Mare, you called it - it was the transmission!  The dealership called this morning and said they'll have to replace it.  It's covered by my warranty, so I won't have to pay for it, which is good, but they said the parts they need are on backorder, so it may take awhile.  But they said I can just drive the loaner until then, so I guess that's okay.  It is pretty awful that the transmission went out on a 2-year-old car, though.  Of course, now that I've been researching it, Hyundais have a lot of bad reviews about this type of thing.  I guess that's why they're reasonably-priced - they're not made to last.  I don't plan on keeping this one past its warranty, and then I'll probably go back to a Chevy or Ford.

Steph - I got a similar recall for my Hyundai last year (some part related to oil, if I remember correctly), and that was the warning, that cars were randomly catching on fire!  That's crazy that it happened to Tim!  How scary!  I'm glad he was okay.  Nothing happened to mine, thankfully, and I did get that part replaced over a year ago, so I don't think it had anything to do with this.

That must be awful to watch your mom decline. My great-grandmother had Alzheimer's, and it was hard on my family.  I always worried my grandfather (her son) would inherit it, but he thankfully did not.  It's an awful disease.  I really hope the medication will help her once she adjusts to it.

Mare, you should absolutely use the money you got from your car to spend on a NYC trip!  That's so weird that there are rabid Bob Odenkirk fans who hate Kieran just because he beat Bob.  I like Bob Odenkirk too, but that's not a reason to hate someone, unless you're like 13 years old.  Admittedly, I still harbor some resentment toward Santana and Rob Thomas for their annoying "Smooth" song beating BSB at the Grammy's LOL.

You should write the Culkin RPF if you really want to!  Someone else may want to read it.  There's an audience for everything!

My writing is going slow.  I'm still on the same chapter I have literally been writing for all of 2025 so far.  It's like 23 pages long and 11k words. 🤦‍♀️  It's close to being finished, but I've felt like I'm close for at least two weeks and still haven't finished it, even with writing a little every day.  Hopefully I'll finish it this weekend.

That's so awesome!  Where does one even display all those awards??  I didn't realize there were so many different ones until you started posting about them all this awards season.

It sounds like a lot to keep up with, but what an exciting time to be his fan!  I'm sure he is tired too, but hopefully the excitement is carrying him through.  Have you made any decisions about going to see his play with your sister?

I had an "interesting" afternoon.  My less than 2-year-old Hyundai Kona with less than 25k miles on it started acting up last week, struggling to accelerate and then lurching, clunking, rattling, and shaking when coming to a stop or accelerating out of a stop.  It only did it at low speeds, though; once I got it up above 40 mph or so, it seemed to drive fine.  I called the dealership on Friday and made an appointment for this afternoon to take it in and have them look at it, since it's still under warranty.  The dealership is a 30-minute drive from where I live and about a 50-minute drive from where I work, so I left right after school let out to drive there.  I made it about halfway, got onto the interstate, drove about 10 miles and realized I was having trouble staying at or around the speed limit.  I was flooring the pedal and only going like 65 mph... and the speed kept dropping.  I eventually ended up driving on the shoulder of the road with my hazard lights flashing, going like 30 mph, just trying to get as far as I could before the car stalled completely.  The engine never officially died to the point that it wouldn't start, but I eventually pulled over and parked on the side of the road because I couldn't get it to accelerate at all anymore.  This whole time, the check engine light never came on, and neither did any other kind of warning.  So anyway, I had to call a tow truck to come and tow it to the dealership.  They didn't have a loaner for me at first, so their courtesy shuttle driver took me to try renting a car, but apparently there were no rental cars available in the whole town.  I even had him take me to the airport, thinking one of the four rental companies there would have something, and they all said they were out.  So he called the dealership back to see if they could do anything else for me, and they ended up loaning me a gently used car off the sales lot to drive until they got one of their loaners back.  So at least I have some transportation for the time being, but it was very stressful!  I'll be curious to see what the hell is wrong with my car and how long it takes to get fixed.  I don't think I will be buying another Hyundai.  All my cars prior to this one have been Chevys, and they've all been super reliable.  Other than dead batteries, I've never had a car break down and strand me like this before. 😕

Holy crap. Glad you're okay but thats ridiculously stressful.

Steoh, I'm so sorry about your mom. I know first hand how rough that is.

