Champ

Champ is our car.

Said car:

I was at a friend's bridal shower on Saturday afternoon in Annapolis. I was planning on leaving a tad early from the shower to meet Kevin at the Raven's game. However, upon jumping into the car, I found that Champ was dead. Dead as a doornail.

Turns our that car batteries need to be replaced about every 4 to 5 years. Who knew? I've had Champ for almost 5, and before that he was a rental car, so I can safely assume that his battery was at the end of its usable life.

Thank goodness there were several men on hand at the shower to give me a jump. In no time, Champ was up and running. We let him idle for a few minutes to charge the battery. This is the car in the meantime. Note the wine glass. The shower festivities would not be stopped just because of a minor car hiccup!

All was well and I was about to be on my way to the stadium. One more snag occured though. As a helpful gentleman was exiting my driver's seat, he closed the door behind him. The dead battery had shocked my car's computer system which made the locks malfunction. We had left the keys in the ignition, with the doors locked, and the car running. And I had 1/16th of a tank of gas left.

45 minutes later, Triple A arrived. He jimmied my car door and followed me to the gas station where he pumped my gas with my car still on (scary!). We didn't want to turn the car off because that would have meant jumping the car again.

Long story short, I made it home safely. Dropped the car off at the gas station and left the keys there to get repaired. MISSED THE ENTIRE FOOTBALL GAME.

Here are the tickets and parking pass that I never used:

Here's a shot of the football game, taken by Kevin on his camera phone. Oh yeah, and he was sitting in the President's box. Yeah, I missed the President's box.So what did I do to dry my tears? Kevin and I drank a bottle of champagne.

Said champagne:

Interestingly, Mumm Napa is one of the few vineyards in Napa that produces sparkling wine. My sister Jennifer and I visited Mumm when we we visited San Francisco/Napa in July. The scenery was gorgeous and the sparkling wine was even better. More on SF and Napa later!