, whatever the poor schmuck was thinking. The cops must have had a good laugh over that one. :D</p>
<p>I could be related to this guy…</p>
<p>Hysterical!!</p>
<p>slugg, how bout a CUP?</p>
<p>Calling all Brits–
I thought the term for the “trunk” of the car was the “boot”. That seems appropriate, though I am not sure why…</p>
<p>Sluggy-
You got it eeeeezzzzzzeeeeee. Rumor has it that at DS’s dorm (where he has secured himelf a room on the 11th floor of a 12 story bldg), the 2 elevators on move in day are reserved for “stuff”, not people. Blowing the BS whistle on that one. I am either gonna write myself a Drs excuse, or hide in a dufflebag. Haven’t decided yet…</p>
<p>And-- here’s a good-news-bad-news item. DS was featured in a clip on our local news station this morning (good news). However, now the immediate metroplitan area knows we will be out of town taking him to college this weekend (bad news). But, the clip aired at such a ridiculously early hour, I suspect no one saw it!</p>
<p>Lol, SB! That would be to keep the spark plugs from flopping around. :p</p>
<p>Oh, yeah – jym! Excuse me, but legs and arms count as “stuff.” ;)</p>
<p>georgiamom:</p>
<p>In UK, the bonnet is the hood and the boot is the trunk. And cars are “she” (which is why it’s okay for it to have a bonnet) 
Does your H drive backward? :)</p>
<p>I think (?) he knows the hood is the bonnet - but since cargo hold for the vw is in the front of the car where the hood usually is . . . </p>
<p>He doesn’t usually drive backwards, but he can back anything backwards, whereas i have to push the riding lawnmower backwards when the cart is attached, because it will either jacknife or just go the wrong direction no matter what. ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for confirming, Marite. That’s what I thought. We had an au pair when the boys were young, and thanks to her I’d say things like “take the bags out of the buggy and put them in the boot”. I got a lot of weird stares.</p>
<p>And slugg,</p>
<p>I think My “stuff” is in my “trunk”. Does that count?</p>
<p>Alright, now – remember, it’s MANLY MAN WEEK, and we don’t want to scare the men off with sissy car terms. Jack-knifing a riding lawnmower…now, that’s manly. “Stuff” in your “trunk” sounds kinda dirty, jym, so yeah – that counts! :D</p>
<p>Sluggdadd deserves a gold medal for yoinking the stuck elevator door open with his bare hands. Then, he carried the 10-speed up 3 flights of stairs…then, he collapsed in the hallway, and I had to revive him with a 40 oz. bottle of Camo. :p</p>
<p>I saw the reference to the cup and the car and had to pass this on…</p>
<p>When my DS was 8, he was getting a ride home from baseball practice from his grandmother in her new car. She was telling him all about the features…</p>
<p>"…and that over there is the cup holder… " (he had never seen one in a car before)</p>
<p>“Grandma, I don’t think it is shaped right - cups won’t fit in there…”</p>
<p>“Yes they will dear”</p>
<p>“OK grandma…” much grunting ensues</p>
<p>They arrive at our house and you can all guess what was wedged in the cup holder… took me 10 minutes to get it out…</p>