Julie, that sucks about your car. Cars are the worst! I'm Glad you managed to get it over to the side and that it didn't just stall while you were driving on the highway! It sounds like it might be an electric issue. The way they make these cars, if a wire loosens on the inside everything comes apart. Although that also sounds like either the alternator or even worse the transmission. How it could be the transmission is beyond me if your car is so new it's still under warranty. That's what my car did when the transmission blew though. Either way, I'm glad it is under warranty, and it won't end up costing you anything. That is stressful! The last thing you'd want to deal with going to or coming home from a long day of work!

And Steph, oh my goodness. Tim's car caught on fire? Jeez Louise! I had a Ford and it lasted me for a very long time but that's also the car that the transmission ended up blowing. lol

I'm so sorry your mom's condition has been accelerating and she's having a hard time dealing with the new medications. Like you said, hopefully when she builds up a tolerance it won't be quite so bad, and the full effects will be noticeable. I'm glad you got a chance to have some fun this weekend going to your concert!

It's okay for the depressing news. Always feel free to share. Here it's a bucket of crazy and sadness too. Now that Kieran's award season is over, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. He has been a great distraction from what's going on here. Hopefully he'll be one of those guys that always comes out the stage door to sign and talk to the fans, so I'll still have content, but honestly, I'm not entirely sure he's going to be doing that. He will most certainly need an entire room in his house to hold all those awards! And hey, if he gets nominated and wins a Tony that would bring the total up to 40, but that's some big expectations considering all the huge names on Broadway this spring.

Speaking of Broadway, I still don't know what to do about that. The one good thing that I forgot about, is the extra money from my car I'll have. I'm not buying a new car so maybe it wouldn't make me feel so bad if I spent a little of that money on a NYC trip for two. Still thinking about it. March is almost all sold out, but if I did it, it wouldn't be until the end of the run in June most likely.

Now that I'm moving on from Jeese Eisenberg, who I've grown quite fond of, and into Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr territory, encountering some of those fans has been quite interesting. The Bob fans in particular. Anytime I'm posting info I have on Bob, one of his fans always comes on my page and asks me a ton of questions about him and what he's up to and up until now I have thought nothing of it. But a fellow Kieran fan told me to go to her page. So, I go to her page and in her bio it literally says - please don't follow me if you are a Succession fan. I hate Kieran Culkin! lmao because now we are dealing with all the people who are angry that Kieran beat Bob at the Emmy Awards! It will never end. I thought I was finally going to be done with the jealous fans now that the Jeremy Strong Oscar competition is over, but no. A whole new bunch of jealous stans await.

The funniest part about that whole thing, is how genuinely uncompetitive and sincere, Kieran is. It's like throwing stones at a puppy. He's got a snarky sense of humor but he's just this tiny, sweet little guy. I mean he spent part of his Oscar speech praising Jeremy lol 

I have really wanted to write a real person fic about him like no one's business, but the thing is, none of these people who love him, like real person fiction. The way I am dying to write one about him and his brother, especially after Mack's interview saying he cried when his brother won. I can't even! But for now, I'll just keep the story in my head.

How's the writing going for you?

Oh god Julie, that sounds awful especially for a new car.  I'm glad you eventually got there and got a loan car.  Taking about cars, Tim had a letter come the other day about a recall for his Kia Rio, warning about engine catching fire issues.  Bit late for that, his car engine did catch fire last summer while he was in it!  Luckily someone flagged him down and he got out before the whole thing went up in flames and the windscreen imploded, or that would've been a really nasty injury for him.  He said he'd never buy a Kia again and bought a Ford when the insurance paid out.  At least they seem reliable.

Mare, congrats to Kieran for winning all those awards.  Hopefully he'll get one more to make it even numbers lol.

Hi Rose, I'll keep doing the lottery to afford those plane tickets lol.

I went to the kpop concert on the weekend and it did help take my mind off my mum at the time.  But Monday it really hit me that she's actually got Alzheimers and I was just so upset.  I don't usually cry, but I just couldn't help it.  My mum seems to have deteriorated in just the last couple of weeks.  She's confused and very repetitive and it's awful to see her like that when she's always been so confident and happy.  The medication is making her really unwell so far, but hopefully once her body gets used to it she will start to feel better and it will help her memory (at least that's what her doctor says it will do). 

Sorry to talk so depressing when there's all this happy BSB and Kieran stuff going on.

That's so awesome!  Where does one even display all those awards??  I didn't realize there were so many different ones until you started posting about them all this awards season.

