More is more and LFG Bought a Mini Cooper

My seasonal allergies got the best of me last week and turned into a bit of a bad cold but we soldiered on. My cocktail for dealing with it is a trifecta-hat trick of NyQuil-DayQuil and Cheetos. Being half sick and working from home allows some latitude so my plan the other morning involved sitting in my orange bean bag chair eating Cheetos and waiting for respiratorial mercy. 

No plan survives first contact with reality and my plan to eat Cheetos naked and work/lounge at home unimpeded was blown. Had to pick up LFG from school and take her to the Orthodontist-her retainer broke. Now I’m not feeling like a million bucks and there’s Cheeto dust everywhere. 

A quick shower and a perusal of clothes on the bedroom floor and I’m good to go. No use in wearing clean clothes when you are sick. I found the shirt on the floor. The Flamingo pocket square-it's silk you know-in a navy linen blazer on the kitchen floor and the old Ralph off the peg linen/wool sportcoat behind the television. BAM!

This ten year old jacket is a favorite. I had this one modeled in a quirky way. Surprise I know. Besom pockets but a flap on the ticket pocket. Yes Toad.

I'd like to say that this was a deliberate contrivance. One intended to piss off the sartorial gods but it ain't. I just forgot to button the second of two cowboy barrel buttons and hark...we have a style thang. More is more...more color-texture-pattern-wrinkles-Cheetos. Shut up.

 Then I found some Flusser linen/silk top pocket flat front things under the couch. Gotta wear britches when you sign your child out of school. You can go commando though...It's the little things that make you feel defiant when walking into an elementary school and when I'm commando-I'm "little thing" personified. Blue ostrich waist pageantry from Flusser and I think I'm ready to roll. This shot's for the ladies. And Maurice.

We're still sporting some scary ass white meat over here. Shhhh....

I picked up the tiniest Hello Kittie for LFG at Penn Station the other day and since she was feeling bad about breaking her retainer I thought I'd have a surprise waiting on her when I picked her up.

Retainer repaired. Lunch with LFG and she’s back to school. But that’s only half of the story…LFG bought a Mini Cooper over the weekend.

 Well not actually. But what we did do was build one online at Mini USA. It’s great fun - you oughta try it. Just click away till you design the Mini of your dreams. After all of LFG’s clicks the final sticker price came in at $42,044.00. Her version is evidenced above. “Daddy can we get it?” to which I replied “You need to ask Uncle Toad”. And she said …“but daddy I don’t have an Uncle Toad” and I said… “yes you do baby, he’s replaced that sorry ass Uncle Tintin who never calls you-never writes you-never sends you anything”.

Now we’ve had a hankering for the Mini over here for quite some time. As my buddy out in Worthing, C.R. says…Minis were the V.W. Bugs of England. Every starving kid learned how to work on them-keep them patched up and rigged for travel. Makes sense to me. Their quirkiness is more show stopping than the eccentricities of the V.W. Beetle though.

LFG and I watched Mr. Bean episodes recently-her instigation. She’s the one who had the DVDs in her backpack. I love this child for a score of reasons but the fact that she’s developing an appreciation for things like Rowan Atkinson makes me happy. I forgot about him as the priest in Four Weddings and a Funeral until I watched recently a clip over at Easy and Elegant Life….great. Mr. Bean drives a yellow Mini Cooper…the old traditional version of the Mini from the UK. You know, the one that has the go kart sized wheels…about the size of a bagel.

 And there couldn’t be a better car for Road Rallies no? The driver and navigator look like they are sitting in a pack of gum. Chiclets I say.

Do you really need a helmet during this event? The car is a helmet. You are driving a helmet boys.

How many times was this me? But not in a Rally but on the side of the road in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. Working on an old MG or a Beetle.

And who could forget the Minis in the Italian Job? That had to hurt.

LFG and I became so intrigued a few years ago that we built the quintessential Rally Car-The 1967 Rallye Monte Carlo winner. LFG reveled in gunking it up to look like an actual competition weary rig. Easy to do. Spray parts of the car with 3M adhesive and sprinkle dirt on it. Fog the windows with glue paste.

We're sloppy model builders over here so it's just as well that we make dirty ones. Nerds? Yes indeed. Proud nerds. Shut up.

The Kilim Chaise leg of the Rallye LF-Minimus is known as the most daunting. Many a worthy competitor lost their standing in this-the most treacherous endavour of our Rallye Course. The next most difficult is the Clothes on the Floor leg. Shut up.

Here are the actual 1967 Monte winners, Rauno Aaltonen and Henry Liddon celebrating in Monaco. If you have some time, you might enjoy hearing Rauno talk about the perils of the Rallye. Click here.

Alas LFG is growing up. Our car modeling days are over. Any ladies interested in coming over to Casa Minimus to uncork a bottle of Blush and build a model?

Onward. Nerdishly. ADG and former modeler LFG.

Ps...Stay tuned for news on this baby........