It sounds like a lot to keep up with, but what an exciting time to be his fan!  I'm sure he is tired too, but hopefully the excitement is carrying him through.  Have you made any decisions about going to see his play with your sister?

I had an "interesting" afternoon.  My less than 2-year-old Hyundai Kona with less than 25k miles on it started acting up last week, struggling to accelerate and then lurching, clunking, rattling, and shaking when coming to a stop or accelerating out of a stop.  It only did it at low speeds, though; once I got it up above 40 mph or so, it seemed to drive fine.  I called the dealership on Friday and made an appointment for this afternoon to take it in and have them look at it, since it's still under warranty.  The dealership is a 30-minute drive from where I live and about a 50-minute drive from where I work, so I left right after school let out to drive there.  I made it about halfway, got onto the interstate, drove about 10 miles and realized I was having trouble staying at or around the speed limit.  I was flooring the pedal and only going like 65 mph... and the speed kept dropping.  I eventually ended up driving on the shoulder of the road with my hazard lights flashing, going like 30 mph, just trying to get as far as I could before the car stalled completely.  The engine never officially died to the point that it wouldn't start, but I eventually pulled over and parked on the side of the road because I couldn't get it to accelerate at all anymore.  This whole time, the check engine light never came on, and neither did any other kind of warning.  So anyway, I had to call a tow truck to come and tow it to the dealership.  They didn't have a loaner for me at first, so their courtesy shuttle driver took me to try renting a car, but apparently there were no rental cars available in the whole town.  I even had him take me to the airport, thinking one of the four rental companies there would have something, and they all said they were out.  So he called the dealership back to see if they could do anything else for me, and they ended up loaning me a gently used car off the sales lot to drive until they got one of their loaners back.  So at least I have some transportation for the time being, but it was very stressful!  I'll be curious to see what the hell is wrong with my car and how long it takes to get fixed.  I don't think I will be buying another Hyundai.  All my cars prior to this one have been Chevys, and they've all been super reliable.  Other than dead batteries, I've never had a car break down and strand me like this before. 😕

He most certainly did! He took all the major critic circle awards - London, New York, LA and international as well as Critics Choice, Golden Globes, Bafta, SAG and the Oscar. He has won a total of 39 which you know bugs me. I really need someone to give him just one more random award to bring it up to 40. 

Hopefully he'll keep the momentum up on Broadway. His play starts on the 10th. I can only imagine how tired he is. I'm tired just being his fan. lol

Congrats to Kieran!  Did he sweep all the major awards?

Academy Award winning actor Kieran Culkin!

That's all I got! 

Hi Rose, nice to see you stop in. I know it's hard staying on Twitter. I feel like I'm stuck there as well until everyone kind of migrates over to somewhere else. I don't really get Bluesky. I tend to go onto Threads more, but even then, there's not that big of a following there yet.

I'm happy for you that you get to go to all those shows. I'm looking forward to the album and I'm happy they have resurfaced to see so much love from everyone. Didn't realize "Hey" was supposed to be on DNA. It was good. Very typical BSB.

I hadn't in awhile and thought I would. 😊

Yeah I had the chance in 2018 to attend a live stream that announced the DNA tour and Brian talked about it. How it was his favorite song from DNA and it didn't make the album.

Thats why I want Nick to move so bad. I know when he does the fandom will but the trick is getting him to lol. It's annoying cause Elon is total trash.

Catching up!  Steph, I'm so sorry to hear about your mom.  I'm sure that is scary for you and your sister and for her.  Like Mare said, hopefully now that she officially has a diagnosis and can start treatment, the drugs will help to slow down the progression.  I hope your concert this weekend will help to take your mind off it.  Have fun!

Mare, I'm glad you're getting a good payout for your car!  At least you won't have to worry about the hassle of selling it now.  Fingers crossed for Kieran tomorrow night!  Seems like his odds of winning are really good, but you never know.

Hey Rose!  I'm with you on Twitter.  I can't bring myself to quit it until the Boys and the majority of people I follow and interact with there have relocated.  I'm fine with BlueSky, and Threads has grown on me now that it has a following feed, but I still don't get on either of them very often.

I love Hey and think it would have fit perfectly on DNA.  It could have easily replaced Nobody Else, Is It Just Me, or Just Like You Like It if they wanted to stick with 12 tracks.  I wish Millennium 2.0 included more songs we haven't heard, even if they're old.